“Everything that gratifies me in the art has also a downside that daunts me, but what makes it interesting is the perseverance in my research”
AT: Where are you from and how/why did you start engaging with art?
MS: I was born in 1990 in the lower Val di Susa, and now I live and work in Turin. I have a Bachelor’s degree in graphic design from the Accademia di Belle Arti. In 2015, with a group of friends, I started a project called Spaziobuonasera, an artist-run-space. It was born for us to have a space in which we could showcase personal exhibitions, but with time it evolved and expanded a lot.
AT: When did it become serious?
MS: In 2016. Since then I have never stopped spending money on tons of material, rock, which I store in my studio.
AT: Are there any people who have been significant in your breakthrough as an artist?
MS: Erik S., Francesco S., Lula B., Alice V., Edoardo P. and Ottavia P. are the people with whom I shared a lot in the Spaziobuonasera project. Those moments of personal and collective research and development were a fundamental step for me. And then many other moments, may they have been conscious or subconscious.
AT: What is your first approach to the work? How would you describe your practice?
MS: Rigorous. My practice develops on two different aspects: the construction of the image by the sculpture, and the archiving of the photos that I collect in certain carefully chosen environments. It’s very important to me to return many times to the settings that I selected. Both approaches are always formalized and captured through photography.
“Qualcosa che sta per qualcuno al posto di qualcos’altro, 2017”, fine art print on Innova paper 100% cotton 320g, 120 x 80 cm (1/1).
AT: What do you aim to reach with your work?
MS: I would like to reach the miss working in the pastry shop just on the other side of my studio wall. The few meters that divide us seem an unbridgeable distance. Receiving a selfless opinion on my work from her would be very interesting for me.
AT: What are your favourite working tools and materials?
MS: I often work with raw material that comes directly from the local stones to build the scene. This step is always captured with a photographic image, which could be digital or analogical depending on the work and the timing of the project.
AT: What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?
MS: The success of my projects is based on calculation and precision. Starting from the concept, I develop the idea, and make a scaled model. The creation of the final bigger size transforms my idea into a concrete reality.
AT: How do you understand that a work is finished?
MS: When everything is in the right place, the work is done.
“Lentezza di esecuzione, 2019”, fine art print on Innova paper 100% cotton 320g, 129,5 x 86,5 cm (1/1).
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from?
MS: It comes from the research on the function of the image and its possible interpretations.
AT: Are there any artists who influenced your works? Why?
MS: Of course, many. Almost never photographers and often outside of the figurative arts.
AT: How important is the role of social media for you?
MS: I use it to connect with others and discover myself. Undoubtedly it can also become a variable that subconsciously inspires the artistic production. Generally I don’t think about it much.
“Uno spazio banale e inutile, che come tanti non avrebbe davvero nessuna ragione di esistere I, 2019”, fine art print on Epson Ultra Smooth paper 100% cotton, 120×80 cm (1/1) | installation view LO.FT, Lecce (IT).
AT: As an artist, what is your point of view about the contemporary art system?
MS: I think the insiders are focused too much on the “contemporary art system”. There are hundreds of other “systems” that are looking forward to create an intellectual and interesting exchange with contemporary 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?
MS: Everything that gratifies me in the art has also a downside that daunts me, but what makes it interesting is the perseverance in my research. It is deeply gratifying. It’s an infinite loop that starts over and over again.
AT: What do you do besides art?
MS: I am a designer in a famous architecture studio in Turin; I deal with editorial and exhibition design. I consider myself very lucky for this duality, through which my artistic practice has benefited a lot both in my content and research.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
MS: I hope that photography will change the consideration it has of itself…and many other interesting things.
“Volume doppio 03, 2020”, diptych fine art print on Innova paper 100% cotton, 320 g and one print on tracing paper, 129,5 x 86,5 cm (1/1).
"The scene portrayed is, many times, misinterpreted as the reality of things, but I prefer to think that it’s one of the possible realities of the infinite scenarios that could be generated. When we portray a subject, it disappears to make way for the image of itself… and many times in contemporary society it is even more valuable. The true on the truth, the memory of the truth is more real than the truth". Marco Schiavone (b. 1990) is an Italian visual artist currently living and working in Turin, Italy.
