Ana Rita Sevilha: How did your passion for modelling and stucco work come about? Iva Viana: Viana do Castelo is considered to be the cradle of stucco artists. But I must admit that when I studied Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Porto, I had no idea of this relationship between my city and stucco work, nor did I have any connection with stucco. It was only when I finished my degree and started working, in 2007, in a French company that specialised in decorative plaster that my views changed completely. It was basically here that I learnt about, and fell in love with, the material and its techniques.

ARS: You work on various scales and each project will have its own distinct essence. However, I would like to pose you a challenge: can you choose a few projects that have particularly touched you? IV: There is one project that has particularly touched me, yes. It was an unhurried project, with an enormous respect for the history of the building and with an incredible respect for each other's work, because it involved a lot of teams working together. To date, it has been the longest project I've undertaken (four years) and it has allowed me to work and collaborate with two creative ‘virtuosos’, Samuel Torres de Carvalho, from Architecture, and José Pedro Croft, from the Visual Arts. I created ten ceilings for Ivens Arte that narrate a story starting from the main foyer of the building all the way up to the fifth floor.

ARS: Among your medium-term challenges is a panel, which I believe is the largest you've ever done. What can you tell us about it? IV: Yes, that's right. It consists of four façades measuring eight by three metres; it's my first work for the outdoors. For a long time I'd been looking for an opportunity to show my work outdoors and then this project in Viana do Castelo, overlooking the Lima River, came up. Lima Meu (My Lima) is a set of four panels that pay homage to the fauna and flora of the Lima River and they interact with each other. The new thing here is that this work will not be reproduced in plaster, because it is not suitable for exterior use. However, the working process is exactly the same, that is, I will model the panels and prepare the silicon moulds, but in the end the reproduction will be made with a stone-based material.