ARTREVIEW: As one of six shortlisted artists for Artes Mundi 7, you're showing at Cardiff's Chapter, alongside Lamia Joreige and Bedwyr Williams. Could you tell us a bit more about your project and what form it takes?
NM: Not sure... Do you think it does?
NM: None whatsoever... Or maybe an absolute role. Art is about what artists care about therefore its role is as infinite as human capacity for empathy with existing or invented realities... Art is weightless... Humans are not. Humans must, whatever it is they care about, position themselves. Art that reflects society sounds somehow redundant, no? Society will always be in the artist's articulation by presence or absence, it's inevitable... No matter what the individual definition one has of art I'm sure it's always beyond the reflection... Art is the interior of all things social or not, visible or invisible, present or future... Maybe... I don't know.
NM: Unfortunately it was quite an intense time for all of us, artists and respective teams, I did not get a solid opportunity to exchange profound vibes with all, but the entire experience has been very rewarding. The people from Artes Mundi and Chapter have been absolutely great for and to my ego. They treated me extremely well... I'm honestly hoping that I have a chance to expand on some of the conversations I've had with different people of the Artes Mundi universe... I got the desire to see all of us continue to do what we cannot but do; out of passion.
AR: Artes Mundi is the largest art prize in the UK, offering £40,000 to the winner. Should you win, how do you plan on using the prize money? Do you have a particular project that you would like to use it to realise?
NM: I intend to buy five children back from child prostitution, and deliver them back to a more comfortable regime. Not sure about where it would make more sense to deposit their self-esteem. What do you think?