“The physical and emotional contact with real experiences and objects triggers my research”
AT: Where are you from and how/why did you start engaging with art?
MC: I’m from Faenza but I have been living in Milan for 8 years. I have always been attracted to visual representation since I was a kid.
AT: When did it become serious?
MC: In 2014 I started to accept the fact of being an artist.
AT: Are there any person who has been significant in your breakthrough as an artist?
MC: As for my artistic research, I have not met masters who mark my path, apart from those known in books. At the same time, I was lucky enough to meet many life teachers.
AT: What is your first approach to the work? How would you describe your practice?
MC: The physical and emotional contact with real experiences and objects triggers my research. This visceral affection for the situations around me hybridizes with various kind of references but it is not an addition, it is an hyperbolic movement. Performative actions become important in this process: in these actions I look for an impact against elements that become fetishes in my production. I see them as drawings where instinct has the upper hand over reason. These are necessary moments to interpret the visceral relationship with “my” reality.
SQUAME, 2020, Installation view at Museo Carlo Zauli | Wall painting by Elia Landi | ph. Stefano Maniero | courtesy GALLLERIAPIÙ.
AT: What do you aim to reach with your work?
MC: I try to question myself.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
MC: Up to now I have used a lot of different materials: spray, marble, golden leaf, epoxy resin, latex and i’ve also made performance. But you can’t run away from your roots! Faenza is famous for her ceramics and my region, Romagna, is famous for the motorcycle culture. So, lately I’m mainly using fiberglass resin on scooter saddle and ceramic. It’s funny. This year I focused on ceramics thanks to my residence at the Carlo Zauli Museum, where I made some new pieces that I exhibited in two solo shows in September: SQUAME at Carlo Zauli Museum and SLAG at GALLLERIAPIù (on view until 19.12.2020).
AT: What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?
MC: When I’m working I always focus on working in the best way I can do, accepting the unexpected.
AT: How do you understand that a work is finished?
MC: When I’m happy with it.
LACOSTE, 2020, ceramic | ph. Stefano Maniero | courtesy GALLLERIAPIÙ.
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from?
MC: The inputs are all outside the door of my studio.
AT: Are there any artists who influenced your works? Why?
MC: Arturo Martini.
AT: How important is the role of social media for you?
MC: Nowadays it’s a tool you can use.
SLAG, 2020, Installation view at GALLLERIAPIÙ | Wall painting by Giorgio Bartocci and Stefano Serretta | ph. Stefano Maniero | courtesy GALLLERIAPIÙ.
AT: As an artist, what is your point of view about the contemporary art system?
MC: Contemporary art system is something of the past. We have to let it go, not try to save it.
AT:What do you find to be the most challenging or daunting thing about pursuing art? What is the most rewarding part of working as an artist?
MC: The most daunting thing is the contemporary art environment. My challenge is to not align myself and try to create the environment around me.
AT: What do you do besides art?
MC: I live.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
MC: I want to expand myself.
Shooting at Museo Carlo Zauli, 2020 | ph. Stefano Maniero | courtesy GALLLERIAPIÙ.
"My research comes from a fascination for spaces and imaginaries that surround me. Lived experience and crossed environment merge into the elements of an uneven, provisional and parallel present. Reality’ shreds and excrescences that I meet are raised and collapsed in a continuous short-circuit". Marco Ceroni (b. 1987) is an Italian sculptor currently living and working in Faenza, Italy.
