Pedro Pires is a Portuguese artist, Central Saint Martin’s graduate, living in London. When I first met him, I had no idea of what he was capable of. After taking a voyage de plaisir in Lisbon, his hometown and randomly getting hold of a tube ticket that was exhibiting his work as well as seeing his work at Parque das Nações it became apparent to me that Pedro possibly did not just think that art was meant just for galleries and private collections. I recently stumbled upon some of his work at the Old Street tube station.

Not being technically qualified to criticise art myself, but massively interested in the use of public space and of course forms of promotion, I thought I’d ask Pedro a couple of questions that I thought would be relevant.

Q : Seeing that a lot of your work is exhibited in public spaces, got me thinking that it might be designed with public spaces in mind. Is that true? If yes, is there a general mission behind it, or is it just a promotion tool?

A: It is always a promotion tool, but my first concern is to challenge the use of public space. The pieces are not always designed for public spaces. For example the two in the tube, the one in Lisbon and this one in London.

For Lisbon a company bought my sculpture (seen above) and then invited me to participate in the project ( aiming to support and promote young Portuguese artists through the dissemination of their work for tickets. Check Proxima Paragem Cultura for more ) with that work, so I couldn´t develop a work specifically for that. In the london tube I sent a photo of my work done previously, because their idea is to show art work transforming the tube into an art gallery. I thought about making a specific work for this but then I had that work and I had interest in seeing how it would work in a public space like the tube.