4 questions to Stefano Bolcato
|
Smartarea. Your pictorial technique is quite realist. How do you paint? Stefano Bolcato. Well, the subject itself is not realist, what is realist is the technique, the reproduction: I paint a parallel world, which has to "stick" to the real one somehow. I try to highlight those aspects of reality which look fake (I'm thinking about some advertisements) and parody them. In this sense, Lego bricks, being bright-coloured and made of plastic, lend themselves to being used for a parody. Smartarea. Through the use of toys and aerial perspectives are you trying to put some distance between yourself and the represented object? Stefano Bolcato. Not at all. My purpose is not that of emphasising distance; on the contrary, these tiny bricks are enlarged dozens of time. Children, when approaching a toy, create a relationship on equal terms; it's a sort of transfer. I try to do the same as an adult, almost "forcing" my relationship with the toy. Smartarea. Lego bricks are a sort of expressive key that you use to represent stories and characters. Why did you actually choose Lego pieces? Have you ever considered another toy through which you could describe reality? Stefano Bolcato. This was my favourite toy as a child, so I guess it's a "visceral", emotional reason. From my point of view, it's like a story going on, with the only difference that as an adult I tell different stories.
Q. In some of your works you deal with tragic and delicate matters, such as the Years of lead. How can you represent dramatic events though a toy? A. Toys actually become a pretext to describe reality. Lego pieces from this point of view are very useful because their typically bright colours tend to draw the observers' attention, allowing me to tell them the multi-faceted stories of reality, which necessarily includes crime news or social matters. I try to "record" reality on my canvases, as if they were a diary. My works generally offer several levels of interpretation: an accurate look often allows to catch details referring to delicate items, such as race or religion. Therefore, a social ambition does often underlie my works, which become yet another way to talk about those delicate topics.
16th August 2010 |
A close-up of Stefano Bolcato
Bolcato in his workshop, with some of his own canvas dedicated to the world of Lego
 Working on a still life |
