Ticiano Rottenstein is a Franco-Brazilian artist who turns ruins into narratives, exploring the intersection of memory, entropy, and art. His journey began with graffiti and evolved into sculpture, with his works reinterpreting traces of abandonment, creating a dialogue between past and present, decay and renewal. Based in Seixal, Portugal, and pursuing a PhD in Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon, Ticiano researches the impact of the Anthropocene and urban decay on the construction of his artistic language. We spoke with the artist about his inspirations, his fascination with collapse, and how his art emerges from the rubble.
Born into a family of artists, Ticiano took a different path before fully dedicating himself to art. For years, he built a career in sports and worked as a sports manager, but it was in the 2000s that he first encountered graffiti—initially just a hobby. In 2013, he made the decision to leave his profession to study fine arts and fully immerse himself in the world of art.
MashUp: You began your artistic journey in graffiti and muralism. How has that practice influenced your current approach to sculpture and urban interventions?
Ticiano: Graffiti and muralism taught me how to occupy and transform urban spaces—a sense of urgency to leave marks, claim spaces, and reinterpret them, elements that still permeate my artistic practice today. When transitioning to sculpture, I carried with me this experience of engaging with the urban landscape and the conviction that art can help reshape our perception of the environment. I deeply believe in art integrated into public spaces, where it confronts and interacts with people in a democratic and accessible way.
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After years away from Brazil, Ticiano found in Seixal, Portugal, an ideal setting to deepen his research on ruination and industrial memory. The city, shaped by deindustrialization, has influenced his artistic creation with the support of local authorities. “What began as a financial necessity became a transformative encounter. This city not only welcomed me but also shaped my research. Seixal, once a thriving industrial hub, now marked by deindustrialization, turned out to be the perfect backdrop for my artistic investigation, which explores the ruination of contemporary society, with a focus on industrial decay. More than just a place I passed through, this city became a space of belonging and creation,” he explains.
In 2023, his work Post-Industrial Cromlech took over Seixal Bay, using discarded industrial materials to create a poetic monument to the decline of industrialization.
MashUp: Your exhibition Post-Industrial Cromlech presents a contemporary reinterpretation of megalithic monuments. What is the central message of this work?
Ticiano: This piece serves as a poetic monument to the trajectory of industrialization and its inevitable decline. Conceptually, my intention was to reflect on the cycle of creation and destruction inherent in modern society, transforming the remnants and ruins of the past into a space for dialogue and reinterpretation. The work uses as its raw material the vestiges of a once “grand” industrial past, now in decay. These elements, which once symbolized “progress and strength,” are reorganized to reveal a new aesthetic—a landscape where abandonment and deterioration become a living memory and a catalyst for new narratives.
Inspired by ancient cromlechs, which evoked rituals and ancestral connections, the piece proposes a meeting between the sacred and the profane. While it recalls the power of historical monuments, it also questions the meaning of industrial progress, creating a bridge between the materiality of the past and the uncertainties of the present.
Exhibited in Seixal, a city that bears the marks of its former industrial hub, I wanted Post-Industrial Cromlech to engage deeply with its surroundings. Just as Seixal is reshaping itself through its own decline, the work reflects the identity of a place that reinvents itself, turning ruins into spaces of creation and reflection. The arrangement of elements in the piece gives it an almost ritualistic character, where each fragment is imbued with new meaning. This composition not only acknowledges industrial decline but also suggests transcendence—the idea that even in destruction, there is the potential for renewal and reinterpretation.
For me, Post-Industrial Cromlech is a visual manifesto that goes beyond aesthetics—it is an invitation to reconsider the relationship between progress, memory, and transformation, where the end of an era becomes the seed for a new beginning.
In his latest exhibition, Echoing Ruins, presented at MU.SA – Museum of Arts of Sintra, Ticiano explored the concept of ruination as a metaphor for our time. Over four years of research, he collected materials from abandoned factories to create sculptures and assemblages that engage with the cycle of creation and destruction. He explains:
“Echoing Ruins emerged from a reflection on the fragility of our present world. We live in challenging times, marked by growing global tensions that expose the fractures in our society. This context of decline led me to connect with the processes of ruination, finding in industrial ruins a symbolic reflection of this civilizational collapse. One of the most striking discoveries throughout this process was realizing that the deeper I delved into this universe, the more I encountered philosophical and existential questions that resonate with the great issues of our time. Ruins, when truly listened to and reflected upon, have much to teach us. They reveal a unique perspective on the complexity of the world and the human condition, and those who allow themselves to listen will undoubtedly emerge enriched, with a deeper understanding of the reality that surrounds us.”
The works in the exhibition were created using materials collected from abandoned industries in the South Bank of Portugal, forming a series titled Reborn Among Ruins: Chronicles of a World Adrift. The exhibition constructs a narrative that contemplates decay and transformation, exploring concepts such as entropy and syntropy, as well as the tensions between the Anthropocene and the Symbiocene. The lessons that emerge from the silence of ruins seek to provoke reflection on the social, environmental, and political issues shaping our society.
It is a way of questioning resilience and fragility, permanence and transience, inviting the viewer to reflect on the constant cycle of life and death. At its core, Echoing Ruins is a timeless chronicle where past, present, and future intertwine. The dormant stories within ruins become powerful metaphors of transformation and resilience. The exhibition invited the audience to hear the echoes of these ruins and reflect on the impact of our choices on the world we inhabit, challenging us to reconsider our place in the continuous flow of existence.
In addition to engaging with both the past and present, Ticiano uses his art as a tool for social critique. In For Rent: Studio Apartment, one of his most striking performances, he recreated a micro-apartment and put it up for sale in iconic locations across Lisbon, such as Rossio Square, exposing the housing crisis.
“It was a direct provocation. The rental price was absurd—but not far from what we see in reality. People’s reactions were essential to the work.”
During the performance, the artist took on the role of a real estate agent attempting to “rent” the space for €1,800, highlighting the normalization of real estate speculation. The act was unauthorized by the authorities, which only heightened its disruptive impact.
“On a personal level, this combination of art and performance was a major challenge. I am naturally shy and introverted, and putting myself in the spotlight, acting in a public space, was an exercise in personal growth. Not just because of the performance itself, but because I placed myself in an uncomfortable situation where direct interaction with the audience sparked unexpected reactions. For Rent: Studio Apartment was more than just an artwork—it was a profound experience, both personal and collective, that pushed me beyond my own limits and reinforced art’s power as a vehicle for urgent and necessary social discussions.”
MashUp: The relationship between art and public space is deeply present in your work. How can art transform people’s relationship with the city, and what role does it play in preserving collective memory?
Ticiano: I believe that art has the power to reshape the way people engage with the city, but I don’t see it as something that, on its own, brings immediate transformation. What it does is propose new perspectives—different ways of seeing and experiencing urban space. When art enters the public sphere, it creates opportunities for people to engage more deeply with their surroundings, encouraging reflection on the city and the social dynamics that shape it.
As for preserving collective memory, I see art as a powerful tool because it can materialize and immortalize stories, emotions, and issues tied to a specific time and place. Art has the ability to document what is forgotten or erased from official history, serving as a bridge between the past, present, and future generations. By interacting with public spaces, it becomes a part of this memory, transmitting and preserving experiences, values, and reflections that contribute to the social fabric of a community.
Ticiano Rottenstein’s work is not about nostalgia—it’s about reinvention. By transforming the remnants of the industrial world into sculptures and installations, he proposes a new way of looking at what has been discarded.
“My art is not just about decay—it’s about possibilities. I believe that even in collapse, there is space for reconstruction. I turn debris into visual narratives, redefining what has been left behind. My goal is not merely to highlight ruin but to reveal what can emerge from it.”
The arrival of fatherhood has also made his work even more introspective, deepening his reflections on fragility and the future. It has added a more personal and urgent dimension to his social critique and his pursuit of transformation.
“My practice has always been connected to fundamental aspects of human existence—impermanence, grief, and transformation—but fatherhood has intensified that. It’s impossible not to think about the vulnerability of the world around me, especially when considering the future of younger generations.”
Between ruins and memories, his work reminds us that the past never truly disappears—it transforms, leaving traces for new stories to unfold. Every detail, every redefined fragment, carries a unique narrative, reflecting not just the passage of time but also the power of art as a tool for questioning and transformation.
1- If you could collaborate with any artist: Berlinde De Bruyckere and Anselm Kiefer, as they explore human fragility, collective memory, and devastation—central themes in his work.
2- The strangest thing someone has ever said about your art: One of the most unexpected reactions to his work was someone saying that his art “felt scary, but in a good way, like a transformative experience.” This made him reflect on how art can provoke both discomfort and introspection.
“That perception made me rethink the true role of art. In my view, art is not just meant to please or entertain—it should question, provoke, and generate genuine reflection. Art has the power to shake certainties, destabilize our worldview, and force us to see things from a different perspective. That ‘good fear,’ which might seem unsettling at first, is actually the seed of transformation—a catalyst for personal and collective change. When we are confronted with something that unsettles us, that’s precisely the moment we have the opportunity to grow, to understand the world in a more complex way, and to shift our perceptions of it. Over time, I’ve embraced this idea that art should disturb, that it has the ability to push us out of our comfort zone and into uncharted territories. If it provokes strangeness, discomfort, or fear, perhaps that’s a sign that we are being touched at a deep level—something that needs to be questioned. For me, art must create impact, act as a transformative force—and often, that transformation begins with fear, because that’s where the greatest changes reside.”
3- The weirdest advice you’ve received: Someone once told him to simplify his ideas and make them more appealing to the audience—something that only reinforced his belief that art should challenge, question, and provoke change.
“For me, art doesn’t need to be simplified or ‘pleasant’ in a conventional sense. Its role is to provoke, question, deconstruct, and often challenge us to see the world from new perspectives. That advice made me reflect on how, at times, audience expectations can push for reducing art’s complexity and depth into something more digestible and easy to understand. However, instead of feeling discouraged or frustrated, that suggestion only strengthened my conviction that art doesn’t have to—and shouldn’t—be simplified to fit into pre-established standards. True art often carries complexity, tension, and even discomfort, and it is precisely in that space where the most profound transformations occur.”
