In Maputo, art is not something we make after we live out the other hours of our lives.
We think about it when we wake up, when we go to work, on the evening walks home, and when we visit bars and clubs. We have art in our cafés, our train station, in our markets, and all of the different places in which we take shelter.
In Maputo, one is never far from art or its makers. Painters, sculptors, poets, novelists, dancers, fashion designers—everyone has a spark of art within them.
To those of us who call Maputo home, art is a way of life, and the images in this series are an attempt to document the ways in which this most fundamental aspect of life—art—is practiced.
Rui Mascarenhas is a communications agent by trade; as an artist he is a mosaic of emotional expressions defined by spoken word poetry, music, performance, design, and photography. He draws his experiences and influences from being Mozambican-born while floating through crowds in places like Uruguay, Spain, Tanzania, and the USA.