A first consideration of the titration operation UTURN: reverse. What is its significance?
It seems that a U-turn affects the lives of us all: we were forced to cover their past, our history review, reconsider, and start over. Many have been forced to completely change their point of view: the motivation that has moved us is thus the interpretation of the moment that our society is experiencing dramatically.
The reflection of the economic crisis is therefore investing artistic creativity? What fears, anxieties, worries?
I can say, from my point of view, that what binds all generations at this time is precisely the anguish, anxiety. Have younger children who face an unknown world, to the generation of the thirties and fifties, which are highly affected: them they should be guides for their children, are faced with the high walls, especially in the workplace. If you lose your job you have the hard task to reinvent themselves, find yourself walking on another path. But it is something that also affects older people, who see thwart the efforts of the work of a lifetime, what is believed to have built for their children, their grandchildren, the anxiety is not to see the prospect of a future for them.
But there is also the downside: while we see the gleam of hope in this new situation, however, other avenues may open in front of us ...
Definitely. The way I see it is always very positive, although I see these serious difficulties remain, basically, an optimist. Everyone has their own method of revision of himself and of his past. For me it's time to strengthen ties with those values \u200b\u200bfor which life is worth living. So it's worth fighting for. Starting with a great love and a great passion for what I do, which is a prerequisite for moving forward.
So art can be ultimately answered?
From a personal point of view certainly is. But also from a collective point of view I believe that society has a great need for creativity, even more so in this difficult time. To create is to give voice to their fear, but also to their hope.
A double reading, then. This opens up new possibilities, even of expression. Moving from a position of goals achieved and certainties, to another where the objectives are not only reinvented, but reached again, can be a fruitful way for the artist.
Goals should be revised with new eyes. You must.
Thus, in a time when we talk of darkness, however, your light sculptures are the way to a symbolic opposite way?
The lighting element is the life of my sculptures, it is the beating heart. It is the element continuously variable, depending on the type of work, its size, its location, and above all makes the prospect of ever changing light and shadow it creates. Forces us to see what is around with another point of view. Even a known space, revised in a different light, always opens a new possibility of interpretation, suggests new horizons.
Then there is another fertile area of \u200b\u200bcreativity for you, tied to a specific place: La Foce. In addition to the place of the soul and creation, is the point where again?
La Foce is not only the family home, first to reach the dreams of generations who have preceded me. The story of that site keeps track of steps since the time of the Etruscans and Romans, who have found their own space to build. Surely it is a special place that has energy: it is a crossroads, twenty, and culture.
is the place of origin but also the scene of the UTURN.
Without a doubt. Which theater better than a place where man has so strongly invested its forces? A La Foce there was a fierce struggle between man and nature, because it is wild and hard. But in the end has been changed, man has succeeded in building its own space in the middle of the dry clay so, by force of will and work.
So it was a place of many reversals in the course of history.
There have been many, actually. The same story of my grandmother is an example. The purchase of La Foce was their turning point in its construction have invested everything. That is the beauty of this theater, the realization of this dream is shared: it must not be seen as only a starting point for me and my family, but also for the people around me who work with me. I would like to pass on to others, even with my sculptures that are so closely related to that place, the sense of balance that I send.
interpreting the artist creates a universe inexhaustible signs. How do you translate this passage for you, from a purely aesthetic point of view?
La Foce is a place of many contrasts. There is a superb villa with garden, wonderful, and already in Cecil Pincent this project aims to create a balance between past and present, the method of construction and a four-century reinterpretation of the twentieth century. Then there is the space around it, with whom he had to talk: it is a contrast between the richness of the garden and then the valley, with the desolation of the clays. In this conflict there is an aesthetic richness that is the primary source of inspiration for me.
This is also tied to the same materials that you use for your sculptures, which have their own training, their own history. The first step in finding it is in the rooms and the garden of La Foce.
have always been a great experimenter, I always tried to use all the material I had available, from iron to wood, glass, travertine. The central point is precisely the research: the spaces of the villa, but also the fields of La Foce are sites full of different materials. The same land, with its special features is central to the construction of my work. I started creating their own thinking about the use of the material had, looking for something that already had an essence, a story indeed. A fortiori if an object is forgotten, no longer used, it gives me the opportunity to cover it from another point of view: reusable, resumed his story, and create a new, more.
Each material becomes a lyrical ground, to explore more remote from the folds.
Take the travertine. It is in my memory since childhood, when I went barefoot in the garden. I still remember the warmth that I felt even after the sunset: the travertine can hold him for a long time, it absorbs all the power. And again in La Foce is iron, which is a symbol of strength, a symbol of man's work. The iron sinks into the ground; his substance upon contact with the ground, but also with water, is changed, altered, but the material is so strong that it resists, in depth, the threat of the time. It is a symbol of great strength.
in your sculptures there is still a strong presence of the glass
I use it to contrast with the very thin sheets of travertine, and thus has a supporting role. But glass is also a factor in the vertical gives my sculptures, and also its transparency gives me the opportunity to work with the card, that mingled and joined to the plate creates a beautiful marbled effect. Are enclosed in glass strength and fragility, it has a symbolic power important for my work. Definitely a symbol of UTURN.
And then the evocative power of the earth ...
course. The most significant image that I found myself thinking to look at the way it is UTURN dug in the ground water in the hard earth and seemingly impenetrable clay. It is a new step, however, is inevitable and physiological.
The earth draws in our imagination, even manual labor. The contemporary artist seems to ignore, or worse, despise the value of the creative process manual. You seem to contrast strongly volertene recover it. Which is your relationship with the various workshops? The traditional manufacturing processing new applications can be found in contemporary art?
attended several workshops for me was a school, there is sometimes a genius in the processing of the material that is valuable source. Working with your hands is essential for you to be forwarded the essence of a material in order to know the full potential of expression. I could not start my course without the attendance of the Florentine workshops of glassmakers and blacksmiths, hence I realized that these materials could be combined to form a sculpture.
who works only with a project takes off then a chance of expression of the extraordinary creativity, improvisation
In my work, it leaves much room for improvisation. The share of material that are slowly use their balance, their merger comes with the job at the end the whole process is defined as the force of a magnet that attracts the various parties. All my sculptures are formed around an element, gradually, by force of layers, I never start a project static and unchanging.
contact with matter, but also with the symbols of employment contained in La Foce as thus influenced the construction of your new showroom, which will be inaugurated at UTURN?
space of the old mill has remained unchanged since the which was used by my grandparents. There are still the old machines with blue oil, it still feels in them the smell very strong acid oil. It is so perfect that I could not change any part of it. The change is only in its new use. This is also a place of creation: there is a daily reminder of a job, the commitment of so many people that get together the fruits of his labor. The end of the beginning of a new cycle. For me it is an honor and a pleasure to present my own sculptures in the space of La Foce. The story I want to share is not only a history of beauty linked to the garden, architecture the villa, but also to the productive heart of La Foce: the farm, and the restoration of the area, which has been the dream of my grandfather.
In reviewing your work will be exhibited along with the work of two artists: the photography of Francesca Lotti and theatrical performance of Alessandro Gaggio. What is the meaning of your collaboration UTURN?
It is our interpretation of reverse gear, the exclusive and personal interpretation of the moment we are experiencing. Everyone has their own way of suffering, of hope, to move, to work, to find a new way. It 'an opportunity to look at each other and learn from others. The sense of UTURN lies in a different way by which we all react to change.
There is also a blog created by John Bigazzi
for this event is a common page where we can all stop our thoughts, share the important phases of our work. For me this is a new experience, very exciting. It is essential to the idea of \u200b\u200bteamwork, with the contribution of creativity so different.
UTURN is not just a show. It is a time for sharing
is the meaning of what we are creating. Each of us must be the protagonist of evolution itself La Foce.
we met on the occasion of the publication of your first catalog, with an important solo exhibition last year. In the past few months much has changed, the crisis that we see now we are fully living. All prospects are limited, or extended to other roads. However have been turned upside down. What has changed in your creative universe since then?
has changed the awareness of what is happening around me. So to live a difficult, hard, similar to the path of the water has to find a crack in the clay, as we said earlier. But it is even clearer in me, the reason that drives my creative process. The need union of materials is the necessity of creating solid in space, and with this the creation of their own place in the world. It's my personal search for inner peace, balance, despite all that still goes on. My creative moment is my moment of refuge and safety. The safety of the possibility of building which is inherent in the work: this security, this balance is what I want to convey to those who will live with me at La Foce, the experience.
