| Pino Poggi |

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| Pino Poggi |

 

 

 

Jože Horvat
Pino Poggi

In June 2000 the Art Gallery in Slovenj Gradec opened Pino Poggi's retropective exhibition which, of course, could not reveal all the aspects of Poggi's work. His heterogeneous artistic creativity was exhibited, whereas his writing - essays, poems, prose (for example his fairy tales, like the one about a sparrow and a swallow, titled Adi & Zoe) - could only be hinted. Poggi's personality could only be guessed indirectly through his exhibited artifacts, unless a visitor had an opportunity to meet the artist in person and to talk with him. Namely, Poggi often participated in the exhibition, always willing to talk and to perform with literature and music. These performances were somehow a part of this exhibition since Poggi does not want to isolate his art and he does not see it as a challange for a hermetically academic reflection. He wants a visitor to have an opportunity to contemplate the meaningful and up-to-date social or even political dimension of art. This is why his being there is very important.

But my impression is that Poggi does not like conversation mainly because of the mission of his art, although this could be the primary reason. Namely, a conversation is also his form of contact with other people. I think that he likes to talk with people which might be because of his mediterranean background and his open-mindedness and this is a characteristic that could be very interesting for people that appear to be different, perhaps more introvert. I remember that my first meeting with Poggi (which happened over 20 years ago) was unusually relaxed and, as far as I know, other people have the same experience. That is why I do not think it strange that artists and people associated with art in Koroška regard him as one of the locals, despite his honest temporary critical remarks regarding themselves and their surroundings. And those less informed see him as the artist who has made the large statue in the form of a letter "S" with two globes in its curves and which has been situated near one of the main roads to Slovenj Gradec for over 30 years now.

His late wife was from Slovenj Gradec and he is also attached to this city, which has long and diverse art tradition, as an artist. He and his family has lived in Germany, he lectured at Art Academies in Genova and in Muenich but otherwise he has been - with his arte utile - one of those unconventional artists who have been trying to establish a direct connection between their art presentations and people and who have been trying to talk with people about art, problems of life and perhaps even politics. But - as he himself stated in an interview - he does not want to teach or tell people what to do, he merely wants to present problems the way they really are and to include them in his work. He would not even mind conversing with "extremists since it is often the case that intolerant terror, giving its expression in extremism, is a result of a man's isolation. If you manage to break it, you face a whole new man with problems like any other. In my form of conversation I have always wanted to convert intolerant people into tolerant ones and to help them design or express certain problems visually or in writing. This has been the purpose of my arte utile."

He believes that the background of this art, which he started in the 70s, is to be found in his hometown, Genova. He remembers that even his grandfather faced the problem of surviving on a small area. The area which was always endangered either by land or by sea (pirates), so that the land has always played an important role and people had to exploit it very racionally. In their need to survive people had to be very economical with the land. And the structure of this ground was very important as well, the soil had to be put on rocks in several different layers in order to preserve its fertility.

And from this cognition of being extremely cautious as far as environment is concerned Poggi's later concepts, projects and attitude towards future originate. This environmental anxiety, which is both a social consciousness and a whole-European concept, was transmitted in his art. " In Genova I first worked with plastics - one of such early works is a monument to my mother-in-law which can be seen at the cemetary in Slovenj Gradec - but already in Genova and in Muenich I have tried to explain to my students that a work of art should combine aesthetic dimensions with some social elements as well. Namely, only such works of art carry a message. A spectator should be able to see the beauty of a creation but also its special theme, which always calls for a debate. A picture that is merely beautiful cannot be discussed for a long time. This concept is already close to arte utile, which is supposed to offer discussion oppurtunities about things important for the present and for the future."

Arte utile started his "social aesthetics", which was explained in his published manifestos and in his essay from 1988; there he stated that its beginnings reach as far as Gothic art and even earlier. Today, in the time of a massive industrial production, it is linked to a design and its aesthetic function. It is also important what and how a person eats, how he or she is dressed, what items are displayed in shop-windows and how - and in Slovenia it is also important what kind of a flag is used to represent the nation. Poggi suggested a public competition for a new Slovene flag years ago since he believes that it is impossible for the Slovene people to identify themselves with the existing one, the reason being its likeness to the Russian and the Slovakian flags. Slovenia needs "a flag with its own colours, stressing Slovene identity only."

Poggi has planned and carried out several projects regarding social aesthetics, some of them were presented at the already mentioned retrospective exhibition in Slovenj Gradec. And it is the social aesthetics, which does not consist of design only, that he wishes to mark Slovenj Gradec with. In his wish to open the museum of social aesthetics in Slovenj Gradec he sent applications and documents in Ljubljana and in Slovenj Gradec, but as it seems he is still at the beginning of his mission, since there has been no answer from the officials yet. He is prepared to donate some of his creations to the museum and he is confident that some of his friends from western Europe would do the same. He is not surprised at the lack of interest for his initiative (the same goes for his initiative concerning the flag as well - the initiative was accepted only among his friends and acquaintances) for he is familiar with a kind of a distrust to inovations among the Slovenes, but he also understands that Slovenia does not have as much money as the cultural centres in the west and that being the reason why the ideas are not always carried out. Nevertheless, he does not question the importance of such a museum which could help against the some sort of an isolation of Europe "with its videos, computers, cars, Coca-Colas and easy-going attitude" from Slovenia. Such a museum would make people think about the possibilities of a future development.

Poggi has some more suggestions regarding Slovenia: "I am not merely an artist, I am also a person thinking about and dealing with future and things that I love. I spend a lot of my time in Slovenia, my wife and I often stayed here, our children visit Slovenia… Slovenia has a future, but in these new times the young people from Slovenia should reexamine their background and find their identity. They can be easily malipulated and they rarely doubt foreign splendour. I believe that future Slovenia should start with biological/natural farming since this is the only way Slovenia can become competitive with other countries. Besides, by using this kind of farming Slovenia would get subsidies from Brussels. I believe this to be very important, as well as the flag, which should be changed. For example, I often observe shop-windows crammed with different things because shopkeepers want to brag with all the things they have. Whereas something special, typical should be showed to customers. The social aesthetics could play an important part here as well, since it is both art and a pragmatic situation of survival."

To achieve these goals not only creativity with higher standards but also culture itself should be present in social life and in politics, and politicians should realize that their short-term thinking cannot apply for an artist. With the arte utile actions - this social and aesthetic, nontraditional art - Poggi and his colleagues tried to call people's attention to unhealthy conditions and to find more appropriate alternatives of development. And politicians should pay attention to it. This was true in the past when the most cultivated rulers realized the power of art and therefore took risks and invested a lot in art. Poggi states well-known Italian cities such as Florence, Venice and Genova whose building and decorations of today famous churches, squares and palaces were entrusted to the most famous architects and artists of the time and their creations have been attracting crowds of tourists ever since. " Things were seen in long-term, not merely in short-term back then. That is why I have been stating that the artists that can easily be bought cannot be the only ones that are to be trusted; we should examine their abilities, their credibility and their value. The artist's credibility is, in my opinion, the most important one."

Poggi believes that it is a modern artist that keeps contact with the society and with politics through his art. He or she uses all the available means to interfere with the society. Poggi himself interferes also by writing theatre texts, fairy-tales, poems and by singing songs. He therefore interferes with his whole being. His poems can be simple, about man's intimacy, but they can also be full of protest or antiwar poems and poems calling our attention to wrong political decisions and to problems of our society, which faces its own development crisis. Poetry can be very effective in finding a listener for it touches his or her feelings and in a way sets him/her at ease, but it can also attract his/her attention or responsibility for real actions - either by declaring for truth and against war or against a threat to environment.

I have presented Poggi' character; he has many talents and he is prepared to commit himself, that is why meetings with Pino Poggi can be constructive, especially meetings connected with his performances. I got to know Poggi the artist, but not all the aspects of his talent, at his retrospective last year. Anyone unburdened and spiritually open enough could sense a unique confession with affection not normally seen (at least here in Slovenia) in sophisticated forms of modern art.

Many more competent people have written about this exhibition; but some of the facts regarding the exhibition can reveal also Poggi's spiritual, mental portrait. I have a main segment of the exhibition in my mind - there was an explicit concept of " social aesthetics" in which he presented current themes regarding an individual and a society with installations or environments. Anyone seeing this exhibition must have been surprised because by using useful objects, artifacts, models of his installations, mirrors, symbols of our era (books, newspapers, radio), and mythological symbols, Poggi discloses himself as a philosopher presenting the fragments of the great story of today's world - better than many artists using traditional paintings or statues.

Like many others, this exhibition also showed Poggi as a conceptualist who does not create his works like most of the artists - he often made his sculptures (installations) from already existing objects. But, these objects were not used by chance but according to the logic of the idea he wanted to convey - this was often the warning of Earth's demolition, the idea of tragicomic political state of the society, which has no prospects. These objects also reveal his own pain regarding the briefness of life, a confession that could be viewed as a sentimental one if it had been expressed traditionally. Namely, in the first room Poggi exhibited the favourite objects of his late wife Tanja, who was from Slovenj Gradec; books, paintings, crucifix and some other every day objects. And the perfect whiteness of the room made these object somehow intangible and the spectators could feel their timelessness. It could be that the emotional atmosphere of this room added some emotions to the messages and confessions in other rooms as well, for a spectator could sense their surpassable character that attracted attention and he or she could sense a monologue, which just had to be heard in some of the greatest installations. Many Poggi's compositions in this exhibition expressed mythological motifs, which brought warnings from gods into profane, modern world - warnings which had never been listened to. Poggi's compositions formed a situation which was trying to make people understand that their world is about to be destroyed if those warnings are not considered.

Some people might have considered these emphases rather "didactic", but they were a constituent part of his art view, which consists of social engagement using specific means as well. These means were obvious also at the exhibition - the emphases were designed as a puzzle, consisiting of numerous useful items and elements from nature and accompanied with archetypes taken from the western culture. That is why these compositons represented an essay on human being and world rather than a common visual product; there is a mutual threat between the human being and the world, but only the human being has feelings towards the world, the world remains indifferent.

Poggi's creativity therefore reveals his personal attitude, for he does not exclude personal affections and dreams. He has stated in one of his manifestos:

" We are artists and we live in the society which measures art by its usefulness. But the fact is that this society needs the dreams of artists as a counterpoise to all every day nightmare it produces. We - the artists- are not here to beautify the world or to make people happy… Such artists, as we know from history, almost always ended tragically. But at the same time we realize that the reality can be altered, when viewed at as being changeable…Art is not merely art and the rest being just the rest, something different. No, quite the opposite - all that is left is art material. We strive to combine sense and imagination, we create art which presents and shows reality, revealing its hidden and lost possibilities."

Art and artists are nowadays part of "the world" and not isolated as in the past. And this is not true merely for Poggi the artist, but also for Poggi the human being. The first uses all those already mentioned forms of creativity in order to deal with as many aspects of life as possible. Whereas the latter can also be seen when talking to other people - also with those that have different points of view - and always being a good listener, a good explainer and a critic. He is aware of the fact that united Europe has a future, but there are many dangers that await it, he sees some dangers also in the field of art. Market and gallery managers have excluded original artists and made them marginal by setting their own standards, which are followed by many artists. Mafia and business are the words that can be associated with the art in the West.

I have always regarded Poggi as the one that knows what he is talking about. He knows art, culture, politics …and whenever the possibility arises he states his opinions through graphic arts. Why does he do that? To make sure that his opinions will be clear enough? Or does he do it because of his impulse that makes him do sketches and drafts, although the final product is never a drawing or a painting? I really do not know, but it appears that Poggi is an artist that changes his methods but nevertheless remains the same - the artist that has to express his feelings wherever he might be…

Poggi studied statuary art in Genova, where he also gave lectures for some time. His beginning was not that of the avant-garde. Later on he went to Yugoslavia, he came to Slovenj Gradec and to Maribor, where he worked in a studio with Slavko Tihec, the sculptor. He left Slovenia for Germany, but he gave a present to the city of Slovenj Gradec - a monumental modernistic sculpture - the great "S". This was the time when he had already abandoned classical sculpture - with some exceptions ( for example a statue at the cemetary in Slovenj Gradec) - and dedicated himself to modern, engaged art, such as at that time modern actions and happenings in the streets of Muenich. In the 70s Poggi up-graded his activities with arte utile, art that " demands art to be useful, socially allert, showing man and the world from different angles, and not to be only beautiful and aesthetic" - as it has been stated in one of his manifestos.

The 80s brought Poggi closer to environments, installations and also to scene painting - here it should be mentioned that Poggi was the art director of Halgato, a Slovene film directed by Andrej Mlakar in 1994.


gor



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zadnji popravek: 18-Oct-2002 17:09

ovežuje sas:: 2001