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 Serafino Amato

Serafino Amato is an Italian photographer and video artist. His writing has an important role in all of his work and the visual aspects often work together with his texts. He has exhibited in Italy and internationally since 1986. Among his publications: “Pallido Pallido” 1998 Codess Cul-tura Ed.; “Ecatombe, the tadpoles of history” (with Lorenzo Pavolini), 2008 Headmaster Ed.; “Leaves of days – Leaves of the day ”, 2012, Headmaster Ed..   Serafino teaches photography and video art at the John Cabot University.

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

Serafino Amato: I will answer with two metaphors. A ski slalom between poles that narrow on a descent that gets steeper and steeper. As the hunters of the Umbrian area of Spoleto use saying… it’s like trying to chase a hare… a not instinctive process, and with uncertain results.

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

Serafino: It’s not easy to remember what it was like. What you are now is not a result.

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

Serafino: When I realized that I could not give up communicating with the unknown part of myself. Which then I don’t even like it that much.

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?

Serafino: I see documentaries on mountaineering. Generally the biggest and most daring climbers do not reach the age of 40. They fall first. Art is the mountain, the artists are the climbers. I feel closer to the survivors, being 63 years old, but I still walk on a decent slope.

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

Serafino: I really don’t know. I don’t hang out with them.

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

Serafino: I have never stopped using the old techniques. The world enclosed in super-efficient boxes doesn’t interest me much. The biggest challenge? Look at me with kindness.

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?

Serafino: I don’t think art is a mirror of reality, if anything a deviance towards the obvious. Neither lights nor shadows.

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?

Serafino: If we cry, either we find ourselves in front of a unique work, or we need a good help. But the two things do not contradict each other

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

Serafino: I do not know. I don’t attend them and have never attended them, I taught there, but I don’t seem to have met many really motivated people.

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?

Serafino: I belong to the category of unknown artists. I didn’t notice any significant differences. The interest is always personal, that is, towards the person. As far as I’m concerned. The rest is the style.

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

Serafino: of Management and or Curriculum, even political! Not much else.

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

Serafino: It is difficult to answer. There has been a great silence of words over the past two years, and few listeners. I think it is best to leave the task of this description to writing. Writing allows you to travel through time and can offer the ultimate in abstraction and figuration. The two views do not contradict each other.

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

Serafino: Do what you like more than what it takes. It used to be, it still holds true today.

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

Serafino: Art will not save anyone, but if you are present to yourself, anything will give us a hand. It is always an individual matter.