Between the Lines is an interview series about handwriting, objects with stories, and everything that goes beyond obvious answers. A space for improbable lists, unwritten letters, and ideas that insist on defying the blank page.
In this edition, we chat with architect Inês Moura. You can find her choosing dream pieces at Galeria da Estrela or conjuring one of her many projects at Atelier Inês Moura.
Some people enter a space and only see what's there; Inês also sees what came before and what it can still become. Perhaps that's why her projects always seem to inhabit more than one time: they respect the memory of places without ever being trapped by it.
We share some references: Cocteau Twins, classical art, Francesca Woodman's photographs, but it's especially her way of looking at the world that inspires me. There's a rare delicacy in how she observes things, an attention to detail, to stories, and to the traces that others so often overlook. She's one of the people I turn to when I need to rediscover beauty, both in the simplest and most extraordinary things.
We talked about artists who accompany her, childhood erasers, letters to the future, and, naturally, her stationery choices. A conversation about memory, love, objects, and the little things that end up staying with us.
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Who would you write a letter to on paper?
To my daughter; whenever I travel, I write her a letter from each place I visit and send it by mail. One day, I hope she reads them and imagines the places I've been, full of longing for her.
What inspires you to create?
I love starting to think about a project, its context, existing materials, its history, and through the given program, thinking of a continuous line that is sometimes soft, sometimes tearing, sometimes marking, like a different type of pencil and its stroke. For me, each project must respect the place and from there gain a unique image that unites past and present to be lived in the future.
A book that made an impression on you.
Rui Chafes, Under the Skin, Conversations with Sara Antónia Matos.
An artist who inspires you.
Francesca Woodman, her self-portraits where she explored the relationship of her body with space, architecture, and history, through metaphors and imagined narratives, are always very present in my life.
An object that lives on your desk
Measuring tape and pens.
What is always in your stationery drawer?
Pens, many black Uni-ball Eye pens.
What's on your Modern Stationery wish list?
When I enter the store, I automatically go to the school supplies. I love every item Inês selects, but if I had to choose one, it would be the black Kaweco mechanical pencil.
What stationery item would you like to exist – and no longer exists, or never existed?Iwako erasers still exist, but as they belong to a distant imaginary, for me they are still part of the world of dreams.
When I was little, my cousin had a beautiful collection of erasers, all objects and characters as erasers. We played with them for hours, and they always came from a world that seemed to be already in the future.
A piece of paper you could never throw away.
The first paper my daughter writes to me.
What's the best letter you could receive in the mail?
I'd love to receive a letter from Nick Cave with one of his stories written just for me.
1 comment
Apesar de muito interessante, senti a entrevista como um aperitivo para algo mais intenso, suculento e marcante, que seria o sabermos mais e de forma mais profunda sobre a arquiteta Inês Moura, o seu imaginário, os seus esquissos ou os seus mood boards, Aguardaremos continuação com expectativa, Parabéns pela entrevista!