Good evening. What a thrill! Super amplified. What you just saw is the beginning of a recent work that I made in collaboration with, as always, many people. In this case, Unframed721 and Crazy Pandas. And it's in NFT format. But today I'm not going to talk about NFT, although it's a very interesting topic, which is key for a lot of debates, and at times definitely controversial. Why I cared about the NFT was rather that singular space-time dimension that I could include in my practice. In order to get rid of the NFT subject right away, what these gentlemen did - who knows who these gentlemen are? through the NFT format and blockchain was becoming able to transfer the uniqueness that was typical of an object, usually, e.g. a work, a sculpture, or a painting, into purely digital, totally dematerialized content. Precisely this dematerialization is the point that interested me. This body, the body of the work, no longer occupied space. Further, it somehow altered time in the indissoluble space-time binome Precisely time is the focus of my talk today. This is the first focus, there are two. I keep the last for the end - and it's the most important of course. Let's say that this work is called Forever: it already includes the terms of time in the name itself. It's the product of various elements. But there are two main object-subjects, as you can see. On the one hand, there's a plastic bottle that somehow hints at a complex aspect of our contemporary situation. It immediately recalls something about sustainability and the ecosystem. However, inside itself it houses that matter which is fundamental for life: water. So this moving shape already brings a certain sense of friction. The shape rotates like in a ballet, a kind of constant ouroboros— it enters, morphs, transcends, and becomes another object on the consumer market, i.e. another container, which is a glass bottle. At the elemental level of play, the element that characterizes it in this case is fire. It's evident that the collective imagination takes us somewhere else right away. These two polarities, these two voltages, these two different moments continue playing a constant dance, a ballet - as I said before, a kind of ouroboros, interspersing each other without ever finalizing one or the other of their paths. Nobody drinks from the bottle, the molotov doesn't shatter into pieces against any wall. But this tension remains, the tension that an infinite, ideal time - so not a real time - is able to tell. Now - micro-macro. The interregnum between micro and macro is a gigantic subject. It's so vast that everyone can face it differently. I tried to put it into my practice, I tried to relate to this topic, so interesting and so vast, by inserting it into my world. So I made a division. I started to imagine it as if they were places, or, better, spaces. There's a micro dimension, which is an internal dimension that has its own, singular and unique space and time. Then there's a macro dimension, which is external and has another totally different time and another totally different space. The balance between these two elements somehow defines the balance of an individual in a human being. What happened to external time? Let's call it material time - macro time. In my life, and I imagine the same has happened to many of you, I've noticed the incredible acceleration of this external, material time. As a result, it has also generated an incredible interest in me. Such acceleration was so constant, at times even incessant. Thus, it became so present that I almost couldn't even perceive it anymore. It was almost a form of stalemate. After all, if we don't stop then we can't appreciate this acceleration. This dimension, this moment of great acceleration generated a small tear. I'm talking about my experience: but I think someone here, like me, felt a little bit of this tear, this kind of small divergence between what was going on outside at constant speed with the effort it imposed on us - even an interesting one - and the internal dimension, our personal and private dimension. From this perspective, possibly, technology has boomed, accelerated an even greater acceleration process. Technology is one of humankind's higher examples. It's the fruit of passion, emotion, research, knowledge, and knowledge sharing. Technology, however, many times, more and more recently, has been a bit absorbed by some logic, which is instead market logic... this, especially for the consumption that this market manages to generate. Now, that little crevice I was talking about earlier has opened in me. I had to follow a reverse process to realize this moment. That fracture, that little tear became even bigger. I remember in detail the strength, energy, and total imbalance in favor of external time. And I remember my inability to return to that unique, magical and, above all, vital dimension, which is our inner space and time. From there, spontaneously, the fundamental urgency of finding a way to get back in touch with that dimension has emerged. Indeed, think about it. Obviously, I've thought about it a lot, as I had to talk to you about it. Think about it, that's the dimension that identifies us as people. It allows us to then have a presence and a body within the debate of material existence. It lets us get in touch with others in a specific way, and to tell a difference, which is the most important thing. Hence, this urgency, little by little, has materialized with the importance of cultivating this place, of cultivating this other space and this other time, which doesn't necessarily follow the rhythm of the external one. It often fails to keep up with this constant acceleration. Here comes into play the other fundamental theme. Possibly, that's the most meaningful thing I can tell you here as an artist: the artistic practice. Artistic practice, in my case, evidently represented that shape and vector that has allowed me to reconnect with that dimension. It's a very effective tool. Other things don't have its specific affordances, precisely because it can be everything and its opposite. It gets in, like a kind of tiny lever in the weft, in the warp of the spatio-temporal fabric. Thus, it generates a totally different one, which feeds on other rhythms, maybe even faster than the external one. Faster or slower, it doesn't matter - it's a different one. This dimension that creates art becomes a place. If we frequent it slowly, then this place will help us. When I talk about artistic practice, I'm not just referring to the practice of those who do it, that is myself, who have always lived from it and this energy. I'm referring to those who experience art. What generates this process - it did it in me and I hope it can do it in everyone - is at best a renewed awareness of this space. Above all is a renewed awareness of this immense dimension inside ourselves that evidently allows us to get in touch with ourselves in a different way. It liberates us from that feeling I often experienced of being inadequate and incapable in keeping that external rhythm, which is so interesting, so rich, but also so tyrannical. One of the most magical things we discover by using and experiencing the times of art, and re-inhabiting these places, as if they were places, is precisely the ability to have a vision, People always speak of "the artist's vision." The artist's vision is nothing more than the capacity, the desire, and perseverance to inhabit this place and experience this dimension that features a different time and space, and that stands in a different way. This difference can involve problems but also an immense creativity. Being able to have a vision means changing the vision we have of ourselves, and ultimately succeed in projecting this vision out. This means being able to speak again on tiptoes of a theme like the future. Evidently, the future is characterized by a dramatic paradigm - rightly so from every point of view, alas, given its absolute level of criticality. We're all telling it to each other, it's tangible. Now, art offers this possibility. It's not the only tool; there are other vectors that bring us into contact with these inner dimensions and allow us to rebuild this vision of ourselves in the world. But it's definitely very effective, and that's what I can talk about because I've experienced it in my life. The criticality that we are currently experiencing is absolutely transversal and touches every point. But somehow, it's also the motivation that must now push us to try to leap forward. After all, no individual, no human being - at least, I don't know about you, but rarely I leaped into evolution when I was totally relaxed and completely at ease. We always corner ourselves in more and more troubles to try and make jumps. I believe this corner to be oppressive enough, right now. Thus I suggest you to begin practicing art as a place, as a habit, with its times, spaces, and distinction from the flow - I'm talking about art, not the art market - its flows, its capabilities to tell different stories. This thing will produce, as it did it in me, a change, a transformation, an evolution, an expansion of this space. This small environment that we forgot to visit will become almost a slice of territory, almost a whole part of the landscape, and it will be productive of a different vision, a vision of ourselves, and above all it will allow us, ultimately, to start producing a vision of a new world, and maybe, in the end, even be able to transform it a little. Thank you. (Applause)
