Nauzet Afonso, artist. Interview conducted by @loretosocorro
Nauzet Afonso was born in Telde but feels like a citizen of the world. He is a man who moves wonderfully in all the disciplines where he tries. What is it that most identifies you as a creator?
I don't like to pigeonhole myself. I feel like an artist and I express myself in many ways because I make up, paint, direct…
When did that artist who lives in you flourish?
There's no exact date. I suppose that since I was born, it's true, that when I'm five or six years old, the body begins to know what it wants. Curiously, a week ago, my mother rescued one of the notes that they gave me in kindergarten and, in the observations, the teacher stated that I would be able to do what she proposed to me and that it was very artistic. I have always been one of those restless people who take out a rose with a piece of paper.
How endearing to be reviewing photos with your mother, has she been your great support?
It is true that the whole family is involved in my projects. They are always there when I need them: carnivals, big events… we are around thirty and very close. My father too, but with my mother there is a certain complicity; Apart from her, she likes the whole culture and her support has been constant, like the shelter and protection of a mother whale.
What remains of that little restless and curious?
Everything, in fact, in the workshop I have my Disney collection and I enjoy it. It is my source of inspiration and it is that I am a child locked in the body of a thirty-four-year-old man.
How do you feed your Nauzet child?
Scaring adults around me: colleagues, friends, family -laughs as knowing naughty-, going to places that are normally designed for children such as amusement parks and keeping up with all the latest children's news. I enjoy all those productions focused on children and, of course, because my profession requires keeping up to date with children's and family news. It's one of my stamps.
Opening doors with your art, has it been difficult?
I don't do things to be recognized but because it's something that comes to me. If they recognize me later, then better.
You started in the art of making up bodies when you were very young. Was that the first thing you did?
My career began painting: first on pads, canvases... then on bodies. Everything I know, I tried first on my own, intuitively, and then I worked hard to learn. I have received classes but it was always a posteriori.
Nauzet, tell us about your professional experience in the world of Carnival.
When I was seventeen years old, I wanted to enter the body makeup contest in Telde and, when I went to register, they did not allow me because I was underage. The following year, with even more enthusiasm, I applied and won. That was my artistic shuttle.
In 2007 you win in Telde, then you succeed with the design of your Drag and now without stopping...
I appeared in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, which was somewhat bigger, and I was third the year after Telde. Then I kept adding prizes, as you say, with Drag, Comparsas, Queens...
You have performed five times in the Carnival Queens contests and you have always collected a prize...
As a child I watched the Queen's Gala on TV and I always wanted to be part of it. Carnival competitions have brought me incredible happiness, in my professional career and also on a personal level.
What does "La Gala" look like from the stage?
See it live, in real life, in a great pleasure. I spend a lot of time designing the costumes: I have it all in my head and I work hard assessing materials, colors; It is hard work where I erase and tear many pages.
Do you try new things in contests?
I like to innovate in everything: the first person to make a promotional video for a queen was me and, from then on, all the queens and Drags use it. In make-up I also like to renew things like staging or ways of placing glitter, which have been my inspirations. We all take brushstrokes from other professionals, to improve.
What synchronicities should you have with the bodies you make up?
You have to study them. I was making up women's bodies until I saw that men's bodies were better to paint, because they are straighter, because, with the volumes of the bodies, it may turn out that what is seen on paper is not reflected in reality and there are to adapt what was thought to work.
What inspires you to create your Nauzet art?
I am inspired by traveling, seeing the world, enjoying the Cirque du Soleil, a Disney environment... I like the unusual. That is another of my characteristics: doing things differently, from another point of view.
You also take that other look when setting up your own production company, tell us about that other facet.
When I decided to work on my own I was afraid but with the support of my mother I kept going because I had the need to create my own things. This is how the production company for plays and events such as La Fábrica de los Deseos, set at Christmas, was born. Then came the Little Monsters, with several shows around the island and then The Passion Fruit, which is the apple of my eye.
What is Passion Fruit?
Passion fruit is me in a play, it's my world. I had the need to do this for people to see who I am, what I do and what I give. It is an event that, from the very moment of creation to the staging, I enjoy everything.
What will the people who are going to enjoy the show find?
Two hours of passion and surprises, where the audience doesn't know what's going to happen next: it's cabaret, it's burlesque, it's sensual and sexual.
Will we then enjoy songs, dances...?
The team has Quique Pérez as master of ceremonies and it is performed by twenty artists where they act, dance, do acrobatics... Passion Fruit is a multicultural show with very professional people, where everything is enjoyed and valued. the talent we have here.
When can you enjoy?
On March XNUMX at the Victor Jara (Neighborhood), in Santa Lucía de Tirajana.
This Passion Fruit that you have created, is it for the brave?
It is a high bet in terms of content and also because it is its own production, without help. I am so sure that they will like it that, look what I am saying, I would love to use the slogan that says “If they don’t like it – if I could – I would give them their money back”, but I can’t do this, of course; although I insist on encouraging them to go because, really, no one is going to regret it.
Nauzet Afonso promises to surprise us with his creativity in Passion Fruit, which seems to have everything it takes to excite us, with that beauty that he perceives in everything he looks at. He himself is a beautiful example of a man who kisses with his words, while feeding his inner child.
