Marga Alfeirão

JB

How do you generate or encounter material?

MA

Lots of inspirations come from simple observations: Living daily life, seeing people feeling themselves, watching how people listen or can’t notice each other. I like small movements. I like to notice the small dances that appear when people are purposely close or when they look at each other from afar. How people look at each other in a club is an infinite source for me. Another very simple thing is indulging in a state of boredom. I enjoy spending time in the studio listening to the music of my favourite producers and DJ’s and start moving or staring at myself and the space. In that, I practice patience.

JB

Can you remember the first piece of art that really mattered to you?

MA

Well, not a piece but Sean Paul’s video clip I'm Still In Love With You had and still has a strong influence on me – and so did most of the music videos from my early teenage years. I really wanted to be one of the girls in this videos because of the chores and outfits, but I was also fascinated by how clips repeated and you could slow down or accelerate down while you watched them. I go back to this clip whenever I need to calm down and zone out or when I am getting a bit too obsessed with making and generating material (laughs).

I also think Tarraxinha had a huge impact on me and made me enter a sort of zone. Both by dancing it as a pair dance or simply witnessing, it kind of pulls you into a focused yet chill vibe. In the late 90’s, Lisbon was in an Angolan – where it is originally from – Tarraxinha fever. Everyone was dancing it.