Campanian artist Patti among the ten finalists of the 'Paolo VI Award' in Brescia

On Saturday 11th September, in Concesio (Brescia), the exhibition of the ten finalists of the third edition of the “Paul VI Award for Contemporary Art”, included in the project “Geometrie di Valle” promoted by the Mountain Community of Valle Trompia, which deserved the contribution of the Lombardy Region within the scope of the “Integrated Cultural Plans”.

Out of 115 candidates from all over Italy, among the ten finalists (CaCO3, Angelica Consoli, Elisabetta Necchio, Nadia Nespoli, Laura Patacchia, Massimiliano Pelletti, Teo Pirisi (Moneyless), Giovanni Rossi and Francesco Visentini) there is Pier Paolo Patti, the only southern artist, from Campania to be precise, protagonist with the others of the exhibition “Steps” which will be open to the public until Saturday 18 December 2021.

“The Paul VI Prize for Contemporary Art” – explains the Director of the museum, Paul Sacchini- “it is a competition aimed at Italian or foreign artists (provided they are domiciled in Italy), with particular attention to young emerging artists, who intend to reflect on the theme of the sacred or perhaps even better than the spiritual, understood however in a very broad sense and not strictly confessional.”

The Jury of the award, coinciding with the Scientific Committee of the museum, is composed of – in addition to the director Sacchini – Cecilia De Carli, Paolo Bolpagni, Don Giuliano Zanchi, Elena Di Raddo and Marco Sammicheli.

“Each artist brings his own personal interpretation of the theme of the sacred and spirituality in an absolutely contemporary sense with languages ​​that respond to our time”, explains Marisa Paderni, curator of the museum and curator of the exhibition together with Sacchini.
“The visitor will see 10 different ways of approaching the sacred matter that invite one to pause and reflect with different tools, all capable of expressing and responding to the fundamental questions of human interiority that questions and investigates a beyond that in some way exists and that artists try to express according to their poetics”.

On Saturday 11th September the exhibition will be open from 14.30pm to 18pm with regulated entrances and priority for those who book by Friday 30th September at 10pm at the number 15.00 or by email at segreteria@operaeducazionecristiana.it
In compliance with current legislation, to access it will be necessary to present the Green pass.

Interview with Pier Paolo Patti by Anita Franchi

AF: You are a multidisciplinary artist capable of combining artisan techniques and new technologies with originality. Where does the desire for experimentation that so animates your artistic activity come from?
PPP: The point where I am now, where I mix a lot of different media and different artistic techniques, is the result of a journey that comes from afar.
I started as a teenager with material painting then, passionate about technologies, I worked for many years with video, with video art in general, with video installations that then slowly integrated the video with other materials, but I never lost sight of that contact with the material that makes you a bit of a workshop artist, of the laboratory therefore of the workshop which is a characteristic that even in video installations I have always preserved a bit.
Then, over the years there was a natural distancing from the technological environment because for work you are always in front of the computer or with your cell phone in your hand and since I also define artistic practice as a practice of inner growth and meditation, this use of physical materials gave me a lot.
Another step, over the years, is the printing of video frames to make wall installations with video frames, so photography on video and then on paper to create material installations. It all started from a reflection on time because the video has a certain number of frames per second that is given by the video technique and therefore has a fruition established by the person making the video. Taking single frames, using them as photos and putting them in sequence, gives the work a different time of fruition for which you can remain in front of a sequence of three frames for half an hour instead of a second as the video would indicate.
These are a series of reflections that I made between technology and the desire to bring out the matter from the virtual and then, naturally, this mix of disciplines came about.
There is the curiosity of using the artistic medium to make a series of reflections.
I don't like to categorize artistic disciplines. If I need to start drawing to understand how an object is made for a reasoning or a reflection that I'm doing from an artistic point of view, or if I need to go to a place to photograph a place and capture its characteristics, I do it indiscriminately, without defining myself as a photographer, nor a video artist, nor a painter.
I must say that it is very difficult to find a coherence between all these things because obviously each language has its own characteristic, even aesthetic, but over the years, with experience, mixing well and having a bit of mastery of the different techniques I have also managed to overcome a conceptual limit of the artist.

What do you think have been the most significant stages of your artistic journey?
Certainly two experiences abroad that I have had over the years that have been of great stimulus: the first in Russia in 2013 and the second in Iran in 2018.
In 2013 I was invited, together with the artist Ciro Vitale, to participate in the Shiryaevo Biennial of Contemporary Art (Russia). A rather all-encompassing experience that enriched me a lot and thanks to which I had the opportunity to meet different artists with whom I am still in contact.
In 2018 I spent a month in Tehran (Iran) because I won a competition for an artistic residency there. It was an experience that enriched me a lot also because in my work I often intertwine themes related to religion and politics and Iran is a very heated country on these issues, where you have to be careful about what you say and what you expose. During the exhibition I was in fact kindly told not to push too hard on some themes because they don't go into too much detail there.
Here we are used to having freedom of expression (even if not full and round as we would like!) with respect to politics, to society... not there! There are topics that are completely excluded from artistic research and this too has been an important yardstick for reflection.
Speaking of significant experiences, I would also like to mention the experience linked to the Disturb collective (Urban Studies District), a collective of artists of which I was a part, together with Ciro Vitale and Franco Cipriano, and with whom we organized small exhibitions and conferences.
Within three, four years we hosted artists from all over the world and many relationships were born there that brought me to Russia and many relationships with artists from all over Europe.
Beyond my personal artistic experience, Disturb was a very important experience from a cultural point of view!
These are more or less the things that have shaped me the most and, now that I have told them, I notice that they are the ones that have given me the opportunity to create relationships with international artists, promoting a cultural exchange that has enriched me a lot over the years, also because I work on international themes.

Given your work and expressive experience, do you think it still makes sense, today, to separate the different languages ​​of visual arts?
Generally speaking, I would say obviously not! In general, I think that the distinction between the different artistic disciplines and the creation of categories and subcategories is something imposed by the rules of the art system to feed a bit what I call the "art circus".
Having said that, I also think that one cannot generalise because it depends a bit on how each person experiences the world of art. I, for example, have always wanted to maintain an independence of work to have the freedom to express myself as I see fit.
I also took breaks when I wanted and I never wanted to do art as my only job. I always wanted to have a separate job and then have this window into art that would give me the opportunity to feel better about myself and society and to investigate the things that interest me.
So, beyond the category of artist, I would feel more like making a distinction between those who make art that speaks about itself and those who make art to investigate, to experiment.
The role of the artist is fundamental in answering this question because not all of us have the same goals.

What does it mean to you to be an artist today? Do you feel invested with some responsibility?
As I see the role of the artist and as I like to work with art, I believe that the ideal role is that of someone who has the opportunity to freely question the issues that concern us.
I think that today the artist has a fundamental role in society and that his work is totally connected to everyday life.
I am convinced that contemporary society needs people who are capable, through different languages, of understanding the time in which we live and who try to create works that question the artist first and foremost and that can then stimulate a series of reflections on current issues that concern the community.
For example, in the exhibition that I recently opened in Puglia I brought a work that has a series of books hanging on the wall whose pages can be browsed; 14 books (14 like the Stations of the Cross) that tell my story that is made up of fragments collected over the years, with a series of elements that can be shared with the public. A story that, from a personal story, becomes a collective story.
The contemporary artist has a very important role that he must be able to preserve and develop because he is one of the last figures in society who has the possibility of saying things differently.
I like to think about the role of the artist linked to politics, sociology, the environment, immigration and poverty; all themes that are relevant to man and that, in my opinion, should interest the artist, who should make his art available to the community.

How do you think your works, often so technological, such as the video Skèpsis that you exhibit here, can find a connection with the theme of the sacred?
Many of my works were born from a reflection on the theme of the sacred, which is a theme that I have often used.
The video Skèpsis, for example, is an extract from a video installation dedicated to the theme of the Last Supper (one of the most famous religious iconographies in the world), which I wanted to dedicate myself to because I was interested in working with new technologies on a theme that many artists had dedicated themselves to over the centuries.
Specifically, that was a very long and complex job from a technical point of view because there were 12 analog monitors and the language was very abstract and essential; each element of the Apostles was a round of metaphors and symbols, but at the same time it was also a very fascinating job.
The Last Supper was not the only religious theme I worked on; I made a video installation inspired by the theme of the Pietà entitled Lamentation and also of crucifixions.
Religion is a topic that has always fascinated me and which I approached out of curiosity because religion has always accompanied man and today we are what we are, also thanks to religion.
I am also very interested in the relationship between different religions.
I don't think you necessarily have to be a believer to make sacred art, but I think everyone should follow their own spiritual path.
I personally have made and am making my own path, but I do not believe in the doctrine. With a series of reflections, however, it is undoubted that, if I deal with these themes, it is because I believe that in these themes there is a vehicle of reflection that helps me understand man and many things that I see around me. This can also be a form of belief; not a blind belief, but an investigation into religious themes to understand them thoroughly.
When I was in Iran I also had the opportunity to delve into another religion that is quite present in every sphere of society; a religion that, both physically and metaphorically, covers, obscures man.
There I already have a harder time understanding where the belief of a religion that effectively takes away man's freedom by considering the divine figure above all else, whatever the cost, ends up.
These are very broad topics and there are many considerations that can be made and approaches that can be taken.

For this exhibition you are also showing Reliquario. Can you explain the genesis of this work and its meaning?
I chose to title this work Reliquary because it is a preservation of another work created previously. Specifically, in 2005 I made a spatial installation inspired by the religious theme of the Pietà, entitled Compianto.
Among the various elements that made up the installation, there was in the video detail an elderly woman (specifically, my grandmother who is no longer with us) mourning a dead boy on the iconographic model of the Pietà.
It was an ordinary old woman mourning her dead son anywhere in the world; it was an attempt to unify, even different religions, under the sign of human pain. Whether that dead boy was the Dead Christ of the Pietà, or a boy who died in the Gaza Strip because of the Israeli bombings, it made little difference to me.
What interested me was to go beyond the religious icon to focus attention on human pain and the value of loss, beyond religion and geography.
Conceptually, inside Reliquario there are all the elements that were present in Compianto which I have preserved and then recomposed over the years, giving it a new location, a new life.
These relics are not sealed, however, but closed between two glass panes with paper tweezers, which means that if you open them, these fragments decompose and perhaps can be recomposed in a different way to generate a new work.
It is not so much the object itself that is in the reliquary that interests me, but everything that is brought with it. By opening two of them and exchanging the elements inside, positioning them differently, you give a new location to the objects and therefore those themes find a new conceptual location.
It is a very mental work, but inside there is the theme of conservation, the theme of time, the emotional bond with the theme of Pietà and with my grandmother.

What prompted you to participate in the selection process for the Paolo VI Prize for Contemporary Art?
I participated in the competition without difficulty and with great pleasure. What pushed me to participate? The answer lies in everything I have told you so far: the connection with the religious theme that fascinates me a lot, the story of Paul VI that I knew and that I make a bit my own and the role of the artist that we talked about. I usually participate in competitions only if I feel stimulated and if there is a challenge to face and when I read the announcement I thought it was a project fully in line with my work.