How do you describe your own art practice?
My work ranges from sculpture to installation and includes experiments involving the use of the image: drawing, collage, photography and video. My work is about work and its support, trying to dig deep into the language, through an analytic vision that explores the tool, the structure, the foundation. The research is an attempt to monumentalize the fleeing and focuses on the background: the perimeter rather than the center, the curtain rather than the show, the frame rather than the canvas, the pedestal rather than the sculpture, the invisible rather than the visible, the shadow rather than the illuminated subject.
What was your first experience with art?
I think it goes back to an event; when I was young, about 6-7 years old, I remember that I lived with my parents in a small flat, my grandmother took care of me because my parents worked till late during the week. She used to sleep after lunch every day, I remember that every time she went to my bedroom to sleep I used to move the furniture in the living room, sometimes the small sofa or the cupboard, and make drawings on the wall, taking attention to not go beyond the profile of furniture. A few years later during the move my father discovered big drawings behind the furniture, he laughed and he said: you will be an artist when you grow up.
What is your greatest source of inspiration?
Could be everything, could be a book, a street, a railroad, a wall, a burned car, a shop window, I think living in a town for me is the greatest source of inspiration.
What do you need in order to create your work?
I need to start from something, from a point. Could be a form, could be a song, could be material, could be an object. After that I start to think, write and draw immediately. I think about the concept, the form and the language to use. All my works are made with this method, always on three levels.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I am working on a big installation in a factory for a private collection. It will be a golden, empty billboard made of shiny brass. It will put it on the front of the entrance. At the same time, I am working on medium size sculptures made by brass that reproduce architecture fragments.
What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
I saw the last Matthew Barney’s movie and it really struck me. I love how he creates worlds, how he could move his production from sculpture, cinema, drawing and photograph. I also visited the last Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain and it was amazing.