Zoè Gruni is an Italian multi-disciplinary artist. After the degree at the Belle Arti Academy-Florence she moved to California and then to Brazil. Her works has been shown in many exhibitions & video art festival around the world. She collaborated with different Institutes of research, like the CCC Strozzina of Florence, the San Francisco Art Institute – California, the FAAP University of Sao Paulo & the EAV Parque Lage of Rio de Janeiro – Brazil.
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.
–> Zoè Gruni interview:
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1. RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “art” today?
-> Zoè Gruni: Art is life! Yesterday today and tomorrow…
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2. RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
-> Zoè : Transformation is the key word. I believe that growth and progress are possible only with faith in others and through exchange and comparison. I’m interested in the spectator’s interaction to the point of transforming it into a true participation. The performance’s media helps me to gain knowledge of humanity within its various territories and to naturally connect with it. I build my images searching through the collective’s imaginary and trying to mix common stereotypes and symbols with my most intimate elements and personal memory. This is how the spectator will find a familiarity within the images that will stimulate him to also insert his personal point of view, and through this identification’s process, the artwork will in part become his personal experience too.
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3. RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
-> Zoè : My artistic research is characterized by a strong interest for the human and anthropologic condition and this is inevitably linked to the territory. At the beginning of my career to research my own Country’ stories, those of Tuscany that is, digging into my own roots, was rather natural. In 2010 I moved to California and then to Brazil and I have been a sort of nomad in part by choice and some by necessity, and that is absolutely reflected in my own work. Noticing how many symbols that are part of a local reality, often end up linking us to a more global one fascinates me. I deeply believe in the comparison between different cultures and in the possibility of a common development.
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4. 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?
-> Zoè : The society changes so art transform itself. As a human amongst humans, all humanity inspires me!
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5. RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
-> Zoè : Still yes.
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6. RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
-> Zoè : Technology and media are tools that provide new opportunities for creative expression. All depends how the artists decide to use theese tools. Through my new work in progress called “Motherboard” I’m reflecting on my role of mother in relation with the digital space and virtual reality.
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7. 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?
-> Zoè : Light and shadow always go together.
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8. 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?
-> Zoè : Don’t judge!.. Just feel.
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9. RAP: Which is the real role of Academies and Art schools today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
-> Zoè : I personally retain that “art in the classroom” is simply a good opportunity to discover your personal creativity by constantly interfacing with other students in the classroom, who are doing the same thing. In my opinion, the acquisition of technique is absolutely subordinate to the idea, thus my advice is to let yourself go and seek to express what needs to be said, with force.
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10. 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?
-> Zoè : The only way to proceed with making art is to be authentic.
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11. RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
-> Zoè : In my opinion art institutions today really need to display inclusive projects inviting communities, activists, artists and curators involved in human right and environmental studies.
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12. RAP: “Figurative” or “Abstract”? Which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
-> Zoè : I feel that today there is no frontieres between figurative and abstract. Artists take the freedom to mix different techniques and materials to developed an idea.
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13. RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
-> Zoè : Always be yourself!
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14. RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
-> Zoè : What I have in mind is that neckline between past and present; that crater where temporal interruption materializes and where that feeling of fear resides. In the past the chance to live in similar places and situation allowed man to share doubts and fears with its fellow man. The collective dimension guaranteed a psychological and moral support that nowadays appears impossible, so clearly contrasted by a more individualistic society. I believe that the recovery through the art of a collective memory could be a social and a political objective, a chance to react to the fear that immobilizes us, an exorcism of sort. Our mass-medias constantly report terrible news, threatening constant alarm, and I’m wondering whether this might really be a way to spread security or rather to maintain matters under control…
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