Lorenzo Motta, journalist and owner of Cartiera Santara, interviews the artist in a slowly discovery of his poetics.
To talk with an artist is always surprising: you may know where your question starts, but you're not allowed to predict where the answer will arrive. That's what happened in this beautiful dialogue among Lorenzo Motta and the artist, in a conversation made on the occasion of Denis Riva solo show at Cellar "Avanzato stato di composizione", following the award of Santara Prize.
Lorenzo Motta
You describe your present situation as "advanced state of composition". Where did this advancement start from, and which path has it taken?
Denis Riva
Leftovers of advanced advancements advance, not as leftovers but as states of advancements. Everything I try to make up and stratify in an advanced state of composition is the result of countless small daily advancements. What makes them unique and unrepeatable are the fact that they are leftovers. I constanctly self-divide trying to advance in a mechanical, incessant way in all the speculated directions.
Installation view from the artist project "La via della Lana" at Lanificio Paoletti, 2018
"I've always devoted everything to art, there is no distinction, but fusion."
Here and cover: artist and studio portraits by Wundercamera Lab. MEET THE ARTIST
LM
Is man in your view more of an accomplice or a victim of nature? Or is it rather nature to be suffering man? In what way do you think this interaction?
DR
My vision of the matter is not anambiguous. I could say both things, man can suffer nature and the other way around, but in the end truth is that nature keeps on with her unchanging course, and it is man perception that changes with his feelings.
LM
And what is the relation between art and private life?
DR
I've always devoted everything to art, there is no distinction, but fusion.
DENIS RIVA, "Acqua che vuoi diventare" and installation views of the exhibition at Cellar Contemporary, 2019. VISIT THE EXHIBITION
LM
Do you have any other ongoing collaborations?
DR
It's been some years since my study has been placed inside of Lanificio Paoletti, with which I work in the rigeneration of abbandoned spaces and in the realisation of various exhibitions and residences. From the production scraps is also starting "Ricampionario"; a project which has the objective to create unique pieces of clothing from the interaction of tailors and artists.
"Paper is the first matter on which we do our first marks, on which we paint as children, that follows us through all life. To me it is sacred."
Installation view of the exhibition ARTE FORTE at Forte Larino, 2018. VISIT THE EXHIBITION
LM
Which are your favourite materials to work on? Is there a new field you'd like to explore?
DR
The medias I prefer are paper and wood, but I do like to look, recover and re-elaborate discarded matter. I'd like to work more with sculpture, with materials I had been testing in the past years but that for reasons of time and logistic I never had the chance to go deep into, like ceramic and glass.
LM
Why paper?
DR
Because paper is the first matter on which we do our first marks, on which we paint as children, that follows us through all life. To me it is sacred. It's a great material on which to work on. I am able to manage it, handle it and transform it in a pleasant way, it is nice at touch. On paper I usually directly paint, or I cut it and use the collage technique, going on layering, overlapping, hurting and then healing with other paper, giving new shapes to things.
Series realized on Santara paper on the occasion of SetUp Prize. EXPLORE THE SERIES
LM
Your color schemes are quite diversified and complex. Is it more a matter of skill or inspiration from feelings?
DR
In the colours I use there is no exact symbolism, at times there is thinking but it stays in the background and the artwork itself remains central. Colour takes different dimensions; it constanctly gets divided, overlapped, burnt, scratched. At times it comes back with great thickness as new, deep, polished. From the polishing of brushes I get my main colour, a fluid, dirty one, an unrepeatable grey embed with minimal fragments that I often use for no-border paintings.
LM
What are your artistical inspirations?
DR
I am very focused on my research, I have never took conscious inspitarions, I get visual stimulus that I unconusciously re-elaborate, but not necessairly from art. I feel related to the ancient, fascinated by primeval art and the egyptian canons especially; I'd like to make a work on Egypt one day. I usually am inspired by oil spots on the asphalt, and from descaled walls.
LM
And what about your ambitions?
If you can say that being an artist is an ambition.
And what about your ambitions?
DR
If you can say that being an artist is an ambition.
Artist video portrait by Diego Gavioli