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ARTIST
STATEMENT
 Artist Statement
& Profile
ESSAYS
The Evil Empire - Elga Wimmer
The Evil Empire - Federico Solmi
King Kong and
the End of the World - Mary Cuesta
Safe Journey
- Fabiola Naldi
Artist's Room
- Stefano Pasquini
Artist's Room
- Anonymous in the 21st Century
ARTIST'S TEXT WORK
Rocco Never
Dies
The Giant
Ideal City
Safe Journey
Artist's Room
INTERVIEWS
Exibart Magazine
- Nov. 19, 2004 - Interview with Massimiliano Tonelli
Daily News
- October 14, 2004 - Interview with Alia Akkam
Andrea Tedesco
- Director of Teknemedia.net
Ideal City
- Interview with Melania Gazzoti |
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THE EVIL EMPIRE
The Evil Empire
Author: Elga Wimmer
On a recent trip to Italy I discovered a mural in a small church in Tuscany. It depicted, to my surprise,
scenes one could partly refer to Hieronymus Bosch but dwelling more on earthly than heavenly
delights. Cardinals, bishops, monks and nuns were mingling with ‘commoners’ in what looked like
hedonistic and even sybaritic activities. My surprise lay in the fact that the church actually must
have approved of the themes in this artist’s work, otherwise it would not have landed on the walls of
this ‘Place of God.’ Today all earthly pleasures in connection with clerics and the church seem to be
taboo. Showing Federico Solmi’s “Evil Empire” for the first time in a show in Madrid last November
titled “Poetic Terrorism” enraged and annoyed quite a few good Spanish Catholics, even though the
content of the film was very tongue in cheek and was presented in exquisite drawings with quite
a large dose of humor. In every cartoon, lies, of course, some truth (which is probably what hit the
sensitive spot of these critics). The pope in Solmi’s cartoons is depicted as a “Hollywood loving and
porno-website reading Superman dressed as a cleric,” who in the end burns in hell for his sins.
In her book “Postmodern Heretics: The Catholic Imagination in Contemporary Art,” art critic, Eleanor
Heartney states:
“In a review of Gary Will’s ‘Papal Sin’, a book written by a noted Catholic scholar which is highly critical
of the Vatican’s handling of issues like celibacy, contraception, and clerical sexual misconduct,
Robert P. Lockwood, the League’s Director of Research, begins with a long screed on anti-Catholic
Catholics . In the visual arts sphere, the Catholic League has been particularly attentive to this phenomenon.
The result was the query to the curator of Renee Cox’ photographic recreation of Da
Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ at the Brooklyn Museum, with a bare-breasted Cox standing in for the central
Christ figure. Equally at this museum, the Saatchi collection’s show ‘Sensation’ caused a scandal over
the work by Chris Ofili, which featured an Africanized Virgin Mary embellished with several clumps
of rhinestone covered elephant dung”.
Federico, in a recent conversation, mentioned that he is highly inspired and intrigued by powerful
men in political and religious circles and the resulting complications. Until recently, the pope had
an important and influential position politically, and he still does to a large extent. In any case, his
appearance whenever on a state visit causes frenzy and mass attendance by Catholics and non-
Catholics alike. Statesmen have always sought the blessings of the pope, may it be to enlarge their
power or to abolish marriages. Humans remain humans and therefore clerics are not excluded from
having human feelings – in other words they are not saints – at least not in this world. That is how
Federico depicts his bishops, priests, nuns and monks in his drawings. With their lush colors in rubyred
and gold they recall the baroque drawings, paintings and sculptures by Bernini that one might
find in churches in Rome. Even Bernini’s contemporaries were struck by the highly sexualized nature
of his depiction of the “Ecstasy of St. Teresa.”
Solmi’s works, with their intricate humor, wit and sarcasm mixed with a superb craftsmanship of
drawing, are also reminiscent of Goya’s. This master always put a finger on the weaknesses of society
and the church. As a matter of fact, he was accused of being a heretic, against his government many
times, and was saved only by being in the good graces of the king who collected his works and thus
made him ‘untouchable.’ Solmi’s work can only be “defended” by his galleries, curators, admirers and
collectors, and that is hopefully sufficient. It is simultaneously delightful and arguable to see that art
still is able to arouse great feelings and passions -- may it be of a critical or admiring nature?
Elga Wimmer
THE EVIL EMPIRE
The Evil Empire
Author: Federico Solmi
The Evil Empire is a video animation that takes place in the year 2046 in the heart of the Vatican City. Surrounded by the glorious frescoes and wealth of his St. Peter’s Basilica apartment, a fictional Pope is portrayed as a young man struggling with an addiction to pornography. Pope Urban LXIX has embraced the ways of the 21st century, fulfilling all of his vices to no end; violence is perpetrated through his troops, while he whittles away the days having orgies and indulging in gluttony.
Understanding the mechanisms of celebrity culture and its power within the public today, Pope Urban LXIX has been able to weave an empire in contemporary society as powerful as at the peak of Catholicism. The American way is the catalyst by which he can maintain power, capturing the minds of people in a garish show of narcissism. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame and Pope Urban LXIX has learned to extend that deadline to a lifetime. Enchanted by a magnificent image and manipulated by the hegemonic power of the Vatican Empire, this world is one in which Pope Urban LXIX can do whatever he pleases. Without any check, this power devours him, becoming a fierce warning for the real world of today.
Within this dystopian vision of contemporary society, the artist gives the audience a glimmer of hope. In the end Pope Urban LXIX is ironically sent on a journey through hell where he pays for all of his sins. The video ends on a carousel of blood and on a positive note that jolts the audience to attention and gives them a chance to reverse the damage of corruption in today’s society. The peace that follows is fleeting as the cycle starts once again from the beginning.
Federico Solmi
KING
KONG AND THE END OF THE WORLD
The following essay was written
about
King
Kong and the End of the World.
Author: Mary
Cuesta
"King Kong and the End of the World"
Federico Solmi (Bologna 1973) enters the artistic world coming
from the outsider realm. His work revels this fact, not only
for the themes he chooses (popular, inconoclastic with amusing
twists), but also in his frank style with scratches, messy
in character, with a Dadaist sensibility, even absurd at times.
Solmi is obsessed with sex and reproduction, corcerned by the
contradictions of urban life; practices satire and venerates
Rocco Siffredi (the pornstar that develops the role of the hero
in his former video animation Rocco Never Dies), subject matters
indeed that bleed, sweat, cum, and touch us for pure instinct
and nature. Solmi´s work crosses the work of the damned Raymond
Pettibone, the theories of fluid and anti-nature parings of
the philosophers Deleuze and Guatarri, and relates in kindship
to the filmmaking of Cronenberg.
Solmi
presents his latest video animation, King Kong and
The End Of The World, at ADN Galerie, as well as selected drawings
from the 1100 originally utilized for the making of the
movie. This piece plays with several icons of mass culture:
the comercial brands, emblems of high culture, such as
the Guggenheim Museum, mingled with some props and tools common
in his works: the monstrosity of the phallus, hypertrophy used
as fetiche by other outsiders as the decadent illustrator Berdsley
or the draftsman Nazario.
It
is easy to deduce King Kong functions as the alter ego of the
artist, who frequently recognizes the profound influence in
his work by the fact of living in New York. King Kong, besieged
and trapped by the urban landscape, loses control and destroys
even what he loves (the Gagosian Gallery) until he is shot and
killed. The rage and impotence, felt before such an insane and
voracious society, forces the artist to reward himself by representing
the city under a rain of urine Solmi´s work is fresh, and expresses
through fantasy, the defenseless feeling before the neurotic
urban landscape.
King
Kong and the End of The World, ends, however, with a twist
of hope: the artist and his wife are elected by God to repopulate
the Earth. Federico stains the biblical episode of Adam and
Eve, giving the man an enormous phallus
THE GIANT.
The following essay was written about
The Giant
exhibition.
Author:
Marco Izzolino,
May 2005
"The
Giant"
The new video animation by Federico Solmi, “The Giant”,
celebrates the hero returning home to southern Italy. “Rocco
Siffredi is a man from the South....a man coming from nothing
...who realized, in an absurd way, the dream to conquer America......surely
he is one of the best symbols of the new Made in Italy”
.(Federico Solmi)
Rocco died when he was 37 years old while he was “honestly”
performing his job as if he were at an assembly line in one
of the car plants in Detroit. He was completing his biggest
task: showing the entire world his power by becoming a tool
for sex, the “Fucking Machine”.“ In my opinion
he is like Achilles.....defeated in battle where he believed
to be invulnerable”.
“The Giant” tells the story from the birth until
the tragic death following his deeds and successes around the
world. His existence moved away from earthly life and came to
legend, similar to what happened to another myth of the “American
dream” , James Dean. Like James Dean, Rocco interpreted
the dreams and the ambitions of millions of people: like Dean,
he has been celebrated and acclaimed around the world; like
Dean, he found the success in the “big” country
of America. However, the dreams of them both were shattered
very early.
America is the place of dreams, but it is also a place where
you can burn out easily.“The movie itself is a real travel
in the absurdity of the society where we live....referring particularly
to the frenetic New York life .....and to the American life,
in general”. The background of this work is New York,
represented like a post-apocalyptical town lacking the soul
and reduced to the skeleton where Federico Solmi and his wife
Jennifer live and are inspired.....
Federico and Jennifer represent, respectively, Rocco and a porno
diva. The artist expresses his thinking about the present, the
city and the environment, loved and hated, by which he is surrounded
day by day.
(My representation of New York is) a tool to express my negative
vision of the historical moment we live in .... everything around
Rocco Siffredi, interpreted by me in the movie, is fragile or
vanishes...or it does not resist time ....and if it resists
time, it is defective or failed to several pieces .....and this
is the way I see life ....my American adventure and everything
around me....I like to investigate life such as it should be
analyzed by conscious people....”
ROCCO NEVER
DIES
The
following essay was written about
Rocco Never
Dies.
Author:
James Wagner
"March
02, 2005 Federico Solmi at Boreas"
Federico Solmi has this fantasy
(fantasy fantasy?)about being Rocco Sifreddi,* super-celebrity,
fellow-Italian porn star, and he has hand-drawn some 400 frames
in order to assemble his own four-minute animated movie, "Rocco
Never Dies." The gallery site offers an excerpt for viewing.
But although in the film Rocco actually does die (of a heart
attack, after participating in a large-scale orgy strapped-down
as an important cog in "The Fucking Machine"), judging
from his own much more creative role in this exercise, Solmi
should have a great (art) career ahead of him. Now that I
brought it up, I think I should include an image of that infernal
machine, so here it is:
This neat little show, installed in the second gallery at
Boreas, includes a large number of related drawings and several
paintings. The paintings are executed on a stiff gauze medium,
lightly prepared with a white base, before they receive the
elegant line of his black marker. They are extremely attractive,
as much as objects as for those beautiful black lines. New
York, by the way, has rarely looked so exciting, with the
tops of both the Statue of Liberty and the Chryler Building
lodged akimbo in the middle of its busy avenues. Full disclosure:
I had seen several works by Solmi over the last year or two
and I was intrigued. Late last year we were happy to bring
home one of his small enigmatic paintings from the D.U.M.B.O
Arts Center benefit, and it now hangs in our apartment. Here
is the image, created originally as part of his "Safe
Journey Exhibition" (2002-2004):
SAFE JOURNEY
The following essay was written about
Safe Journey Exhibition.
Author:
Fabiola Naldi 2003
"Negative Icons"
Federico Solmi belongs to a generation
of artists who constantly feels the pressure of an era overloaded
with images and, like his colleagues, plays the perfect role
of the postmodern voyeur, reviewing essential parts of the
everyday life often using the internet and its infinite number
of pictures. Today, artists have changed their purpose. They
deliberately consider themselves not anymore as inventors
of ideas, but, instead, as careful binders of concepts. As
a faithful archeologist of the present, Federico Solmi's works
want to examine every single fragment of the common experience
by using the same aesthetic attitude of reinterpretation,
sourced directly from the Dadaists and the Futurists. Almost
a century later, little has changed.
The show, originally
conceived as an enormous archive of official facts and statistics
manipulated by the artist, intends to exam the dangers and
the grave consequences caused by an inadequate driving education
in an undisciplined society. Huge paintings realized with
medical gauze are the chosen medium for this artist and his
personal re-interpretation of reality. Elaborating on catalogued
images gained directly from the data repository of the internet,
these paintings become an extension of the documentation collected
by the artist during his initial research. Meticulously rebuilt,
the destroyed cars are introduced to the viewer like many
enormous negative icons, which serve to distort the original
fact in order to be inserted into the collective memory like
a warning. The extended space of the Xpo becomes the perfect
container in order to compress this initial dramatic and ambiguous
vision of the problem. Conscious of having to show itself
in different and simplified forms in order to lead the spectator
to gain a great understanding of the message, the visually
provocative work by Solmi is discretely suggested. The destroyed
icons are introduced to the spectator like strange beings
which have fallen around us, ready to scream an uneasiness
that transversally hits the public, as well as the individual.
The overturned car also represents the perfect pretext in
order to enlarge the reflection of the overall dangers, which
are surrounding us today. Without warning, without any particular
critics but just as a simple observation of the bitter emptiness
of reality, which, unfortunately, we are dramatically accustomed
to.
The following
essays were written about the The
Artist's Room and were published in the Artist's Room
Catalog, presented in the Bologna Art Fair 2003 by Daniele
Ugolini Contemporary, Inc.
Author:
Stefano Pasquini 2002
Artist's Room
The scene of the crime is a white
room. A small white room, vividly lived, each inch of the
walls almost scratched, as if tormented by a hand. Yet, it's
only a white room. Like an artist's studio, or a gallery space.
What is the crime, then? The
crime is the room itself, with those white hard dirty walls
to resemble almost a prison.
Federico Solmi's small paper paintings
are all little psychotic pieces of the same puzzle, a puzzle
that torments him and will probably never be finished.
The studio.
The studio, as the artist's head,
is conceptually bare but, looking closely, is filled of his
presence with all its tragedy. It's a tragedy slowly consumed
within the artist's head, an inner claustrophobia that screams
of a new existentialism to oppose this surreal political times
where good or bad, truth or falsity are merely decided by
the media.
There is no sign of the media, no sign of our time in Solmi's
obsessively scratched papers, just an illegible sentence softly
written by the artist in red. Hard to decipher, it says something
about not trusting anyone, but paradoxically, it can just
be a hopeful presence of color.
Red, nevertheless, in an almost completely white background.
Again, a conceptual background within the forceful black lines
of the corners of the room.
What we're facing here is a solemn statement of not belonging.
Federico Solmi takes and makes his the whole history of art
but, with passionate detachment, silently screams there is
no place left for art in this world.
Stefano Pasquini 2002
Author: Anonymous in the
21st Century
This 'anonymous' author is an Italian Contemporary Writer
who chooses to keep his identity hidden for professional purposes.
Translated to English by: Paul Viggiano
Art In The 21ST Century
In the series the "Artist's Room," Federico Solmi's modern
sensibility has brought to light a classic issue of the ages
man's inner struggle. Whether we are on the outside looking
in, or already inside, here we find the irresistible urge
to look closely at every line, to scrutinize every angle and
to study every corner. What is it that we seek enjoy or suffering,
clarity or confusion, freedom or imprisonment?
The room evokes a feeling of alienation, a nearly desperate
but necessary solitude. Still, there is calmness and acceptance
for we know that only when one is completely alone can they
then find their true selves. The space is closed and at the
same time liberated. Is it a prison that binds the physical
or worse, imprisonment of the spirit? Perhaps it is not a
prison at all, but a sanctuary. A response to modern technology
is represented in the artist's Room through the use of traditional
materials. Federico Solmi's use of pastels, charcoals and
glue enables the perspective to stand out. This view is constant,
even repetitious and, as always, in the end there is a transformation.
Federico Solmi asks us to "step inside" and take as much time
as one needs to look into the invisible mirror. Inviting us
to ponder over our reflection - what do you see? Is one's
being and one's fate on parallel paths? This is the paradox
of the "Artists Room."
Anonymous in the 21st Century
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ARTIST'S
TEXT WORK
ROCCO NEVER DIES
by Federico Solmi
"Rocco Never Dies" is a drawing animation
based on the XXX movie of Italian porn superstar Rocco Siffredi. It is a
documentary of the life of one of the greatest Italian icons of all times in
U.S. society.
In the original movie, Rocco Siffredi plays the
role of a special agent, a kind of hardcore version of James Bond. In his great
efforts to save the world from a nuclear terrorist attack, Rocco Siffredi runs
into a lot of dangerous adventures, including of course gorgeous sex
performances, for one goal: to save humanity from evil.
The animation takes place in this absurd scenario
of an imminent world catastrophe in which Rocco, during his call of duty, will
discover he is mortal. In fact, during the filming of his masterpiece Rocco
Never Dies, Rocco Siffredi has a heart attack while he is performing in a
gangbang. After a desperate attempt to rescue him, involving a crazy drive in
an ambulance through the streets of New York City, Rocco will die at Beth
Israel Hospital at the age of 37. He is then exclaimed by the public as a war
hero and given a State Funeral. "Rocco Never Dies" is a celebration
of the absurdity and triumphs of the contradictions in contemporary life, but
is also a romantic story about a man of strength, who came from a small town to
conquer the glory of life with tremendous work.
THE GIANT
by Federico Solmi
"The Giant" celebrates a hero returning
home to southern Italy. Rocco Siffredi is a man from the South, a man who comes
from nothing, who dreams, in an absurd way, to conquer America. Surely he is
one of the best symbols of the new Made in Italy. (Federico Solmi) Rocco dies when he is 37 years old while
performing his job as honestly as if he were in an assembly line at a car plant
in Detroit. At the time he was completing his biggest task: showing the entire
world his power by becoming a tool for sex, a fucking machine. He is like
Achilles, defeated in a battle where he believed to be invulnerable. "The
Giant" tells his story from his birth until his tragic death, following
his deeds and successes around the world. His existence moved away from earthly
life and became legend, similar to another myth of the American dream, James Dean.
Like James Dean, Rocco interpreted the dreams and the ambitions of millions of
people; like Dean, he has been celebrated and acclaimed around the world; like
Dean, he found success in the big country of America. However, both their
dreams were shattered very early. America is the place of dreams, but it is
also a place where you can easily burn out. The movie itself is a real
adventure in the absurdities of the society where we live, referring
particularly to the frenetic New York life, and to the American life in
general. The background of this work is New York, represented like a
post-apocalyptical town lacking any soul and reduced to a skeleton where
Federico Solmi and his wife Jennifer live and are inspired by. Federico and
Jennifer represent, respectively, Rocco and a porno diva. The artist expresses
his thinking about the present, the city, and the environment that is loved and
hated and by which he is surrounded day by day. My representation of New York is a tool to express my negative
vision of the historical moment we live in.
Everything around Rocco Siffredi, interpreted by me in the movie, is
fragile or vanishes and if it resists time it is either defective or falls to
several pieces. This is the way I see life, my American adventure and
everything around me. I like to investigate life such as it should be analyzed
by conscious people.
IDEAL CITY STATEMENT
"Accelerated Society" by Federico Solmi
The incredible and tumbling evolution of the past
decade finished by strongly modifying the structures and equilibrium of our
society, inevitably twisting the delicate and the ancient relationship that has
always connected the man to the place in which he lives, the City.
The neurotic necessity to constantly reinvent and
renew technology, expressed again today by the recent digital revolutions, has
remarkably contributed to the spreading to all the habitants of the planet a
strong sense of insecurity and frustration. Never before has this become the
symbol by which we identify the new generation. Anxiety, anguish, and fear of
an unpredictable tomorrow - these are the only certainties that accompany us in
our everyday life. Already familiar with the reality that has maliciously
slipped from our hand, the villager of the 21st century lives as a prisoner and
a victim of the deterioration of the urban environment, which is dominated by
overpopulation and disorder.
Within this new and hostile territory, the modern
metropolis has developed. Here the pressure is even higher, the schizophrenic
routine has become a real challenge for survival, and the unexpected, the
danger, and the fear of catastrophe has become a part of the ordinary life.
"The Ideal City" installation wants to
sarcastically analyze this apocalyptical scenery of the big contemporary city
and examine the absurdities and contradictions that have contributed
negatively, transforming our city into an undesirable place to live. An Ideal
City does not exist. On the contrary, it cannot exist and will never exist,
because the City of the future will be more sophisticated and less human. The
cities will not be anything more than examples of the failure of this ancient
dream called urbanization.
"SAFE JOURNEY" STATEMENT
Following the shocking occurrences reported by the
international news in the past few years, a "new" word entered into
our houses that served to inevitably modify the habits and the behaviors of
millions of people. Having become accustomed to living with a new and worrisome
realty, made up of false alarms, presumptions of imminent terrorist attacks,
and continuous threats of a dangerous epidemic, the term "safety",
has gained an astonishing popularity and today has become integrated into the
life and the conscience of each and every citizen on this planet.
Taking from this new daily reality, always
distorted in its truthfulness by the strong pressures of the media, I wanted to
personally examine one of the "real" plagues in our society in
"terms of safety", the problem of the fatalities on the highways.
When I initiated my research, I had the double intention to both inform and to
dis-inform the audience at the same time, taking advantage of true facts which
have riddled the pages of the newspapers around the world. Pulling information
from various official government sources, statistics, and data, I attempted to
recreate a general landscape of the automobile incidents that occurred on the
streets of the United States of America during the years 2001-2002. After I
selected the information, I took pleasure in manipulating, distorting, and
exaggerating the data collected during my investigation, with the intention of
modifying the significance and actual meaning of the events. By creating
contradictions in the installation of drawings, statistics, and testimonies, I
wanted to reconstruct in the gallery the climate of confusion and
disorientation that rules in today's contemporary society, where it has become
nearly impossible for the individual to distinguish reality from deceptions.
"ARTIST'S ROOM" STATEMENT
The place that I chose was a common insignificant
white room, extraordinarily small in dimension. In spite of all of this, in
that moment I believed it was the most important thing that I had. There was no
object or person that could have given me a more sincere sensation of a claustrophobic
existence, which I was already feeling in my everyday life. The only thing that
I remember with certainty is that when I began these drawings I was feeling a
terrible sensation of not belonging to the world and this feeling was
accentuated with each new event that I encountered in my life. Only today, a
few months later, do I realize that the space, which I painted with such
insistence, never actually existed. Instead, it was only one of the many
expressions of my paranoid imagination! I was sick and I was feeling a great
need to find a way out. But from what? At the time, I did not trust anybody and
I was so proud of this fact that I was writing barely legible statements about
mistrust, in red pen, on each piece of paper that passed before my hands. Since
I was alone and a guest in a country that wasn't mine, I arrived to the
conclusion that the only way to escape this unpleasant situation was to search
inside myself to find the answers that continually escaped me in my everyday
life. And where should I have begun this debilitating interrogation if not in
my tiny studio in Brooklyn? I was taken by the rush to finally have in my hands
the truth, which was continuously obscured by the perverse games of the man and
the media. I began to search and comb through every single angle of every wall
of the room, sparing nothing, not even a square centimeter. I would have
succeeded in scratching the walls with my fingers, if it was necessary. Just
the idea to undertake this manic search made me feel much better. In those
days, I only wished to be a prisoner within my own imaginary walls. It is
useless to say that this painful fog continues to envelop my life today and
that the answers for which I was searching for have never arrived. It is more
or less like this - I have begun this debilitating travel in my psyche through
the illusion of the room.
The ARTIST'S ROOM is a series of 25 drawings on paper in A4
format, executed in mixed technique (pastel, charcoal, and
glue) during the years 1999 - 2001.
|
INTERVIEWS:
Exibart Magazine, Interview with
Massimiliano Tonelli - November 19, 2004
Q: How did you become an artist? What was really important
for you? In this period of your life, are you doing what you
have chosen to do or does it just happen to be what you are
doing today??
A: I was raised in a family where pursuing a cultural
ambition was almost considered as shocking as planning a murder.
It was just wrong. My father owned a butcher store, and in
the night we certainly weren't discussing Nietzsche and Schopenauer
over our dinner table. This was the environment in which I
grew up. I have always been considered to be the transgressive
member of the family, the only one of the five kids that earned
a high school diploma. The atmosphere wasn't the best for
an inspiring artist but the experience of those years is still
today extremely important to me, they are still impressed
within myself.my father with all of his wisdom and humble
thoughts, was, for me, considered to be a kind of Zarathrusta.
Q: You have an approach to art that seems to be self-taught?
A: As can you imagine, my approach to the art-world
has been kind of unusual. I have never been enrolled in a
University or Academy, or anything like that. Since I became
interested in contemporary art, I earned the trust of several
young emerging artists, curators, and art dealers and, of
course, I read thousands of books and magazines and visited
a lot of museums.
Q: And then you escaped?
A: In September 1999 I literally decided to escape
to the United States. This big change gave me the opportunity
to find the so-called shortest way but of course risking a
lot. In my particular case, there was nothing fortuitous,
everything was manically prepared. I knew since the very beginning
that this was the only solution for me and that I was going
to defend my choice at any price. At times it was extremely
difficult, but now I am finally beginning to have some fun.....it
took 4 long years.
Q: Usually it is the task of the critics to summarize
the work of an artist; however, if you must say in a few lines
what your artwork is about, how would you describe it?
A: I believe that in my work you can always see the
ambiguity and the confusion of the historical period that
we are currently going through, regardless of the specific
theme I am intending to analyze.
Q: One good thing and one bad thing about you and you
work?
A: The good thing: I never give it up, I am like a
warrior. The bad thing: I never take a break.
Q: What about your life?
A: I am always optimistic in any situation. I am a
dreamer and an Idealist and I typically have at least 1,000
new projects in my mind. At the same time I am neurotic, a
self-destructionist person that has a hard time falling asleep
at night.
Q: One person that you consider very important to your
work?
A: Without a doubt, my wife Jennifer!
Q: Are you satisfied with how people interpret your work?
Who better understood your work and who didn't understand
it? What type of relationship do you have with critics and
the press?
A: I enjoy watching how my work is interpreted by
other people ---not just from people in the art-world. Most
artists, once they are into a new project, often become blind.
We are just looking at our art in the way that we have thought
to conceive it, but the reality is often different it is what
the people see in our work. All of the rest is just imagination,
or mental masturbation. So far, nobody has totally misinterpreted
my work, but it will happen, I can't wait. Regarding critics
and the press -- I have a good relationship, there is a dialogue,
in both the U.S. and in Italy; but, I am certainly not expecting
any gifts!
Q: What relationship do you have with the place you work?
Tell me something more about your studio. Where is it located?
A: Why don't you say something about it, you have
seen it! I have spent so much time in it over the past few
months that I am full of it!! My studio is located in Brooklyn,
in an area called DUMBO. It's an ex-commercial area located
between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. In the building
where I have my studio there are another 200 work spaces,
with artists coming from every part of the planet is really
a competitive environment, but there is also a sort of dialogue
between us and that is important. In the past few years this
area of the city has changed a lot--now we are receiving a
lot of attention. There is still a sort of magical atmosphere,
it's hard to describe!
Q: Which is the most beautiful show you have ever done?
A: The show that gave me a lot of satisfaction was
the last exhibition that I did at La Fabbrica del Vapore in
Milan in September 2004. It was organized by a group of young
curators from the Academy of Brera. There name is Conura.
For that particular occasion, I prepared several new works,
from drawings to sculptures and animation. The theme of the
show was the city and it was perfect for me. It is one of
the subjects that I typically represent in my installations.
Q: How much has the city, in which you are living today,
influenced your artworks? How important was your move to NYC.
What kind of inspiration has it given to you?
A: In my case, my choice to live in NYC greatly influenced
my artistic research. This city is a real mess. It is representing
the best, and at the same time, the absurdities reached by
modern civilization --- it was exactly what I was looking
for.
Q: Now that such artist like Cattelan and Beecroft are
already superstars, who do you think will have a chance to
emerge into the international scene? Who do you think is over
valued?
A: To emerge into the International art scene, or
to be a great artist you have to show up often in the New
York art scene. Of course, there are also exceptions, but
it is also a fact that the Italian artists, who made it, like
Cattelan and Beecroft, could often be met at the openings
in NY. My idea is that, in general, Italian artists are often
good, but they are not traveling enough. They are a little
bit too lazy, and they don't take any risk and this damages
them a lot. If I really have to suggest a name to you, that
has a chance to emerge into the international scene, I would
say Piero Golia. He is a good artist, and he is often around
NY.
Q: You are becoming well known also in NYC, but can you
keep your contacts with Italy?
A: I have been able to show, with continuity, in the
U.S., in particular in NYC. I have been showing this year
in several very well known emerging galleries and no-profit
spaces, such as White Columns, Exit Art, and Momenta Art.
In the next few months, I have a solo exhibition scheduled
in Boreas Gallery in Brooklyn. The public and the curators
are beginning to become familiar with my artwork and I have
received a great response. I believe that I took a huge step
this year. The contacts with Italy are great and they are
only getting stronger. Of course I would like to work with
curators such as Roberto Pinto, Marco Senaldi and Luca Beatrice,
but for now I am happy with how things are going. I come to
Italy often, at least once every three months, for the shows
and the art-fairs in which my gallery participates. With Fabio
Paris Art Gallery, I will be participating at Artissima this
upcoming November. If you think about it, New York is not
that far --- 7-8 hours of flight I am in Milan.
"Crazy World" by Alia Akkam
- October 14, 2004, "Daily News"
Q: Federico, tell me a little bit about your background,
and how you came to be an artist?
A: My approach to the art world is a little bit different
than the usual. I was never trained to be an artist in the
classical sense. I never pursued an MFA or did all these sorts
of typical steps to enter the art world, which today seem
to be very important for a career. I gained my knowledge by
always surrounding myself with other artists, curators, art
dealers, and, of course, thousands of books --- even when
I was involved with other types of work experiences. I believe
that one of my strongest traits as an artist is that I have
a clear idea about what is happening both inside & outside
of the gallery system.
Q: Describe your work to me, what are the different mediums?
What message are you trying to convey?
A: I don't really believe in the idea that artists
today must send a message to the public that is just an illusion.
I am not the Pope and, besides, who is supposed to hear this
message? We are no longer living in the age of the prophet.
Just take a look at the images that are thrown in our face
everyday by CNN & the newspapers unfortunately, this is the
real world. However, I do believe that an artist must create
his own alternative and imaginary universe, in which the viewer
can reflect upon reality. I am interested in observing the
distortion and the perversity of contemporary society. Look,
don't you think that everyone can see that we are living in
a world that is slowly crumbling apart? I like to analyze
that and I like to do it in an ironic way, using different
types of media (drawings, sculptures, and video).
Q: Why a studio in Brooklyn? What is it about the Brooklyn
environment that is conducive to your art?
A: I spent the first 2 years in NYC moving around
different boroughs and neighborhoods. Then I moved to Dumbo.
That was the first time in 2 years I felt that I was almost
at home.
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: That's an ambiguous question. Well -- I hope if
everything is going as well as today, I will be showing at
MOMA or Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea!! If your question is
asking where I will be working in 5 years, then I can tell
you that Dumbo is definitely my home base. This is the place
where all of my ideas are coming to life.
Q: Describe a project you are currently working on.
A: I have different projects going on today, but the
most exciting and most challenging one for me is a drawing
animation, based on a Flight Simulator. I am still in the
process of planning the work, but I know that it will be a
spectacular 600 drawings movie in which I will take the viewer
into the cockpit of a plane. Sitting together, we will travel
an imaginary journey through the history of the past century,
exploring the conquests and failures of our times we will
start in the desert of Kitty Hawk and take off with the Wright
brothers plane.
Interviews with the Protagonists
of the Art World - November 26, 2003, "Teknemedia",
3 Questions to Federico Solmi, by Andrea Tedesco
Q: Hello Federico. Let's begin by talking about you, about
your project, and about your work.
A: Hello Andrea. I would actually like to begin the
conversation in the opposite way, starting from today, the
26th of November 2003. In these days, I have been extremely
busy working with Fabiola Naldi, to finish preparing the Safe
Journey exhibition, which will open on Thursday the 4th of
December 2003 at the Xpo in Milan. The space is amazing -
500 square meters in the center of Milan inside of an ex-factory
that is now available to show the most innovative proposals
of contemporary art. The wide space and the simple architecture
reminds me immediately of the Chelsea Galleries, the no-profit
spaces of Soho and Brooklyn, where everyday an incredible
number of young artist, like me, are struggling next to each
other in order to get the attention of good curators and galleries.
Q: You told me in the past about the experiences you had
in the few years outside of Europe. I would like to understand
what changed in your works and in your career after you decided
to move to the United States.
A: First of all, I would like to say that this was
not really just an easy passage Instead, I would describe
it as a break. A break with the institution and the culture
that I grew up with and where I had my first artistic experience.
It was a choice that I had planned since the beginning of
my career. I wanted to grow very fast at that time and I needed
to experience a different culture, see other countries in
order to understand what was going on outside of our borders.
I thought that by moving to New York I would be able to get
all of what I was looking for in just one move. I think I
was right!
Obviously my work experience in NY deeply changed my vision
and really modified my attitude to interpret the contemporary
life. In these years I was showing in collaboration with artists
coming from every part of the world and I was given the opportunity
to participate in some of the most important events and festivals
in the underground scene of Williamsburg and Dumbo.
A few months ago I came to Milan with the precise goal of
letting the Italian public know about my work. If you give
me the permission, I would like to open a small polemic that
in the future will help some young artists who are following
your site. I don't know if you have noticed, especially in
the past decade, many of the curators, academic professors,
and some directors of art magazines have been pushing the
new generation to leave the country and to go study and live
in England and in the USA. The biggest example is the director
of Flash Art, Giancarlo Politi. But everybody knows that the
same people who recommended artists to experience work outside
of Italy, are the first to forget about you after you decide
to leave the country. They would actually prefer the artists
who are working within the area because it is easier. I believe
this is one of the inconveniences that you have when you are
working outside of your country. Some of the most representative
Italian artists, like , Francesco Simeti, Luca Buvoli, Stefano
Pasquini, Angelo Filomeno, are living in NYC. They are recognized
by the U.S.A. critics, but today they are still almost unknown
to the italian public. This is a big contradiction, especially
if you think that all of these artists have had at least one
solo exhibition in the most important Italian galleries like
Minini, Audiello, Esso di New York, Fontana di Milano. I think
I got lost and I haven't given you a real answer. But let's
go back to the original question, time is running out, the
expiration dates are coming. We are all children of this frenetic
and anxious age. At least on this point, do you agree with
me? We are born in a hurry, and if we are not going to do
something good, soon we will be registered as a generation
of abortions.
In the past few years of my artistic career, I concentrated
on examining the alienated scenery of the metropolis where
I have been living and I would say that I grew professionally.
The manipulation of reality by the media and the disorientation
of the individual on the ambiguous contemporary scene are
some of the key themes that I examine in my video and in my
installation. The Safe Journey exhibition, which will be displayed
in Milan is a clear example.
Q: I guess your answers are complete. Do you want to give
any information about your studies
A: If I had to answer you in one word, I would say
typical I was never a great fan of the accademie, even if
I was often enrolled in classes in Bologna, Milan and New
York. The longest experience that I had in a school (after
graduating high school) was in NYC at the Art Student League
where I was enrolled in a sculpture class, studying under
Jonhattan Shann. I have always been very active in different
ways travelling and reading extensively, for example. I believe
that by not attending an art school full-time, did give me
a hard time at the beginning, of course. But today, after
having struggled through different experiences I have overcome
this trouble. I actually feel much freer and stronger than
many of the artists that I meet today.
I have always defended and believed in figurative paintings
but only after searching for a personal way to distinguish
my interpretation. As I told you, in the past I preferred
to use gauze instead of the regular canvas. I often shape
my frame following the shape of the drawing instead of buying
a stretch bar. In this specific case, my drawing has the 3
dimensions of a sculpture. What else can I say about my works?
Rarely are my drawings alone. Most of the time they are part
of a complicated installation. I also enjoy using other media
like the video. In Milan I will present a new video made in
collaboration with 2 video artists, Nunzio and Tatiana.
IDEAL
CITY
The following is an interview written about the
Ideal City Exhibition.
Author: Melania Gazzoti
Interview with Melania Gazzotti
Q: Your primary source
of inspiration is the scenery of the contemporary metropolis
that you like to recreate in your installation with all of
its chaotic complexity. How do you feel it is related to you
as an individual when approaching your artwork?
A: The metropolis
is just an excuse. My real source of inspiration is truly
all the "stuff" that is continuously thrown in my face each
morning I wake up, when I turn on the computer, when I am
going to take the subway, when I am going into the sex shops.
Although every morning I wake up with the hope of seeing something
new, I keep falling again and again into this catastrophic
image of reality, with its accidents, unpredictable disasters,
and its fake alarmism.
Q: You have spent a lot
of time in different places (Bologna, Milan, and New York
City). How much has this influenced your ideas and your artistic
path? Specifically, what do you think about Milan?
A: Surely, it has
helped me to analyze and to understand the different realities
that surround us. All of this has helped me to be more rational,
and to have less prejudice. Milan is a dynamic town, extremely
ambitious, and for contemporary art it is the "New York" of
Italy. It is the only Italian city that allows you to breath
the international atmosphere, which characterizes the metropolis.
Q: Regarding the new installation
that you will present in the show "Ideal City" - you told
us that the pieces will bring the viewer deep inside the contemporary
society. Which kind of society are you intending to propose
to us?
A: The same society
that we are watching every day when we walk on the street,`
or when we are looking outside of the window from the office.
Not the one that we are dreaming about.
Q: Besides the vision
of the present time, your work also contains a perspective
of what our future will hold - does this contain a little
bit of hope?
A: Living in New York
City means that you know a little bit in advance the direction
and the trend of the craziness and perversion in which the
contemporary society is headed, in the short term what will
invade our house and our conscience. Hope is everywhere -
you just need to close your eyes to be able to catch it. |
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