ENRICO
INTERVIEW TO ENRICO CAMPIOLI
TELL US ABOUT YOUR VOCATIONAL TRAINING, HAVE YOU GOT AN ACADEMIC TRAINING OR ARE YOU A SELF-TAUGHT PERSON?
by Ilaria Azzoni
23/03/04
My way hasn't surely been a traditional one, I didn't attend any Academy, nevertheless art has always been part of my life. Since I was a child I have been loving to draw; also my teachers appreciated so much what I did that they often kept my works. In that period, anyway, my language was figurative. [I remember that once the drawings of us children were put up for a charity auction and someone bought one of mine]. Then I really loved to copy the pictures in my school books, even if later I used to personalize them.
SO, WERE YOU CONSCIOUS OF YOUR TALENT FROM WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD?
Probably I have been, but I never rationally thought to begin an artistic career. Only when I was about twelve, I started dreaming and thinking that I would like to be and artist.
DID YOU START THINKING YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE A PAINTER?
I liked painting, but also writing. I had a lot of projects and dreams; I realized some of them and I think I'll realize some others in the future.
DID YOUR FAMILY ENCOURAGE OR PUSH YOU TO TAKE ON SOME OF THESE ART FORMS?
There was a time in my life when my father earned lot of money so, after he satisfied our basic needs, he could afford to collect paintings. But he never encouraged my bent for art, on the contrary he opposed it and hindered me. He thought I should care about what he considered to be more concrete and important. I think I followed so much his advise, that I decided to attend the secondary school about sciences and then I studied Economics at university, even if I did non find economical subjects very interesting.
SO IT WAS A CHOICHE APPARENTLY OPPOSITE TO ART!
According to me, there isn't a big gap, but a fine relation between art and science; maths has affinities with art.
IT IS TRUE, LEONARDO, FOR INSTANCE, WAS NOT ONLY A BIG ARTIST BUT ALSO A BIG MAN OF SCIENCE...
I was interested in scientific subjects, it was a natural attitude of mine, I had a bent for maths.
THEN DID YOU FORGET YOUR INTEREST IN ART TO PRIVILEGE YOUR SCIENTIFIC PASSION?
After junior high school, this aspect was sleeping in me, also because I was actually very busy with studying. Perhaps classical studies would have been more related to art but to me they would have been too difficult. Even if I didn't like very much studying, nevertheless I have been studying very much during high school and university. Since I didn't like studying, I didn't expect I would study so much in my life.
GIVE ME THE REASON OF UNIVERSITY CHOICE, YOU WERE ENOUGH BIG NOT TO BE CONDITIONED BY YOUR FATHER.
Perhaps I was conscious that this kind of study would have guaranteed less uncertain future and a preparation more "spendable" on labor market. Besides, I was likely to be still influenced by my father's advises...
WERE YOU NOT THINKING TO BE A PAINTER YET?
At that time painting was just a hobby for me. I was very fond of photography, movies and literature too.
WHEN DID PAINTING PREVAIL OVER THOSE PASSIONS?
It began to be dominant when I was about 24 and I was finishing university. At the same time, my daughter Fabiola was born. After I took my degree, I had to face a problem common to a lot of people of my same age: finding a job, even if I had been following my father's advises to chose a scientific subject. Probably the reason why I found it so difficult to find job was due to an increasing economic crisis at that time. The lack of a job, of course, offered me the opportunity to have a lot of spare time that I began to use to make something I liked and in which I actually was interested: painting. I did it whenever I could and that was the beginning.
BUT HOW CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE FACT THAT PAINTING BECAME DOMINANT ON EVERY OTHER PASSION?
The answer is simple and banal: painting was an activity that most of all gave me, and still gives me, pleasure. Enjoy myself is to me the basis of painting. At that time I began to write too; it was a way to release and to express my inner life, but it was surely connected with my inner suffering.
DID YOU FIND A JOB THEN?
Yes but I have always been doing casual jobs, so I had a lot of spare time for painting.
WHAT DID YOUR "NEW" FAMILY THINK ABOUT YOUR PASSION FOR ART AND YOUR DESIRE TO PAINT; DID THEY ENCOURAGE YOU?
My wife and my daughter encouraged me very much. Painting gave me a deep personal satisfaction, I didn't think other people could find my works beautiful. I was very surprised by my relatives when they began to praise my works and to congratulate me.
SO YOUR WIFE AND DAUGHTER DID GIVE YOU CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT YOUR TALENT!
Thanks to them I started to think that painting could become a real job.
THEN HOW WAS YOUR BEGINNING WITH EXHIBITIONS?
During the first four, five years I wasn't very considered by critic and I painted just for pleasure. In the meantime I entered "Art and culture" painting club, I'm still a member of it. They encouraged me very much to go on with painting. They have been organizing many exhibitions in Parma and in its countryside. During these exhibitions I began to meet with people's approval. Some of them wanted to buy my paintings for payment of a symbolic amount of money. I didn't accept their offer, since I did not wont just to get rid of my works. Seeing that they offered me just little money to buy them, I thought I never could sell my works at a high price.
DIDN'T YOU THINK ABOUT THE VALUE OF YOUR WORKS?
"Art and culture" exhibitions' main aim have always been to let people know the authors and their works and secondly to sell. But what I found more interesting and funny were people's reactions. Anyway, I unexpectedly found people willing to buy my paintings at a price higher than the one I usually asked, that is the equivalent of an employee's monthly wage. When you start selling your works, it is like going to dead-end; I couldn't refuse people's offers any more. After that I began with personal exhibitions. Sometimes I took part in contests, without firm belief, and I won. I had a lot of satisfactions, most of them were unexpected. For instance when I took part in a painting contest in Langhirano, my decision was so rash that I send to the contest a work which I didn't place with my most representative ones. Anyway...I won: Langhirano public library bought it and now it is hanging on the wall of the library's reading room. In this way the work is drawing much more attention than the works purchased by private customers.
IS THE FEELING OF EARNING YOUR LIVING WITH PAINTING BECOMING EVER MORE PRESSING? I KNOW YOU ARE NOW SHARING YOUR TIME BETWEEN PAINTING AND YOUR JOB. WHAT KIND OF JOB IS IT?
Yes, I began to work in a library four years ago, but my first aim is to be just a painter. Nevertheless, since I have got two children, I can't leave the job to devote myself only to painting. If I did not have a family, I would have taken this decision already.
IF YOU SHOULD SPEAK OF A PAINTER OR OF AN ARTISTIC MOVEMENT THAT PARTICULARLY HIT OR INFLUENCED YOU AND IN WHICH YOU IDENTIFY, WHAT MOVEMENT OR PAINTERS WOULD YOU SPEAK ABOUT?
It is really difficult for me to answer this question, since my way of painting was born inside me. People believe that a painter is also an expert that has a deep knowledge of the history of art . I'm not this kind of painter, even if I am very curious and fascinated by art and by the artists, who came before me. I felt a bigger interest in art only when I began to use a well defined language of mine, that is after I made a great number of works. I believe that art in the past was very influenced by the buyer, while today contemporary artists are influenced by the market. My point is that buyer and market are big restrictions. Let's consider the post Counter-Reformation period: in that time works of art had to celebrate and exalt the Church, the only works there were, had a religious theme.
DO YOU THINK THAT IN THE PAST ARTIST WAS MOST OF ALL A CRAFTSMAN?
I think he was a person that most of all had to follow certain rules. I believe that "professional painters" always work by considering market rules.
BUT THE BUYERS ARE NOT MORE AS THEY WERE DURING THE RENAISSANCE! IT IS TRUE, MAY BE ARTISTS MAKE WORKS, WHICH ARE LIKELY TO BE LIKED, BUT BUYER'S REQUEST IS NOT SO BINDING ANY MORE.
I think that there are artists, who often make works they don't like, but that are likely to be purchased by the customers. I think this isn't a real "artistic" way of thinking, on the contrary I admire those, who, also in the past, painted an angel because they just wanted to represent that subject, without any worry about the customer. I think for instance of Ligabue, for whom painting was to give a real form to a passion and to follow an impulse, aimed at realizing something he liked.
IT IS TRUE, HE WORKED ACCORDING TO HIS INTEREST. ARTISTS LIKE FONTANA REALIZED A KIND OF INNOVATIVE ARTISTIC WAY OF THINKING, WHICH MADE THEM FAMOUS AND WHICH THEY DEVELOPED AND INVESTIGATED. SHOUOLD ARTISTS, WHO EARN A LIVING WITH THEIR ART, FOLLOW THE SAME WAY OF THINKING?
According to me, to be successful by repeating past successful choices, is not an artistic choice, but simply a repetition to confirm and to investigate a topic.
IS IT ALWAYS POSSIBLE TO DO SOMETHING NEW?
Yes, it is. Art performance also means to follow and to investigate some topics, but if we stop here we restrict ourselves. Experimentation is essential. To me and to my art BREAKING RULES is very important, but if this became a rule it wuoldn't work any more. Another fundamental thing, as I told before, is to feel pleasure when I do something. It is possible to paint with hands, for instance, or with feet; every painting can be created using different techniques and tools, but to do this it is necessary to have an open mind. I often let my children playing by dipping their hands into the colors and then by putting them on a piece of paper or cartoon.
BUT ISN'T IT POSSIBLE THAT ONE COMES TO CHOSE A WAY TO PAINT AFTER HE EXPERIMENTED IT?
The important thing is that if, by following this way, one finds himself trapped, he has got the strength and the courage to break rules.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUES?
I really like to create with enamel and acrylic.
WHICH ARE THE BEST WORKING CONDITIONS FOR YOU?
I have got a garret: there I have my studio, there I feel free. When I paint I don't listen to music, I simply look at my paintings, to be inspired. Paradoxically sometimes I am inspired by nature, for example I once took some leaves from "Ducale Garden" in Parma, to use them for an art work. Nature is a wonderful work of art, it is like a painting by God, but ever changing. God combined beauty with duty.
DOES YOUR MOOD INFLUENCES YOU WHEN YOU ARE PAINTING?
Yes very much, so when I feel down I don't want to paint, even if painting puts me in a good mood.
WHEN YOU ARE GOING TO YOUR STUDIO, DO YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT TO PAINT?
I have got three different ways of painting:
-first I make a rational project to, be executed afterwards. This is not my favorite way;
-to paint after I drew my inspiration from a night vision: I wake up and I paint, this makes me very satisfied and gives me a great pleasure;
-to stay in front of the white canvas without any idea of what I will do; my hands know what to do. This is most funny and satisfying way.
AT THE END, IS THE RESULT JUST THE SAME?
May be that the third way gives the best results; this could be a demonstration that when one does things with pleasure, the results are excellent.
WHICH CONCEPT IS, IN YOUR OPINION, MORE SUBSTANTIAL AND EFFECTIV: "ART FOR ART'S SAKE" OR SHOULD ART, ON THE CONTRARY, SEND SOCIAL AND/OR POLITICAL MESSAGES?
Art communicates something but to me it doesn't mean it sends a well defined message. I try to find pleasure and happiness. With the so-called "abstract" art, as it is mine, interior world detached itself from reality, even if it is its son. Art has a message to send, which, nevertheless, is many-sided and not so well defined.
Through my paintings I want to support three "dogmas":
- the search for beauty. I don't agree with the choice of some contemporary artists, who want to be innovative and to do that they often don't care about beauty and pleasure;
- happiness, pleasure and amusement that are inherent in the act of painting;
- - the breaking of established rules; experimentation.
WHICH PASSIONS DO YOU HAVE TODAY?
I don't have much time to develop my passions, except of course for painting, because I have a job and a family. If I had more time I surely would go to the cinema more often, I would carry out other artistic plans, for instance I would like to shoot a movie. With the means we have nowadays, this is a project we can realize even with small resources.
