“Through art I can discover mysterious areas, exorcising violent attitudes. Things that done directly in front of the society would be wrong, not respectful and inappropriate”
AT: Where are you from and how/why you start engaging to art?
MB: I was born in Venice. Since my early age I had the pleasure and the need of making drawings. It was the main way to communicate with my father. When I hadn’t seen him for so long, the drawings of the one and the other dialogued and resisted the distance.
AT: When did it become serious?
MB: Working seriously in art happens a lot sooner people notice it, obviously, this because, more than the facts, this has to do with the thought, with the perception of things. So you may lose the track of the time, it can look like you do that all along. In any case, I signed in 2009 the first contract with a gallery, Litvak contemporary, after one month I married Anna, my wife.
AT: Are there any person that have been significant in your progression as an artist?
MB: Anna, my wife, is always physically and mentally with me, as drummer she throws the rhythm.
AT: What’s your first approach to the work? Could you describe your practice?
MB: I used a lot my drawings in the past like a round-trip ticket. Lately I use photographic fragments which are printed and glued becoming the linchpin where a narrative improvisation develops. If when I take a picture with the phone is like having a casual relationship, when I paint on it is like have an affair with it.
Prova d’orchestra, 2019, oil and collage on paper, 49×68 cm
AT: What do you want to reach with your work?
MB: A behavioral orchestra rehearsal.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
MB: My fingers.
AT: How do you feel while you are working? You think of the final result?
MB: I put in, I take out; the necessary ingredients resist, the rest I cover. But also these erasures find again shapes and roles. The develop of the painting takes place like a metamorphosis.
AT: How do you understand when a work is finished?
MB: I need a little revolution regarding the ongoing image. I finish the painting with an approach similar to a restart.
La stanza mangia Saturno che mangia suo figlio, 21018, oil and printed poster on aluminium, 140×100 cm
A Tiro, oil and print on wood, 101×70 cm
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from? Do you find inspiration outside or it’s all inside you?
MB: I metabolize what I find outside and I reorganize it inside the studio trying to exchange the roles and to call into question the order.
AT: There are any artists who influenced your works? Why?
MB: I am interested in a kind of tradition that passes through Titian, Soutine, Twombly, Baselitz, just to give some names,. A visceral and synesthetic way to develop some tactile recordings. I use to take a holiday diving the gaze to the gray scale related to the work of Morandi, David Shutter, Guston. Inside a narrow and mixed color-range, everything can became something else.
AT: How important is for you the role of social media?
MB: I find it funny, irritating, addictive, repetitive, superficial but anyway some good surprises could happen and maybe some kickoffs that can elsewhere be developed.
The white shark, 2019, oil and print on wood, 173×130 cm
young musician plays his trumpet con a chair, 2018, oil and print on wood, 173×130 cm
AT: What’s your opinion about the contemporary art system nowadays from your point of view as an artist?
MB: The art system? I don’t want to detain you for long at the risk of biting my tail, so I quote my dear friend Paolo: “Coca Cola”.
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?
MB: Through art I can discover mysterious areas, exorcising violent attitudes. Things that done directly in front of the society would be wrong, not respectful and inappropriate. A direction where to channel contradictory and uncomfortable aspects of the human been is necessary. In that manner you can know and try to harmonize them, rather than they manifest themself in other situations, at the expense of somebody else.
AT: What do you do outside of art?
MB: I try to practice every morning one or two minutes of Tai-chi.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
MB: Usually, even if the travel is scheduled for a long time, I buy the ticket the day before.
