“Making art is an act of freedom, a way to enter a dimension in which everyday problems assume a relativity that I need”

AT: Where are you from and how/why you start engaging to art?

LDA: I’m from Viterbo (Italy). My family has always had artistic interests, so I always been used to seeing exhibitions, attending museums and events related to art. At the time of high school I started to paint, some periods sporadically. Subsequently it became systematic, an integral part of my way of being.

AT: When did it become serious?

LDA: There hasn’t been a precise event that has made art become a relevant aspect of my life. With the passage of time, making art has become more and more totalizing, probably because research goes on and complexity increases. So, when art influences in some way the choises of everyday life you realize that it has become a serious thing.

AT: What’s your firts approach to the work? Where does your process start?

LDA: My work starts from the extremes: often from the absolute white, which remains the organic protagonist of the image even at the end. I spend a lot of time preparing the support, so that it is as aseptic and neutral as possible. I consider painting a cognitive action, not an instrument of representation, so I do not use preparatory drawings in a canonical way. In the painting process there is already a strong meaning, which in my research is identified in the generation of a spatial dynamic that is sometimes chaotic, chasing the principle of clinamen, therefore of a very anarchist free will, sometimes more structured. In my process there is almost always a passage of the state of painting from a matrix to the support of the work. This brings painting closer to something that can be reproduced serially, like a print, but without machines, I am the machine. The dimensions of the surface are an arbitrary choice, a portion of fictitious space on which I choose to act, and which in turn acts.

AT: Do you leave your work open to interpretation? Or do you think the viewer should engage with your work in a specific way?

LDA: When a piece comes out of the studio it comes into contact with the sensibilities and the ways of seeing the things of others, and the relationship of energy established between the public and the work are many. This fact is neither positive nor negative, it’s an awareness of reality. Behind the work there is an idea as objective as possible, but I don’t know how to guide fruition of others, nor if it is right to do so. Definitely an image must open something in the mind, don’t close.

AT: How do you feel while you are working? You think of the final result?

LDA: While I work, I feel the tension that is felt when someone moves himself in a space that is unknow but he’s forced to face. The challenge is to keep myself equidistant from rationality and chaos. It’s difficult to talk about the final result in my research, because it has to do with the unfinished.

AT: How do you understand when a work is finished?

LDA: I don’t know when a work is finished, I can only guess when an image has a reason for being, even if incomplete.

AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from? Do you find inspiration outside or it’s all inside you?

LDA: It’s a balance between the two things. Many events and experiences influence the elaboration of a poetic or an idea from which images originate. History of art, contemporary artistic experiences, readings, music, cinema…everything must be metabolized and synthesized in an organic way as much as possible.

AT: Do you think art can be learned or it is something innate?

LDA: It’s possible, and it would be positive, to teach the importance that art could have in the social sphere, as an instrument that acts in the way of thinking of individuals. In this sense the work of Beuys and Fluxus was important.

AT: There are any artists that influenced your works? Why?

LDA: Sure, many artists, some of whom haven’t chosen painting as a medium. The history of art, or more generally the universe of arts, is a chain of events in which everyone depends and contradicts the previous one. So the thought and the work of those who came first has always to do with an artistic process. But even contemporaries are important, even if at the moment it’s difficult to understand how, because it is always difficult to look at things with clarity while they’re happening.

AT: How important is for you the role of social media?

LDA: It is a complex subject. Social media is a fact, they are an integral part of the contemporaneity and the way people relate to each other. The art world is not exempt from this mechanism. There are positive aspects: I have met many interesting people thanks to social media, artists working on the other side of the world and with whom I have very constructive dialogues. Social media is also a quick way to establish contact between work and the public. I believe, however, that nothing can replace the direct experience of the work: painting is a medium, observing it through another medium can be deleterious, damage quality or create exaggerated expectations. Perhaps we have to wait a few more years to understand the real effect that social media have had in the sphere of art.

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?

LDA: Sometimes it is a little difficult to deal with everyday life. In these times it is difficult for everyone, even for those who are not an artist. However, the condition of the artist puts you in a more precarious situation than others and people are forced to think of bread rather than art. In this way a situation is established that creates a distance with an important part of society, as a matter of priority. Making art is, however, an act of freedom, a way to enter a dimension in which everyday problems assume a relativity that I need.

AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?

LDA: Let my work travel more than me.

Studio view.