Naima Morelli

Luigi Ontani Studio Visit, Piazza del Popolo, Rome

Three years ago Isabella Tirelli, artist and professor at the Art Academy in Rome started a video project called “Dialogo con l’artista”.
The project was based on collective interviews to artists in their studio and was realized under the direction of videomaker Leonardo Settimelli.
Tirelli gathered students and ex students from the Art Academy – I fell into the latter category – and we visited the studios of the most amazing artists in Rome.
The most notable visit for me was certainly the one to Luigi Ontani’s studio in Piazza Popolo.
I wrote about Luigi Ontani work before (for this blog, Artribune and I-Magazine Bali) and I obviously love his art. Who doesn’t afterall?
Once I was in Naples and, going down the Museo Madre’s stairs, I saw Ontani around the corner. I was wearing his typical blue silk suit and there were two guys literally throwing at his feet whispering:”Maestro… maestro…”. Even if Ontani’s physical presence is enough inspire devotion among many, the artist himself is much more down-to-earth than his public persona.
At the time we visited his studio I was about to leave for Indonesia to do my reportage about contemporary art over there. Ontani gave me a lot of useful information about Bali and he even gave the number of his friend Adil, adding that this guy was particularly friendly with girls.
The video of Luigi Ontani’s studio visit is available at the Art Academy in Rome.  Here some stills from the video.
(I never dared to call Adil, by the way.)

Luigi Ontani on Wikipedia

Isabella Tirelli’s website