«The work can be born and realized in the space of a few days, but it can also be the fruit of years of research and development».
Giorgio Lupattelli was born and lives in Magione (Perugia) and has been present on the national and international artistic scene since 1993. With his predominantly scientific training, he also works in the fields of graphics, scenography and design. Observing daily actions in the global media, he chooses only the information that strikes him and leads him to the synthesis of the picture; each work involves a slow thematic drying, a search for impact in which the selection corresponds to the social value of the news.
You, Umbrian by birth, works between Magione – home of her “house-workshop” – and Rome, where her artistic career developed. Can you tell us if Umbria has influenced his art?
I took my first steps in the world of contemporary art in the early 90s, and I never moved (physically) from my studio in Magione; despite this, I have worked almost exclusively with galleries and curators outside Umbria, for several years in Rome, but also in Modena, Bologna etc. My course of study is anomalous: scientific high school, two years of Engineering, Architecture in Florence (left halfway), together with many years of work and collaborations in the field of advertising graphics. Therefore I was not contaminated by the artistic environment of the Academy and of Perugia in general, also because from the beginning I did not find affinity with what I saw around: a work mainly based on surfaces and research on materials (informal post Burri ), light years away from my interests based mainly on images; on the other hand, I was born with television and cinema and grew up with the web. Despite this, I feel tied to my Umbrian and lake origins in particular, the same as the most important Umbrian artist, the only one from whom I have certainly taken something: Perugino.
In one of his statements he stated that while reading art history books he was attracted to the Metaphysicians and the Surrealists, in particular De Chirico and Dalì. Is he still attracted to these great Masters today?
The work of each artist is like a brick that is placed on the great wall of art history, which rests on previous bricks and which interacts with those close to it; it is the same in science too and no discovery would be possible without the previous ones. In my work, quotation has always played an important role and I have never made any secret of the foundations on which my work is based, so much so that I have been working for some time on a cycle of works on this very theme. De Chirico and Dalì, for me who don’t come from the Academy of Fine Arts, were the first who stimulated my interest in the modern. My work actually has its roots in the Italian Renaissance and, passing through the avant-garde, pop art and much more, arrives at what today are generically defined as neo-conceptual currents. I was among the first in Italy to combine classic techniques such as painting with the most modern technological tools. In the early 90s I was among the exponents of that current that the critic Gabriele Perretta defined Medialism.
Can you tell us how your creations are born?
Generally there is a common thread that connects all the work, in the sense that there are recurring themes, as well as an aesthetic-compositional coherence. From these fixed points, however, the work then unfolds in (apparently) different directions based on the moment, and the techniques can also range indifferently from drawing to painting, from digital to video, from sculpture to installation. Generally there is an input (a fact that interests me, something I see, something that happens to me); this is followed by research on the topic mainly on the web, and often from one thing I start from I almost always end up with something else; once a mountain of material has been downloaded, the development phase of ideas begins which can last days or even years and which sometimes leads to nothing concrete, other times to entire cycles of different works. Generally (if there is no particular urgency) I let the projects settle for months, and then review them coldly. If and when a possible work begins to take shape, I try to elaborate and vary it in all its possible declinations, and if I find the right solution I move on to the actual execution phase. In short, the work can be born and realized within a few days, but it can also be the result of years of research and development.
In Bologna it is possible to visit the exhibition “Fantastic Animals. The garden of wonders”. The exhibition (extended until 15 July) curated by Stefano Antonelli and Gianluca Marziani, transforms the historic Palazzo Albergati, built in 1519 by the will of the family of the same name in the historic center of Bologna, into an “artist’s zoo” gathering over 90 real, imagined and hybrid animals created by 23 contemporary artists. The exhibition itinerary takes the form of a “garden of wonders” thanks to works by artists like her. Can you tell us how this exhibition was born and what message you want to send with his works?
Gianluca Marziani is among the curators I have worked with the longest and therefore knows my work best. Together with Stefano Antonelli (with whom I had never worked) he is the curator of this exhibition which is having great success, with the skilful organization of Arthemisia (which is the best for these events) which has created an astonishing installation at Palazzo Albergati in Bologna, which for some years has been used as a museum with exhibitions of great international prestige; Antonelli and Marziani themselves had already curated other events with great artists, including Banksy. There is also a beautiful catalog published by Skira. My works were chosen by Gianluca who already knew them and I must say that they were installed and valorised in the best possible way. These are works that date from 2006 to today on the theme of animals. They range from the Velociraptor dinosaur which plays on the origins of life and its developments, up to the cycle of large close-ups of dangerous and disturbing animals on a black background which are a representation of many of our phobias and the precariousness of life itself.
To conclude, I would like to ask you for a word that for you represents the union between your art and Umbria, your land of origin.
I would say classicism, in the sense that although my work is in perfect harmony with what is most modern and contemporary seen on an international level, at the same time it is deeply linked to classicism, as naturally a region like Umbria is.
Giulia Venturini
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