Claus Soraperra's
painting without boundaries
The artist Claus
Soraperra speaks a universal code, giving us artistic, sociocultural
languages that are based on a broad, transactional vision of art,
overcoming dogmas and barriers in space and time, and building a
majestic monument to freedom of thought and knowledge.
With his participation in
the "Ladinia" exhibition organised by the Tiroler
Volkskunst Museum
(museum of Tyrolean Folk Art) in Innsbruck (Austria) alongside
international names like Aron
Demetz, Lois Anvidalfarei
and Gabriele
Grones,
his personal exhibition “Self
Evolution”
at the Ufofabrik
Gallery
in Moena (Italy), the installation displayed at the Centro
d'Arte Contemporanea
in Cavalese (Italy) and various museum projects on which he has
collaborated; Claus Soraperra, born in Canazei (Dolomites, Italy) in
1966, demonstrates that he has always known how to communicate
realities that are different in space and time. Discovering his art
means opening a passage into a historic and cultural memory that has
its origins in the heart of the Dolomites. It means tiptoeing into a
past reality that is made current with the help of different,
innovative languages, setting out on a long journey with no fixed
destination, a journey undertaken by those for whom observing is not
enough. Conscious of their own artistic role, they seize hold of
their sense of identity to create new, original sensations and go
beyond the usual way of seeing the world and their own Heimat
(homeland).
Even a superficial assessment of Soraperra's art reveals the presence
of a figurative
influence
that is expressed not only through the abundant and bright use of
colour, but most of all through the painting tradition typical of a
childhood spent in the incredible natural paint shop that is the
Dolomite mountains, amid the rocks and dust.
And
then the desire to fly high, like an eagle between the mountain tops,
where a good amount of courage is needed to face the past and break
away from the academic mould, becoming something other than oneself.
This "metamorphosis" is realised in the “Self
Evolution”
collection, which offers the diverse layering of the modern female
personality, communicated in its many facets. It is here, in a world
hovering between reality and society, where recurring mime-like
gestures of the face and hands, large and rigid like open fans, evoke
the contorted bodies of Schiele's Viennese Expressionism.
What influences or
intuitions lead you to want to "go beyond" the rich
tradition of your origins and search for such new contemporary
dimensions in art?
For about ten years
after I returned from Venice, having just left the Accademia (academy
of fine art), I tried to "betray" tradition and keep a
distance in my painting, and this inevitably took me further away not
only from tradition, but also from the local community, from this
little society that has been rooted in the Dolomites for thousands of
years. At first it was not easy to find the right direction, the
great Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576), also born in the Dolomites, chose
to leave, to go to Venice. I could not deny what I had inside me, I
wanted to confront a past that was inevitably onerous and
anachronistic. The turning point came progressively, working one day
at a time, trying to be myself, to feel like a citizen of the world,
allowing myself to be contaminated by contemporary influences and
trying to live not as a man from the Dolomites, but as a man of the
world. Today opportunities are abundant and accessible, even for art.
Like science, it is not bound to any particular region.
Your artistic
metamorphosis, at a certain point, manifested itself in a keen
interest in representations of the female form. In the “Self
Evolution”
collection, you unsettle the public by presenting images of vigorous,
"masculine", almost androgynous women; spontaneously
provocative, sensual and cold at the same time, veritable holders of
life and death. In fact, what is being concealed behind those hidden
faces and those very physical bodies with a female form?
What I always want to
represent is the human being, often a women, a mother. My figures try
to identify with the viewer, they try to give an emotional
description of humanity. The enquiry is not without a purpose, rather
it aims to separate the individual from their social context offering
them an understanding that is unique and intimate. The faces,
frequently covered, deliberately conceal the personal identity of the
figure, which is often substituted by cryptic codes. The fact that
many of my figures wear helmets is to protect human thought, the
power of ideas, which nowadays we must defend vigorously. As regards
the materials used, I like experimenting, using light synthetic
supports, polystyrene, forex etc. It is just a matter of being
contemporary not only in the form, the contents, the colour and
subjects, but also in the materials and methods.
What does it mean to
you to exhibit alongside artists who have participated in the Venice
Biennale or with international artists?
The opportunity to
exhibit contemporary work at the Volkskunstmuseum
in Innsbruck was stimulating
above all for an artist who, although remaining a product of
tradition, wants to assert some distance from it. I had an excellent
rapport with Aron Demetz and Lois Anvidalfarei, especially since we
come from the same "Heimat". I collaborated with Althea
Thauberger on "Manifesta 7" and even though we are no
longer in touch, having the opportunity to work with her opened my
eyes and mind.
Would you like to
exhibit in galleries or institutions such as cultural institutions or
similar venues?
Exhibiting is
important for an artist, but most of all it is important for society.
Art generates ideas, thoughts. Without stimulation or provocation the
brain does not generate thoughts, words, actions. An artist must be
part of society, they have a fundamental role, often they can choose
less used, more banal, more obvious routes to reach an objective. I
have always believed in the power of art as a "mishap", as
a "useless product", which precisely because of that
becomes unique, it becomes something ephemeral and invisible, able to
generate new philosophies and new points of view.
Like David Hockney,
you use a simplified figurative style, which although done with
irony, highlights the artificial, falsely happy circumstances that
affluent society and advertising impose and pass off. Do you see
yourself in this typical role of relating everything without saying
everything?
Relating everything
without saying everything is dangerous, even though it is convenient,
as advertising has taught us. I like to explore the human condition
through pictorial representation, trying to distance it from society,
from its surroundings, which although they may be comfortable and
filled with technology, risk preventing us from understanding
ourselves.
After this
experience and the direction your art has taken for many years, what
are your plans for the future?
I have always believed
that it is not people who choose what to do, but the world that
chooses the people it needs.
Interview
by Federica Giobbe
