Interview for Chapter89 Magazine
The interview at the following link:
Selfportrait
One of my self-portraits on red canvas was one of the pieces that made up the installation created for my graduation thesis in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. For many years it has been exhibited in one of my favorite places in Napoli. A place of heart. It is a small and very rich art boutique right next to my beloved Academy. Now that canvas is on display and I think I love feeling like a woven part of my city. Recognize me on every corner. Enzo and Marco Ramaglia are friends; we practically grew together and these are the relationships that make a city your beloved city.
Anouk: the origin of the name
Anouk is the name of my project.
It was born from the discovery of this photo that portrays me in a hot August 2004.
I was a sculpture student at the Academy of Fine Arts and when the summer break came I spent my days at the Archaeological Museum drawing the statues exposed in the large rooms of the museum. At that time not many tourists arrived in Naples and the Neapolitans in August were almost all at the sea; so I had large spaces in the museum at my disposal to draw quietly, stay cool and quietly to observe and draw.
One of those days a French family entered this room.
The two children, brother and sister, saw me drawing and sat next to me to keep me company while I worked letting their parents continue the visit of the museum.
I was struck by the interest of those children in my work and by the fact that they stayed with me for hours, until the end of the drawing exchanging only looks and smiles with me, since we did not speak the same language.
Once finished, somehow, I managed to ask the girl her name: her name was Anouk. We had the same name in two different languages and we had silently shared time in the contemplation of those splendid works; so I signed and gave Anouk my drawing and she was so happy that she ran to show it to the parents who had joined them in the meantime.
Here, in finding this photo that is a fond memory for me, the enthusiasm, curiosity, passion, dedication and dreams of those years of my artistic training have re-emerged and therefore I wanted to fix the wish with a name that I do to myself never to lose those feelings and to always cultivate them.
Anouk is a warning to me and has thus become the name of this artistic project.