PIETRO MANCINI
Tell us about yourself, how did you become an artist?
I think creativity is an element that every person possesses, each of us finds his own way to express it and in this path multiple contexts come into play: family, school, friends, work, and more, not least choices and chance. Thinking about it, as far as I'm concerned, there is no well-defined time in which I decided to become an artist, however if we refer to when I decided to exhibit my work to the public, we can indicate the year 2007 with my first exhibition at the Chiostro del Bramante of Rome, to then move on to the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, to continue in museums in South America and Eastern European countries, certainly the interest of insiders strengthens conviction and commitment. I don't like defining myself as an artist, I prefer to present myself as an author involved in representing the parallels of life, absence and presence, wound and hope.
Who are your biggest artistic influences?
The list would be really long since there are so many artists I admire and who consequently influence my work, first of all Giorgio De Chirico and his metaphysics come to mind, Kandinsky and Malevič whit their abstractionism and chromaticism, then sacred art spread all over the world, Egyptian sculpture, classical sculpture, the minor art of some artisans whose names I don't even know, of course the list could go on.
Tell me about your favorite medium.
I feel "omnivorous" in the sense that I appreciate any form of expression, such as painting, sculpture, installation, digital, and this leads me to use material elements, such us aluminum, wood, but also photography and programs to create or modify images, you can understand that choosing my favorite medium becomes difficult for me. I also work in Mental Health Departments where I coordinate creative workshops aimed at people with mental heal issues, in these workshops we use various recycled materials, such as wood, metal, plastics, etc…, in addition we produce digital images and short films,; in short, my life is a mixed technique in every sense, so we can say that the "mixed technique" is my favorite medium.
Why Do You Make This Type of Art? Why are you drawn to this subject?
The latest series "Soldatini" that is proposed in this interview are works that I made with photography and computer graphics, a journey between recent history and the current era of digital creations; these works try to transport us to a painful era of humanity not too distant, where world wars are being fought. The Toy Soldiers as in the old photos of our grandparents, are trying to explain the desolation of a meaningless war fought by nameless people, like ghosts, but if we look carefully, we can see round and colorful geometric figures around the heads of the fighters, as if they were saints of some medieval cathedral with a golden halo trying to express a kind of purity, whit the aim of revealing their light and deep thoughts to us, beyond fire and fear.
In the "Witnesses" series, the images of ancient sculptures have been superimposed on geometric symbols and mysterious signs, immersed in a metaphysical dimension and in a sacred atmosphere of myth, in which the sculptures with a hieratic and composed attitude appear concentrated by hearing the signals of nature , as if they were not only listening but also investigating and trying to understand, to make sense.
How did you become an NFT artist?
I approached the world of NFTs because I have always thought that in the digital sector the real work is the file itself, everything is born from there, the work that originates further execution processes is born from there, but nothing can happen without the matrix, so proposing the file as a work of art I think is the right coherence. In addition, in the "great soup" of NFT/art I found a more immediate and free environment compared to the canonical contemporary art circuit, and this pleases me.
If you could take your art in any direction without fear of failure or rejection, where would it lead. What new thing would you try?
As I said previously, I work in the creative laboratories of Mental Health Departments, and in one of these laboratories we produce short films: we have also received awards in the circuit of Italian national festivals dedicated to mental health, which, as you can imagine, has given strength to the working group. I would very much like to direct a feature film about the difficulties and possibilities of life, but obviously more time and an adequate budget would be needed. At the same time my individual research as an artist would continue, I would like to present a performance/installation where material and digital works are grafted on each other, remember? My life is a mixed media.
What motivates you to create?Surely for me childhood and pre-adolescence are an important "material", a period of our existence in which clarity and simplicity allowed us to appreciate the day as a fascinating gift, a sacred gift, despite the difficulties that life poses even in that magical age. So for me to create is to remember that magic despite the "accidents", inevitable for those who are alive.
What is your newest project?
This year I had a personal exhibition in Rome and we concluded a short film that was awarded, I produced the NFT series that we have here in these pages of the IMIRAGEmagazine, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and to thank my friend CURATIO from twitter for allowing this to happen.
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Ten years are a long time, in which commitment and aspirations produce consequential objectives, on the other hand there are external elements that could condition our lives for better or for worse, in any case I can hope to continue to appreciate what I have, my family, human exchange, what I do and my dreams, but above all to remind myself that every day is a gift and not wait 10 years to feel accomplished.