* The following text is an excerpt from an interview made in 2016. The original version is published in PANORAMA (DIORAMA editions).
Enrico Boccioletti (Pesaro,1984) studied at Università degli Studi di Urbino (Urbino) and l’Accademia di Brera (Milan). His work was featured at Fabio Paris Art Gallery (Brescia); Material (Mexico City); TESCO (Faenza); ONES (Florence); #6PM (Milan and online); Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Istituto Svizzero e Operativa (Romw); riss(e) (Varese); Point Centre for Contemporary Art (Nicosia); La Plage (Paris); HORSEANDPONY (Berlin); ZKM (Karlsruhe); PAV (Turin); MAXXI (Rome); OGR,(Turin); Fondaco (Rome); Gossamer Fog (London).
The use of sound in your practice seems particularly relevant, how did it start and what kind of sound interest you? How do you include sound in your videos? Can we mention Angelo Azzurro? Would you like to mention some of your sets where you ‘exposed yourself’ particularly?
I’m interested in different types of sound, even inconsistent with each other. I believe it has more to do with the attitude that timbre per se. Sometimes sound is more intimate and direct than visuals, this is interesting. I like Euro dance, that plays throughout Angelo Azzurro in its entirety, because to me it is physical and mental, but not intellectual. I don’t like the idea of ‘live concert’, I find it a superfluous pantomime in the 99% of cases. There’s a 1%, though, where this physical and temporal presence is necessary and special.
You recently left your job at Mousse to work exclusively on your art.
You get used to everything, and some of use are more mimetic than others. The problem is this tendency towards an all-encompassing professionalisation: always ready, interesting, busy and with a smile on your face. The possibility of shying away from all this is both a luxury and a choice. I’m working on balancing the two things.
You’re maybe the person that more effectively managed to infect others with language over Milan. Memes, expressions, symbolic language, maybe all this is captured and summarised in the Mega Positive flag that you created with Andrea Magnani with T.A.M. What does being mega positive mean? Why was it so contagious and how do you think the sociology of language affects it and your position in the context of the people included in the almanac?
I don’t know what being ‘mega positive’ means, really! To me and Andrea I think it was a tendency, towards inner improvement, and a need for survival. It’s also fun.
Then I have this course of looking positive even when I’m negative.
We are in front of Central Station, this area is becoming increasingly more relevant. Why?
From Central Station you arrive in Milan, you move around Milan, and you leave Milan. I feel blessed living in this area. In the past two years the Love bar was a great reference point, a little landmark. Now let’s see what happens, though.
You certainly had the occasion of working with artists who live in Milan. Would you like to mention whose work is particularly significant for you? Or with who there is a bond that you believe serves as contamination and growth for your research? Do you still believe that there is the need to fortify the artistic community with more common practices?
I’ll just drop some names, which are very important to me: Gianandrea Poletta, Andrea Magnani, Elena Radice, Alessandro di Pietro, Michele Gabriele, Dafne Boggeri, Andrea Romano and Mattia Capelletti. And also Costanza Candeloro, Bianca Stoppani and Roberto Fassone even if they are not here now.
You are always full of ideas, energy, fresh, open to the world. What is your propulsion core? Where do you find your stimuli? On which currents are drifting towards lately and how are they going to affect your future projects?
It’s funny because I think I am a rather obscure person, which is both good and bad news. It’s how I was saying: I have this curse of looking positive also when I’m negative, but it’s partially my fault. I’d like to work less and laze about more.
Tell us about the installation that you presented to La Plage for the fair. I particularly would like to know how you composed the videos, where do the three avatars come from, and the processes employed for vinyl.
The trip to Mexico with La Plage begun much earlier than actually taking off for Mexico. When the girls (Francesca, Sini and Valentina) decided to open a space in Paris, they asked me to apply with them for a project for Material, before than finding a physical space in Paris to organise the first Exhibition. It was very important and intense since the beginning: the attitude, rather than the destination. It is a bit hard to explain and the whole thing should be experienced rather than discussed, but it all originated from a strong loosening and spiritual escape desire, which becomes an urgency of concrete action. There are many materials: cell-phone ringtones, found and recorded sequences, samplings and recordings, tape renderings, a lot of editing, writing parts, clippings from various readings, downloaded images and pieces of other captions from other people’s exhibitions.
In 2016 you had a show at Graff’s, here in Milan, with Costanza Candeloro, Elena and Noemi Radice. What you presented was an old piece of work linked to a moment of yours that was maybe more intimate than others, a book in which you substantially monitored yourself scientifically to unlock some emotional factors. I would like to know if this methodology had a beneficial effect on you and if you thought about implementing similar methods in other situations.
Yes, it was Costanza’s invite: she had this show and she invited Elena (who chose to work also with Noemi, her sister) and me to participate. No, the work you are talking about did not have properly “beneficial” effect, it’s like a diary: it has no purpose, but it tells something about you that you thought you didn’t know of.