Paola Valori was trained at the Fine Arts Academy – Visual and Performing Arts – Rome, graduated with honors. Paola combines her work as an artist with cultural and artistic organization, promoting events dedicated to new trends in contemporary art, collaborating with artists and institutions in the design of new projects; she founded MICRO-Rome, a wide central Gallery-space open to new trends in art and research, where she alternates exhibitions of contemporary artists with her personal shows. She has been appointed president of the Michele Valori Association -2016- an institution aimed at promoting contemporary visual arts and setting up cultural events.
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 the emergency. – Paola Valori interview:
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RomeArtProgram: What is your definition of “Art” today?
–Paola Valori: Art today is a revolutionary idea, that something that “didn’t exist before”. Art must be able to shake without wondering too much if it up to the level to please others.
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RAP: Art is dynamic and regenerates itself… how does it change, and how did it change us?
–Paola: The man’s evolution passes through art, and over the centuries the concept of beauty has changed. We have had to go a long way, after the first rock-graffiti. The human adventure is exciting: from prehistoric times to the digital era, in every age art is connected to social transformations, and we are the “engine”.
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RAP: When (and how) did you understand that art was becoming very important in your life?
–Paola: I have no memory of myself without papers and pencils. I was only four years old when I repeated to my mother that I had a “yellow heart”, in the darkness, before going to sleep, in a state of agitation and fear; I often said that. She worried so much that she took me to a cardiologist. In reality, I had simply realized that I could use colors to communicate. Drawing and manual skills have always been a necessity, over the years my work has become more and more a tool to express myself.
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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?
–Paola: Andy Warhol has upset and demystified art with reproducibility and commercialization, and he bravely interpreted his time. I like the concept of “popular art”, that is for everyone. Henri Cartier-Bresson also was a true innovator who boldly redefined the canons of photography. I feel very close to both of them: I like Warhol for his simplicity of expression, whilst Cartier -Bresson excites me for that sense of expectation, which unintentionally becomes poetry.
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RAP: Are there still traditional figures such as collectors, muses, mecenate and patrons, in today’s art and society interaction model?
–Paola: Muses, mecenate and patrons are figures inherited from the last century. Now the art market travels at the web- speed, with quick online sales and purchases. Many galleries have converted to the digital auctions system.
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RAP: How have the new technologies and media culture changed art today, improving or worsening it…? What do you feel are your biggest challenges?
–Paola: Social media can be used by artists as a new powerful tool, they are virtual squares where to promote our artworks and to create a strong presence on the net, making works viral, with the advantage of selling directly. Social media has offered artists a new potential they didn’t have before. In some ways this has improved the work-field and the spread of communication, on the other hand it has crumbled interpersonal relationships. A challenge? NFTs and digital art.
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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?
–Paola: I am an optimist by nature, at the moment we can see the light: life is restarting, little by little, and all over again. A fire is always reborn from the ashes.
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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?
–Paola: We should not only look at the work of art, but also read it. Personally, I am not interested in perfection, or respect for proportions, and the stylistic exercise bores me a little. I rather love breaking the mold, provocation… Duchamp used to say: “it is the observer’s gaze that makes the artwork”. I like dwelling on a work when it directly provokes a reaction in me and it invites me to reflect. Art feeds on provocation, and offers it to those who are fasting.
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RAP: Which is the real role of Academies, Art schools and Galleries today? What can artists learn from these institutions today?
–Paola: The training of an artist is important because talent is not enough. We also need a guided discussion, we need stimuli, exchanges and relationships. I believe in teaching and interaction. Creativity, genius, are certainly not taught in the Academies, but a young artist can be adressed to an appropriate “language”. Compared to a self-taught artist, in my opinion, “culture” means personal growth; so culture always makes a relevant difference.
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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?
–Paola: Authenticity can only be an advantage. In this hyper-connected and increasingly homologated world, I like to think of artists as “guardians of identity”.
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RAP: How do Art Galleries and Museums position themselves today, and, in your opinion, how should they?
–Paola: After the pandemic phase, both galleries and museums have enhanced their digital presence with multimedia content. I believe this has changed the world of art. Now we have to deal with an audience that is no longer just “real”, but also virtual, connected from home, on the sofa. Today a museum can be present on a smartphone, and that’s not a trivial matter.
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RAP: “Figuration” vs “Abstraction”: which of the two is better descriptive of the period we live in? Which one will have a better future?
–Paola: Two concepts in deep contrast: it’s not right to enclose art in specific currents, the difference is always made by the contents, and history proves it. The art of the past still speaks to us today, I suggest thinking about the famous Calvino quote: “..a “classic” is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say”. This is how art works, as long as it has something to say it does its duty beyond its representations. And even more, in this historical moment.
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RAP: Today we often speak of “emerging artists”; what advice based on your experience do you feel you can give to young artists?
–Paola: Discipline, patience, perseverance, let’s aim for the moon to get to the stars..
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RAP: Art as a lens for reading the present, can it modify the space and time we pass through? …will art save us?
–Paola: Oh, you bet… Art has definitely saved me!
@paolavalori.art
@micro.artivisive
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