Michele Guidarini

So long Marianne.

"I was born at the foot of the Amiata mountain, an uncontaminated land that has culturally stopped at the Middle Age like those places and buildings of which my town, Arcidosso, is made up.
I immediately understood that i wanted to experience new things and so i started to study graphic design and became interested in the art issue.
I went to the Florence Academy of Art, school of fine arts and there i found a schocking atmosphere full of contemporary protestants from 1968 that thought they could go out and be artists with a brush, a palette, and an handmade canvas, figuring nudes and landscapes!
Likely i got in contact with the craziest teacher of the situation and i didn't touch a brush neither a color for four years; on the contrary i recut, i pasted, i photocopied and i drawn fast stretch of thoughts.

I migrated to Switzerland where i went on with my graphic work in a couple of well known studios in Lugano and San Gallo.
I came back and after a while i set up a studio on my own with a room dedicated to my little art collection.
I studied the communication for companies and institutions. In the meanwhile i went on with my love for art trying to get into the role of the artist in this mad world.

I Hate Pop Surrealism.

After being involved with low level galleries and events, i landed in Milano where i contributed with the Art NHow Hotel and the Rojo Gallery. After a series of exhibitions and pubblications on various mags, i entered the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery http://www.mondobizzarrogallery.com/ wherewith i'm working right now.

My dream?
To bring my "babies" Adolf all around the world, they' re so sweet!".

Adolfo L'equilibrista.

. Michele, if you could put a name on your style, what would you choose?

It's always been difficult for me to catalog my art.
I'm explaining you why: my work comes from external and internal sensations that mix up and turn into ironic features of the daily classic living.
I've always had big problems in expressing myself with words, using the verbal language... For this reason my work is a sort of logbook of personal thoughts that intertwine with my vision of the world.
Anyway... i consider my work Pop for the using of quotes by celebrities that made the history; i consider myself a bit Urban Artist just for the stylistic aspect, the fast and direct stretch; sometimes i feel Surrealist because of the reality's distortion in shapes and figures; and Sacred because of the use of symbolism connected to religions.
I would defined my art ad "Sacred Urban Trash Pop Surrealism".

Personal Jesus.

. Few words to define your cultural background.

My cultural background is mainly based on my interest for history (i like to deepen and analyze how much is strong the influence left by cultures and dictatorships), revolutionary music movements from 70s-80s (especially the punk and anything related to it /image, music) and a pure interest for what Reinassance artists -painters and architectures- created and dedicated to a unique character that is supposed to be above us.
This aspect fascinates me a lot, even if i don't believe in science fiction.

Joseph.

. When thinking of a piece, do you begin with the subject matter or the general color palette?

Usually i don't start from any of these points, i just draw. After i placed my pen on the paper i start to understand what i want to do. Sometimes is the material itself that inspires me and let me express what i want. The "problem" is that i'm not only an artist, i'm a graphic designer also and so i just can't think about "what" to develop but i focuse myseld on "how" to do it. The balance of the composition, the colors combination and materials.
For this reason there're several elements that make me concentrate on series of works and give them a sense.
Plus, they don't rise with the artworks concept, on the contrary they come from my need of expressing myself; and i can do it on a table, on a bed, anywhere it happens, only later they assume their marks of identity to become art objects or whatever...

Summer 1943.

. What feeling would you like to elicit from your viewers?

Even if i'm fascinated my the artistic unexpressionism movement, i don't consider my art as trivial and with no sense.
I always try to make people think while looking at my work. I put in my work symbols and icons taken from the mass culture delenished them from their original meaning, in a mix of meanings that go beyond stereotypes.
For example, if you see a swastika drawn on a sacred ancient print, you have to wonder why i did it.
To make a long story short, i want to hurt feelings of who is used to catalog periods and historical events, in an ironic way.
I want to make understand how much this symbolisms emptied of their meaning, are the base of our current culture.
I think that the world engine are religions and dictatorships but for many people it's not easy to accept it! That's why they can be disturbed by my art.
You've got to take it easy to go on with this thought!

I Wanna Be a Star.

. Describing yourself you use the italian word "lezzo". What it means?

The word "lezzo" comes from my local dialect and it's difficult to explain what it means!
It's a physical and mental sensation almost of angry but not only. It contains into the word that general sense of anxiety like when you sleep bad and you wake up with the wrong moon, that you don't want to talk, you don't want to confront with what surround youand you got your face twisted by stresses!
I often wake up this way or i become during the day; not because i slept bad but naturally!
In those moments i'm annoying but at the same time i can be sweet and sensitive... only with people i care about!

Mad in Italy.

. Something that money can't buy.

The past, memories and emotions of 5 seconds ago.

. Something that money can buy.

Love, affection, friendships, new hair... everything prepackaged and at good price.

. How much do you feel italian? (in %)

I feel italian at 90% only when i'm abroad.
When i'm in Italy i feel italian just because it is written on my I.C., i feel more filed than italian. So at 25%.

I am proud.

. Tell us about ALTERAZIONI: music and visual arts festival.

ALTERAZIONI born from the idea of a group of people - inlcuding me for the visual arts section - that wanted to create a vanguard event behind the times in their own town, showing works of citizens from the main artistic capitals in Italy and Europe.
Alterazioni is the first event in the province of Grosseto that managed to put together art, music and video performance into a unique box.
It was hold in Arcidosso last july, 17.
We succeeded in the intent of bringing to a little community in south Tuscany, that type of cultural contemporary that you can see only in big city events.
There were a lot of costs and a lot of satisfaction also.
The event was connoted by a very strong exhibition with 49 contemporary artists (most of them emerging) already knew into the italian and international artistic scene. Here are some names: Cristian Sonda, Hackatao, Selfish,Vacon Sartinani, Ivan Cazzola, Gabriele Galimberti, Emmanuel Gonzales Lafont, Marko Tadic, Massimiliano Pelletti, Pelin Santilli, Tommaso Guerra, Lapo Simeoni, etc.
Above the exhibition, this event gave an opportunity to exponents of niche contemporary musical scene, to perform at the foot of the majestic castle located on the top of the town.
The atmosphere was so surreal because of the combination of medieval walls mixed to latest video performance and music that created a very unique situation. A context to experience, to listent to and to taste.
It was an huge success as it shows the enthusiasm of the people and artists that came from every corner of Italy and Spain.
Alterazioni wants to continue this way and be a meeting point for all those artists that can keep high the level of an event without be cataloged into the élite's art lists and the contemporary market.
Alterazioni will be back next year thanks to the support of regional, provincial and municipal authorities and with a list (still under construction) of many new partners in the artistic field, in order to give a new space to those who will deserve it and gain it with new ideas.
Moreover, in the new edition, there'll be lots of news and amplifications, from the theatre to the new musical and video tendencies.
The attempt is, and will always be, that of "alter" historical environments to rediscover that value already overleid by the historicity of those mures, to reinvent a new identity for this territory through creativity.
The echo of the past edition was so strong that is still resounding. We hope to find again that reliance of those people who blieved in us... we hope that new sources will help us to let this project become more and more important.

ALTERAZIONI Festival on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109521829091166

Forever in Love.

official website:
http://www.micheleguidarini.com/