Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito has been dubbed “the future star of the art world.” He here talks about his invigorating multidisciplinary practice, which investigates universally human characteristics in a teasing, polemic and humorous way. 

Mosquito is not looking for uniqueness or originality, but aims for authenticity: “If I’m genuine, if I’m connected to my emotional truth, fuck it’s me. And there’s only one me.” Whether it’s a video, a photograph or a song, he wants it to be true to himself and connect to a perspective that he’s trying to put out there: “I have always pursued some kind of emotional truth.” 

“My question is, what are you willing to die for? Cause we’re not willing to die for everything man, and it’s okay.” Mosquito finds that it’s important to acknowledge what’s important to yourself, recognize your own limitations and appreciate that people care about different things and that we thus complement each other: “Together we cover more ground.”

Nástio Mosquito (b.1981) is an Angolan multimedia artist, who grew up in Portugal. Mosquito works in the intersections of performance, spoken word, video and music, and The Guardian has called him “the future star of the art world.” His preferred tool – and sharpest weapon – is his own voice, which he uses to investigate identity and political power. In 2014, Mosquito was named the joint winner of the International Future Generation Art Prize for artists under 35. He lives in Ghent, Belgium as well as in Luanda, Angola. For more see: http://nastiomosquito.com/

Nástio Mosquito was interviewed by Christian Lund at Danish Art Workshops in Copenhagen, Denmark in March 2017.

Camera: Jakob Solbakken

Edited by: Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Produced by: Christian Lund and Roxanne Bagheshirin Lærkesen

Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017

Pictures from ‘Respectable Thief’ (2016) by Nástio Mosquito shown in the video: Live Performance at World Breakers (2016), Centrale Fies, Dro, photo by Alessandro Sala ©; Live Performance at Projects 104: Nástio Mosquito (2016), MoMA, NY, ©MoMA

Supported by Nordea-fonden