Art, criativity, reality and the meaning of life | Marcos Amaro | TEDxItaimBibi

Marcos Amaro is a successful entrepreneur who currently is strained in his inner search through filosofy and, art and he expresses himself by his works at expositions already performed.

He discusses about what he thinks about art, creativity, creative leisure, reality and life sense.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hi, everybody.

My name is Marcos Amaro and I'm an artist.

First of all,

I'd like to thank you for this opportunity
to talk about my own trajectory

and to talk about art
and the proposed subject as well,

which is creative idleness.

I'd like to start from here. First: art.

Art is a very broad concept,
almost unnameable.

So, when I'm referring
to myself as an artist,

I'm trying to get close
to a broader concept,

less stereotyped and less
labeled, about myself.

Most of the time, what an artist does
is to deconstruct things,

so that he can give a new
meaning to his own history

and, consequently, to his surroundings.

First, I don't think
it is "creative idleness."

Why do I think this?

Because I believe there's
a lot of work in creativity.

I believe those who live from creativity,
those who try to live from creativity,

must think a lot
about their own relationships

and about relationships

that people and the artist himself
establish with world.

So, creativity is a phenomenon
which comes from a lot of work

and from deep understanding
about oneself and world.

In recent years, I particularly adopted
a posture of deconstructing my history

in order to give it a new
meaning in another way.

How so? By searching
more sense to my life.

I think that, above joy, sadness
or even happiness, there is sense,

and I think that sense - at least for me -
is more important than any state of mind.

I believe the so-called "states of mind"
are results of pshyquical processes

and we can choose if we are
going to experience them or not.

These processes are very individual,

according to our understanding
and comprehension about what is real.

I mean, we invent the real all the time.

We look for a sense through the real

making relations, as I said,
about life and ourselves.

That is creativity.
Its consequence is art.

Art is when we manifest,
through our expression,

- that's what I'm doing
right at this moment -

deep feelings and thoughts
about ourselves,

which will make me,
shortly after recording this video,

watch it again, so that I can
understand in my unconscious state

what I am saying now.

So, looking for a sense
in our unconscious,

trying to ruminate our history,
- in the sense of reviewing, revisiting -

with the aim of bringing it to the present
and, therefore, giving it a meaning,

is the artist's goal.

In my particular case,
I try to do this through debris,

not only debris of my memory,

but also the debris I work with, and I try
to give them a new meaning in another way,

creating, as I said, sense to my life.

So, I belive that such creative
idleness does not exist.

There is deep and creative
work about oneself

that makes us, maybe, understand
a bit more about reality,

about our own surroundings,

so that we can dilate
such concepts in ourselves

making us, maybe, more generous
not only regarding our own condition

but also our neighbor's.

So, the challenge I am currently pursuing
in my life is to understand my neighbor

beyond the projections and images
that I make of this neighbor.

This is a deep and difficult exercise

since we are necessarily
linked to our history

and we are made of memory and sensation.

So, how can we do this?

Not by appealing
to an event of faith or belief

- which is a very common thing -

neither trying to rely
on ideology nor on religion

but rather trying to rely on yourself,

undoing any illusions concerning the real.

So, what I'm chasing today in my life
is not only to deconstruct myself

but everything around me
so that I can see the real thing.

And the real thing is very clear:
we all are going to die

and we all need to prepare
ourselves for death.

And preparing for death has to do
with creating sense in our lives,

creating sense to our surroundings

so that we can live sophisticated
and complex states of spirit.

This is my concept of intelligence:

trying to live complex, altered
and sophisticated states of spirit,

without appealing to any externality,

like, for example,
drugs or things like these,

but searching within yourself
this potential to live with intention

and intensity what we want

according to our intention,
according to our way of being,

which is what I call ethics.

So, being ethic, under my view,

is to live according our understanding
about what is real and, of course,

becoming responsible
for the things we do in the world.

Nobody must answer for our things.

Only we choose and opt and, therefore,
we become responsible for our destiny.

This is what I call freedom.

I want to register this talk here

not only for you guys but also for myself
to ponder, above all, what I've just said.

I put these things in continuous question
and deconstruction not only about myself,

but regarding these words
I've just professed.

I deeply thank you all for your time

and I am open and available
to answer any questions,

or whoever be interested
may get in touch with this universe

so that we can dialogue and build
on these presuppositions.

Thank you. I deeply thank you
for your time.

See you soon.