“If I think of painting in a broad sense, I following a path that started centuries ago, and I try to just keep pushing wood into that big fire”
AT: Where are you from and how/why did you start engaging with art?
SC: I was born in Pescara, where I continue to live and work. I approached art around the end of High school fascinated by art history. I had a background as writer (graffiti), then I went further, looking for new techniques and surfaces.
AT: When did it become serious?
SC: Serious? I have always taken seriously respecting art and my work.
AT: Are there any person who has been significant in your breakthrough as an artist?
SC: Many people. Starting from the masters I had in the Academy, like many others also outside the art world.
AT: What is your first approach to the work? How would you describe your practice?
SC: Impulsivity. “Damage what makes me shit, to create” (cit Cuba Cabbal).
While my niggaz stay high, i stay lower, 150×150 cm, 2019.
AT: What do you aim to reach with your work?
SC: I try to find a balance and pull the stone a little further.
AT: What are your favourite tools and materials for working?
SC: In painting I don’t have technical preferences, I often use spray paint out of necessity. As for the materials, as well as the fabrics I work on, I can range much more: shading nets, hydraulic pipes, doors, plates, asphalt; any surface that the city offers me, allowing me to rewrite it.
AT: What do you feel while you work? Do you usually think about the final outcome beforehand?
SC: I can’t describe it. However usually not.
AT: How do you understand that a work is finished?
SC: The calm.
Lettura di un ritratto rovesciato (Modì), Spray on framed painting, 43×64 cm, 2020.
Immagini residue, mix media, 70x112x20 cm, 2018.
AT: Where does the inspiration for the work come from?
SC: If I think of painting in a broad sense, I following a path that started centuries ago, and I try to just keep pushing wood into that big fire. To describe my individual relation with the work, on the other hand, I feel I want to quote Stokka and Madbuddy: “I breathe the city with everything around me in it”. It may seem trivial but I feel I am finding myself a lot.
AT: Are there any artists who influenced your works? Why?
SC: Yes, I think it is inevitable. As I said in the previous answer, whether one speaks of painting or any form of language, of thought, of study, one can never disregard who was there before.
AT: How important is the role of social media for you?
SC: Relatively, it depends on how they are used. Every cause has an effect.
Filo nero, spray on shading net, 110×110 cm, 2016.
Cancellando una N, mixed media on canvas, 120×160 cm, 2018.
AT: As an artist, what is your point of view about the contemporary art system?
SC: As an artist I don’t feel like commenting too much, my job is another. About the contemporary art system it is certainly complex, ambiguous at times. Anyway I think it has exaggerated itself spectacularly, sometimes losing sight of the object for which it has become a system.
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?
SC: To decide. To found a fair balance.
AT: What do you do besides art?
SC: Not much actually. Occasional jobs that allow me to live, while in my free time I love to paint or doing things inherent to the art world.
AT: What are your goals and expectations for the future?
SC: I don’t know if I’d really like to teach in some academy. But surely I wish I could live only with what I do. I don’t feel too capable with the rest that society offers us.
Rest, brass, rubble, variable dimensions, 2017.
Simone Camerlengo (b. 1989) is an Italian visual artist currently living and working in Pescara, Italy. In 2009 he enrols at the Academy of Fine Arts in Aquila. In 2014 with Erasmus project he attends also the Academy of Fine Arts in Bilbao. In 2018 he graduated in Painting (II level) at the Academy of Fine Arts of L’Aquila. In 2018 he won the Erasmus Traineeship and worked as an assistant at the Lorenzo Scotto di Luzio studio. In 2019 he founded SenzaBagno (project spaces) in Pescara with others local artist.
