ART, WHATEVER IT TAKES

Since the early pandemic in 2020, Rome Art Program has conducted a series of interviews, “Art, Whatever It Takes.”
Artists, Art Critics, and Art Historians living in Italy, the U.S., and U.K., share their insights during these powerful times.

Interview with Silvia Stucky

Silvia Stucky is an artist based in Rome. Her work includes painting, artist’s books, photography, video, installation and performance.  Silvia’s art practice takes as its model the balance of nature, and respect for all forms of life.

RAP: What is your definition of “art” today?

Silvia Stucky: Art is a practice through which we express our thought, share reflections on the world around us, ask ourselves questions.

RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?

Silvia: Indeed, art is dynamic and regenerates itself, like nature; following this idea, my practice has gradually opened up allowing me to work with painting, photography, video, installation, and performance. Like a plant, each work comes from a seed I collected who knows when, and contains seeds that will blossom in other works.

RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?

Silvia: Art entered my life when I was a child; I was given a watercolour box because I had a fever and had to stay at home. Later, my decision to enroll in the art school was a deliberate choice. The awareness of the path I have taken has come with practice, over the years.

RAP: What role does art play today? What are the “great figures” who have recently changed it? Do you feel close to any of these figures?

Silvia: My work doesn’t directly address issues that concern women; nevertheless I look with great interest at the work of women artists who deal with these aspects, i.e. the body, rights, violence.

RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?

Silvia: Over the years, I’ve met people who love my work and have wanted to own it. Theirs wasn’t just material support, but sharing of ideas, which has given me confidence and courage.

RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?

Silvia: Technology itself is neither good nor bad. What matters is the use we make of it. The challenge is using it fruitfully. In recent years I have tried to convey my work through the web, and that brought about a wider interest in my projects and my work.

RAP: Art as a mirror of man, in this moment of emergency seems to be shattered …what do these fragments reflect now?… Shadow or light of the moment?

Silvia: The pandemic has shattered many aspects of our daily lives; it’s time for us humans to heed this warning and stop altering the natural processes on which our own existence depends. I am not optimistic but I want to think change is still possible. I’ve been working for many years on issues concerning the ‘whisper of the world’ – where everything is mobile and immobile, everything is in balance, everything lies in the processes of change and transformation, such as the cycle of water or plants.

RAP: Understanding, interpreting, and then possibly judging the work of art; which is the right path when we are in front of a piece of art?

Silvia: I studied the history of art at Rome’s Sapienza University; this gave me the keys to understand and interpret works of art. Just as you learn to understand painterly excellence, you can equally appreciate that a true work of art is fleshed out by thought and inner workings.

RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?

Silvia: Studying the history of art taught me there are infinite ways of making art: this was the basis for building my own way of thinking and practicing.

RAP: Art too has undergone a complex process of globalization; can having an authentic and genuine style be an advantage or a drag for an artist?

Silvia: Being authentic means being honest with myself and in my work, going all the way, avoiding shortcuts. In finding her/his own uniqueness, an artist becomes able to deal with broader, global issues.

RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?

Silvia: It would be desirable for museums – as public goods – to present programmes, exhibitions, and works of a high cultural level, regardless of the priorities of the art market.

RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”. Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?

Silvia: Perhaps such starkly opposed categories are no longer relevant today. As Paul Klee wrote, “I am abstract with memories”. As with day and night, light and shadow, it is in the alternation that life is fulfilled.

RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?

Silvia: I don’t really like giving advice, but in order to develop a thought that produces art, one must study a lot, be curious about everything, and honest with oneself.

RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?

Silvia: What can save us is the awareness that everything on our planet is interconnected, and that by violating the balance of nature we endanger our very existence. For years, scientists have been warning about climate change and our senseless exploitation of the environment. The pandemic reminded us of our fragility. If art – like philosophy and the sciences – increases our awareness of the complexity of the world, it may help us envision a sustainable way of living on our planet.

www.silviastucky.wordpress.com