I defined this activity a live-multimedia-storytelling; it may be a slightly long and pretentiously digital name, but it contains everything I’m interested in: the performance, the relationship between different means of expression and the stories.
If I had to find a reason, an initial cause, I would say that I started to do live painting because I can’t make music. I grew up in an artistically stimulating environment, full of all kinds of musicians. I used to hit a spoon or a table during evening jam sessions. And I wasn’t good. I envied the magic dialogue between the instrumentalists and their ability to evoke atmospheres and visions from scratch. Even when I was a child, I loved Godfrey Reggio’s films like Koyaanisquatsi and Anima Mundi, with their majestic images that were expressed through Glass’ music. And I devoured comic books of great artists like Pazienza, Liberatore, Battagli, Moebius, Bilal, Toppi, Otomo’s Akira, Žeželj. For a long time, I have studied Žeželj’s dark poetry and his talent for sculpting shapes with just a few lines as well as for intensely falsifying lights and shadows. I happened to see him doing a live painting performance accompanied by the saxophonist Jessica Lurie. Surprisingly, I got drawn in the performance, armed with wooden sticks and a plastic purple bin on which I lost more than one phalanxes because of my involvement in Danijel’s brush strokes. I suddenly felt the desire to emulate him.
[…] They’re proper shows in which the projected images, the music and sometimes the words that are created live, blend to produce a dreamlike and imaginative tale. The subject of the narration can be inspired by mythology, by historical events of the place we are, or by the client. Some of the projects were born independently, without any hiring, and they developed with the readings, sounds and passions of that moment. Anyway, the shows are always specially-made and include site-specific links.
[…] The experiences I’ve made until now lead me to success but – if I can compare them – the live show is the field I want to keep on testing. Between festivals and theatres I got to know and worked with extraordinary musicians: if I close my eyes, I can pretend I can make music as well.
Text from “TRÄUMER” — illustratore italiano year 1 | number 3