Art Truc Troc: my kingdom for a matryoshka

(© Sara Conti)

Back at the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar) once more, Art Truc Troc remains true to its original idea, which is based on exchange: using post-its, visitors make offers (objects, journeys, services, etc.) to the artists whose work is on show. Sara Conti, whose imposing matryoshka dolls (those Russian nesting dolls) seem to be everywhere on the walls of Brussels and who is getting ready to present her Gillettes (the female version of the Gilles) at the International Carnival and Mask Museum in Binche, will be there for the second time.

Why are you taking part in Art Truc Troc?
Sara Conti: The idea behind it is nice. It makes it possible for people who can’t necessarily afford to purchase to bring a work of art home. But it’s a pity that the public has to pay to get in.

What kind of things did you get offered last year?
Conti: Crazy stuff. Travel, among other things, in Slovakia, in Italy, a trip down an African river... But I preferred to go for what could help me make progress in my work: badges, silkscreen prints on T-shirts, and photographs of my drawings in my studio.

We know you above all as a street artist, who sticks things on walls, illegally, in the streets. Doesn’t that cause problems when you take part in an event like this under your real name?
Conti: I have never hidden myself. I get ticked off now and then; people take my phone number; but I have never been pursued. Recently I went sticking stuff up in Charleroi, alongside four cop cars that were there to breathalyse drivers. I was a bit panicky, but I continued to stick things up as usual and they never said anything. When people ask me questions, I explain what I’m at. There are lots of urban artists who like having the image of being vandals and outlaws, but I’m not like that at all. In any case, I put up my work in plain daylight, because I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong. I don’t damage anything; I’m just there for a while. At most, my dolls might last for a few months. I am not aggressive; I’m not Kidult [a street artist who has a go at luxury brands that appropriate graffiti; recently, he defaced a Maison Martin Margiela shop in Brussels - ES].

The question we have been dying to ask is, why matryoshkas?
Conti: It’s hard to say exactly why. But in 1987 I travelled in Russia with my mother and that’s where I discovered matryoshkas. I associate them with the image of motherhood. It is a universal symbol, like the Venus of Willendorf, a famous prehistoric statuette associated with fertility. My dolls, with their pronounced female attributes, are in a way today’s Venus of Willendorf.

Art Truc Troc 1/2, 19 > 2.00, 2/2, 14 > 21.00, 3/2, 10 > 18.00, €5/7, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten/Palais des Beaux-Arts, rue Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussel/Bruxelles, www.bozar.be, www.tructroc.be

Photos © Sara Conti