Mario Sughi (nerosunero) Is an Italian painter and illustrator, based in Dublin. He began drawing and painting under the guidance of his father, the artist, Alberto Sughi. His first illustrations were published in the early eighties on the satirical magazines, then he studied Art and History at the University La Sapienza, graduating in 1986, and moved to Dublin where, in 1995, completed a PhD in Medieval History at Trinity College.
On his return to Dublin he started to experiment with digital drawing techniques, then, in 2007, he decided to devote himself exclusively to his career as an artist, taking part in a group exhibition at the Loft Gallery in Dublin, which was followed by solo exhibitions at Green Room-Manchester, Exchange Gallery and The Complex Studios-Dublin. In 2011 his works were presented at the Italian Cultural Institute-Dublin as part of the 54th Venice Biennale “Il Padiglione Italia nel Mondo”. Subsequently solo exhibitions of his work were held internationally; his work has been installed at Dublin Airport, Grosby Park & the Raheny Library-Dublin, and are included in public & private collections.
Art, whatever it takes – RomeArtProgram has made interviews with people involved in art, living in Italy, the USA and the UK, to know their feelings during these hard times.
–> Mario Sughi interview:
.
RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “art” today?
-> Mario Sughi: A most interesting way of imagining our life.
.
RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
-> Mario: Once an interaction is established things are in motion and keep changing. A book might change the reader, but the reader’s interpretation will change the book as well and keep it alive.
.
RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
-> Mario: In the second half of the nineties, having completed a PhD at Trinity College Dublin, and published some major research works, opportunities of teaching history started to open up to me. Instead, I opted for something closer to my pre-university occupations of the previous decade – (At that time, in the eighties, I was living in Rome, in my father’s studio, the painter Alberto Sughi, and I had collaborated with some satirical magazines, doing cartoons and writing short stories) – and I applied for the position of illustrator at a company of archaeologists here in Dublin. So in the end, history was more a parenthesis than a departure (albeit an important one) in a life where art always plays and played an important part.
.
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?
-> Mario: You rarely see a great painter on the television. I can’t remember the last time I have seen a modern painting on the front page of a daily newspaper. It seems to me that great figures – I think of David Hockney for example – and great works of art, steer clear of and don’t go well either with kitsch.
.
RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
-> Mario: Collectors certainly yes, for example they secure the circulation of art.
.
RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
-> Mario: Just let’s focus on the bad. I think of Google translator: today you can translate a long text in any language, in a few seconds, without the need to know any language. Or think of Google maps: you can go from one place to another without knowing either the road or the direction (beautiful)! Or just think of AI (Artificial Intelligence): now you can make a drawing without even knowing how to draw (apparently).
In other words, thanks to the new technologies, experience is not a requirement anymore, and is no longer necessary to achieve a lot of complex things. Individual experience: the way you learn and prove things, the way through which an individual – especially an artist – expresses and reveals themselves, is all of a sudden reduced to something of practically no value by a most powerful, almost totalitarian, technology.
.
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?
-> Mario: Uncertainty, but also beauty.
.
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?
-> Mario: Judging the work of art for an artist is important.
.
RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
-> Mario: Academies have been controversial and out of fashion for a while now haven’t they? And yet they are still around!
.
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?
-> Mario: Think only of Thutmose’s Nefertiti or Giotto’s Campanile and you will realize that an authentic and genuine style can be the most enduring and significant thing in Art.
.
RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
-> Mario: I like galleries with a clear vision, whatever their vision is. A vision expressed clearly and with good taste, even better.
.
RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”. Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
-> Mario: They always merge: like the blue of the sky with the blue of the sea.
.
RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
-> Mario: Take risks.
.
RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
-> Mario: One major, historical, function of art is its distinctive educative function. Now, very recently, we have read that the government of a European country with a long tradition in art, transformed Botticelli’s Birth of Venus from a humanistic painting, imbued with beautiful symbols of the classical age – the Roman goddess of love born from the foam of the sea and driven by the Zephyr winds – into a commercial campaign with a sort of little toy doll/cartoon dressed up and transformed into an Instagram Influencer. So, in a situation when those same people and institutions that should preserve and protect the integrity of art, instead detract from its original values and significance, and use it as a mere commercial commodity, possibly your original question: “Will art save us?” should rather be “Who will save art?” And in the event of a negative answer the next question would be: “What will become of our existence once art will have disappeared in a perfect oblivion?”.
.
@nerosunero @nerosunero.org
www.nerosunero.org
www.nerosunero.art
.
____________________
RomeArtProgram
@romeartprogram
Art-as-Power
.