I have to admit the video reports with the TeenPress guys was something I was missing from my life. We are finally back with a new micro-series with the self-explanatory name “Giovani Creativi”. For these installments creatives of all stripes join us in our studio in Pietralata, Rome. We chat about their artistic practice, creative process, everyday life and day-to-day struggles. We have started with Cristiano Quagliozzi, painter, sculptor, installation and performance artist, who opens up about his upcoming project and gives us his definition of artist. Enjoy the video!
Tag "artist"
Australian/Uk webmagazine ArtsHub has published my piece “Four ways arts workers can win in the new economy”. I have been interested in the sharing economy and the opportunities it provides to artists and art workers from a long time. By researching and writing this piece I got excited about the future – we tend to perceive our time as less revolutionary compared to the past decades, but actually there is so much going on, thanks to new technologies and the internet. In the piece I talk about three platforms that are contributing to reinventing the economy.
Here’s the link to the article
Here’s a pdf version of the piece
Introducing my Times of Malta article number three! It’s really great the main newspaper of this gorgeous island gives me the chance to write about big names in the art world (you might remember my pieces on Marina Abramovic and Shaun Gladwell) with such freedom. It’s sometimes hard to keep down the world count, but I can’t complain! This time I interview British artist Eddie Peake about his new show in Rome, called “A Historical Masturbators” currently on display at Lorcan O’Neill gallery.
Here’s the link to the interview
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My interview with the amazing artist and Cemeti House co-founder Mella Jaarsma has just been published on the Aussie magazine Trouble with the title “Mella Jaarsma: Give me shelter” (a title who clearly echoes the Rolling Stones). This is the second interview from my reportage on contemporary art in Indonesia published on Trouble Magazine!
Here’s the link to the interview
Here’s the link to the online version of the magazine
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In 2012 I interviewed artist Angki Purbandono for my reportage about contemporary art in Indonesia for Art a Part of Cult(ure). That time I had the chance to snap some pictures around his studio/house filled with the weirdest objects. That was not surprising, considering that Angki is well know for his scannographies, namely giant scans of everyday objects unusually associated, defamiliarized by the size and the black background. Even if his photographs look as if they would have been taken with a complex set of lights, Angki revealed me that his only tool was a normal scanner – which of course, I didn’t fail to photograph. As for Angki himself, you could guess his personality from his body language and shirt. He is a great chap!
There is a mesmerizing Patti Smith’s song I used to listen to when I was in my teens. It’s called “Land” and tells – in a very surreal way – the story of this guy called Johnny. Since the chord progression wasn’t too complicatedly, I quickly learned to play it on the guitar. There was a particular line that made me pretty excited when I sang it. It was “I hold the key to the sea of possibilities”.
When I was seventeen I had a number of small abilities, but very little how-to knowledge.
My guitar practice alone branched off into my folk Neapolitan repertoire, my intimate Carla Bruni-like songs and my love for punk rock. These three aesthetics were not conflicting to me. That was confirmed by reading on a magazine that Norah Jones also had a punk band. I thought, if she does it, why I shouldn’t? (Well, if you have ever heard me singing and playing, the answer is pretty straightforward).
Way before I would learn the position for a E chord, I was making been comic books. Since I was born, I have never stopped drawing and creating stories. As often happens, I started making comic books since I was in high school and my school mates were my first readers. Never in my life I considered to stop that. Then of course, there was the writing. I was that annoying kid asked by the teacher to stand up and read her essay out loud. I didn’t really like to do that, mostly because my pulp Tarantino-confronts-Romero-on-the-theme-of-abortion like essays were meant to be read with a little verve. Which I completely lacked of . Anyways, at eighteen I started writing for an art magazine and a number of rock and general publications. Around the same time, I started covering every blank spot I could find in the city with graffiti. Man, that was real fun!
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When it comes to creative jobs in general – and jobs in contemporary art in particular – the word “work” often assumes nuanced meanings.
After all work is not supposed to be fun. It has to be a daily ordeal, something that drains off your love for life, fades the colours around you and makes food tasteless.
Well, I think that today, more than ever, that is simply not true.
If you are into Brain Pickings, TED Talks, School of Life & similaria just like I am – and you probably are since you stumbled on this blog – you listen to people spurring you to make a business out of your passion every day. Nothing seems to be impossible in the era of internet. The sheer fact of owning a computer opens up a myriad of resources and possibilities.
Yet once again I hear people in contemporary art industry saying “Obviously with this project we are not interested in making any profit. We are doing that for the glory.” What followed is usually a resigned nodding: “That’s the way it is.”
The glory? What the hell, I thought, we are talking of contemporary art! If you are in for the glory, you better choose something a little more mainstream. Contemporary art gave fame and glory to very few people. The majority of these people are just a handful of artists, the rest are Hans Ulrich Obrist and Achille Bonito Oliva. Full stop. You may worship Palma Bucarelli (the late charming director of Rome’s National Gallery from 1942 al 1975) just like I do. But you also have to acknowledge that she’s pretty niche. Niche to the point she doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page in English. The best part is that I don’t think she would care about having a Wikipedia page either. She was not in for the glory; working in a museum was her job and it was a real respectable job, the kind that pays the bills – and in her case all those glamorous dresses as well.
Si è da poco conclusa la mostra con mia curatela “Nothing’s happened since Yesterday – Due artisti da Melbourne” di Georgina Lee e Kenny Pittock alla Galleria 291est, Roma. Se non avete avuto modo di visitarla ma siete curiosi di sapere di che si trattava, ecco il mio testo critico a corredo della mostra, più una galleria di immagini:
“Paesi geograficamente lontani da noi come l’Australia suscitano suggestioni diverse che dicono molto non tanto del paese stesso, quanto della persona interpellata.
Per alcuni all’Australia si associa all’esodo in corso della gioventù italiana in cerca di prospettive lavorative. Sono infatti sempre di più coloro disposti ad affrontare più di 24 ore di volo e un cambio radicale per sistemarsi in quella che è vista come la nuova America. Per loro l’Australia sarebbe tutta percentuali di disoccupazione bassissime, clima amichevole e qualità della vita alta; almeno secondo le statistiche. Per altri invece Australia vuol dire esclusivamente spiagge sconfinate popolate da biondi surfisti abbronzati. Altri non penseranno altro che ai coccodrilli e ai cappelli di pelle a falda larga con i dentini di alligatore (ne ho uno e sono indecisa se indossarlo all’opening di questa mostra o meno, giusto per il gusto di farmi accoltellare dai due artisti indignati per lo stereotipo).
I feel like the curator’s job is a little like Charles Xavier’s at times. After all both the curator and Prof. Xavier go around the world gathering mutants with superpowers – or artists in my case. My team for the “Nothing’s has happened since Yesterday” exhibition is sure smaller than a Marvel one but by no means less powerful.
One day, surfing on the internet, I stumbled upon a blog which reviewed exhibitions in Australia. It was when I was researching about the art scene in Melbourne, so I send a mail to the website asking for an interview with one of the two authors. At table of a cafe, waiting to be interviewed, sat a petite girl with resolute manners, nervous nostrils and round glasses. She was called Georgina Lee and chatting with her I found out that she was not only an arts writer, but also an artist.
Few weeks later I visited the TCB art space with a friend, and we were greeted by a gallery sitter with curly dusty hair and a worn out jumper. “I’ll give you guys a tour”, he mumbled and he started to list the names of the artists exhibiting, gesticulating with the hands in his jumper’s front pocket. One sculpture hanged on the wall looked like something that I had seen in exhibition at the Perth Centre for Contemporary Art a short time before. “Oh… that’s my work”, he said quickly and shyly. That’s how I met Kenny Pittock.
“Nothing’s happened since Yesterday – Due artisti da Melbourne” is going to open tomorrow at Galleria 291est in Rome and we are super-excited. These days have been pretty busy for exhibiting artists Georgina Lee and Kenny Pittock; I dragged them to gallery and vernissage all over Rome, yesterday we had a talk at the Art Academy (pics soon on this blog) and most importantly they have installed their work in the gallery. On the second day both artists showed up at Galleria 291est sporting “I love Rome” t-shirts. Kenny was so in love with his t-shirt to the point that he refused to change it even for the ultra-posh opening in Villa Medici, the French Academy. That’s the best part of being an artist after all, you can wear whatever the hell you want and no one can tell you anything!
The whole setting-up process has been filmed by Mauro Piccinini of Hour Interview, a great video series that catches snippets of artists’ working day. I’m super curious to see the result! If you are in Rome in these days, come visit us for the opening tomorrow!
Giovedì 29 maggio ore 15
incontro pre-mostra con gli artisti Kenny Pittock e Georgina Lee
incontro moderato da Isabella Tirelli e Naima Morelli
Thursday May 29 , 3 pm
pre-exhibition talk with artists Kenny Pittock e Georgina Lee
talk moderated by Isabella Tirelli and Naima Morelli
Accademia di Belle Arti
Roma via ripetta 222 Aula 207
Giovedì pomeriggio all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma si terrà il talk degli artisti australiani Kenny Pittock e Georgina Lee. La discussione, che coinvolgerà anche gli studenti, verterà sulle peculiarità del sistema dell’arte australiano rispetto a quello italiano e sul percorso artistico degli artisti emergenti in entrambi i paesi.
Nel corso dell’incontro gli artisti discuteranno la propria pratica artistica in vista dell’imminente mostra alla Galleria 291est, curata da me nell’ambito della rassegna Common Place. Inoltre, codiuvata dalla Prof. Isabella Tirelli, fornirò una breve introduzione del contesto australiano basandomi sulla mia ricerca condotta a Melbourne nel corso del 2013.
A talk by artists Kenny Pittock and Georgina Lee will be held at Rome’s Art Academy on Thursday afternoon. The discussion with the students will focus on the peculiarities of the Australian art system compared to the Italian one and on the emerging artists’ path in both countries. The artists will also talk about their work for their upcoming exhibition at Galleria 291est, Rome, curated by me for the Common Place series. Together with lecturer Prof. Isabella Tirelli, I will also give an introduction to the Australian context based on my research on the Melbourne art scene.
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After visiting Dario Carratta’s pen-drawings exhibition at Galleria 291est in Rome, I was totally curious to see his paintings. On the way to his studio in Conca D’Oro, a north-east suburb of Rome, I was wondering where his twisted world of dingy nightclubs, pulped faces and blue hair in the wind came from. I won’t say I was expecting to find corpses and carnivorous plants in Dario’s studio, but I was actually pretty surprised to hear that the artists was so sensitive to bad vibes he wouldn’t even see the news. He explained me that art for him was an outlet to negative emotions that would otherwise overwhelm him. That’s why he needed to paint every day and he couldn’t picture himself not doing it.
The paintings in flesh looked much more violent and rougher than what I could observe from the photos, but for this very reason even more exciting and fascinating.
