LUGANO.- Daniele Bongiovanni is an italian painter internationally active, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. After a long period of training, projects around Italy and abroad, publications like the book ''L'incerto'' (poetry and visual art), edited by Centro Studi Giulio Pastore, he begins in 2008 a significant artistic career. After numerous exhibitions throughout the country, having presented the ''Pelle Sporca'' collection in a solo show at the Italian Contemporary Art Museum in America, he exhibited at the 53rd Venice Biennale, in national pavilion; thereafter followed by other international events, which led him to exhibit in many cities: Paris, Las Vegas, Milan, Melbourne, Rome, Liverpool, New York, Bologna, Turin, Lugano, Hong Kong, Brescia, Ireland, Singapore, Bologna, Miami.
On which collection are you working lately?
For the moment, I am working on projects related to some philosophical themes where man meets the countryside, in which there is a fusion between the human being and the landscape context. These projects will premiere in major exhibitions in Venice, Rome, Hong Kong, Antwerp, Milan, Miami and Hamptons, NY.
White characterizes your works. However, black is also sometimes present and creates great effects
White is the most mature colour and in the meantime the absence of itself. For this reason, it allows me to make subjects both dreamlike and real. I recently brought this theme in many exhibitions where it was highly praised by critics and visitors. I think that my technique, which I call "pure form", is a further step towards a personal form of expressionism, occasionally enhanced by dark pigments that bind together with a subject thought as a theorem.
In your opinion, what was your most significant exhibition so far?
What I consider important in my exhibitions, is to highlight my latest research, which I already presented in different countries. I do not know what my most important exhibition was so far. However, what I consider important is the link that I managed to create during my journey that begins in Italy, arrives in Europe and the United States before returning to the countries where everything was born. I want to emphasize the importance of the traveling path of one of my last solo exhibitions entitled "Mundus" that successfully premiered in Switzerland and, for the moment, ended with a second exhibition in Milan.
You have several ateliers and work with many galleries. How does your job or approach change in different cities?
I set up three realities, three studios, to retain a more direct approach with the professionals I work with. Thus, I can create my works better under different perspectives, external visions that give me the opportunity to observe reality in a very stratified way.
The critique considers you as a precursor of Expressionism. Why did this movement fascinate you?
What struck me most of Expressionism was the technique with which its historical painters moved the pictorial material, were able to remain faithful to an academic tradition and at the same time were innovative. If we look at some historical portraits, we note that the painter exorcised the evils of the time by making the painting stronger of the reality itself that inspired him. In my opinion, expressionism means to alter the perception of things. When something is altered, it becomes more effective.
You participated in national pavilions at the Venice Biennale of 2009 and the topic was similar to that of today. What has changed since then?
The idea of an artist changes completely only a few times. Rarely loses an artist her sense of poetic background, the general poetics of the things that she produces. I partially change my ways of representation, but I always try to maintain a certain basic coherence, remaining true to the concept of experimentation, positive transformation. I am still linked to past themes, but it is fair to say that each pictorial cycle belongs more to the time when it was created.
What are you targeting now? What are your upcoming projects?
What interests me most is always to outline the theories that I bring inside my painting. This is the nexus. As for my upcoming projects, in addition to the exhibitions that I mentioned, I am working on projects of collaboration in the Middle East.