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Book de Los Muertos 11/13

Published on 3/11/2013

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Book de Los Muertos
Curated by Giovanni Cervi

I see a lot of emptiness in your art, maybe you assert we are losing our souls and/or that special spark that makes Human Beings us all?

Actually, the emptiness you’re talking about may be considered as the leitmotif of my quest, if by emptiness you mean the outspread of that sense of disillusionment and the disconnection from the inner and emotional sphere that mark our age.
My work is a reaction to it, both from the poetic point of view and the technical ones, considering the style I adopt to express myself. My characters are creatures that have averted the danger to lose their souls. Empty shells with fake skin scratched by cracks that save themselves by blending with a natural and fantastic universe, thanks to the miracle of art and imagination. Artistically talking I think that all the confusion, the superficiality and the cynicism of the world started a magnificent artistic explosion.

What is the role of the artist in today's hyper-connected world?

Maybe creating a break, a pause that interrupt the constant stream of information that kidnap and confuse us. Art, with its questions, makes us stop and think, it can reshape the evanescent borders between our inner space and the rest of the world. By reactivating the ability of being alone with ourselves, we might recreate a bond with our inner world.

Did you ever feel like a mad scientists trying to give life to new kind of creatures?

Yes, in a sense that’s how I feel when I paint. Painting is like an experiment or an ancient magic ritual. When I paint, I bring life to the creatures who live in my mind while I’m suturing their wounds or blending their human parts with animal and natural elements.

Where do you like to hide yourself?

Always in my imagination.

What is the best definition of your work you ever heard/read so far?

My art has often been associated to the music I love and once someone was able to recognize what I was listening to while I was creating one of my early paintings.

What is your first memory about Death?

The first time I went to a funeral. I was a child and I remember a feeling of sadness and mystery. After that experience I used to do funerals for each dead animal I found in my garden, birds or small insects. I still remember burying dead ants inside pine kernels shells.

I believe one of the most important issue in this beginning of this millennium is that people are not able anymore to deal with Death, they just refuse it or close their eyes. And I think this is not natural. What do you think about it and how do you believe humans could have a serene relationship with death again, it's a part of life after all?

If we look back in time we realize that ancient civilizations accepted Death as a natural event, similar to the alternation of day and night and the changing of seasons. For this reason, this special period that marked the end of the summer and the beginning of winter, and so the beginning of a new year, was associated to Death and dedicated to the celebration of the dead. In the past, Death walked closely to men, it was always in men’s mind and they found ways to exorcise it. Today Death seems to be removed, pushed in the recess of the mind and this is a big contradiction if we consider that Death is made so spectacular on Tv. I think that in our culture, where everything can be fixed or replaced, man hardly manages to think he can’t live forever and maybe for this reason things are wasted. We’re ashamed of getting old, getting ill, suffering and even dying. Death assert the importance of life, of feelings and the relationships we establish with people, these fragile things are precious because sooner or later they cease. I don’t know if we can use the word serenity when we talk about Death, for the following annihilation, loss and pain but I think that if we could carry a little piece of Death with us every day, it could help to discover what is really important. In the same way I think it’s important to remember, notwithstanding the pain, all the vanished things, to keep them alive in ourselves and to draw on the good they gave us in our lives.

What was your biggest dream when you were a child? Today, is your inner child happy to see how far you arrived?

I'm always asking myself if the child in me would be happy with the way I’m walking, the choices I made. The memories of what I wished are a kind of compass that I use to guide me. I can say that I'm doing what I love and this is a beautiful gift so I’m happy although I’m not a rock star! :D

Do you believe in magic?

I think that something special happens when we are experiencing something that takes us beyond ourselves.