(Adnkronos) – Inner listening, through art, and spirituality to resist the “drift of society” permeated with superficiality and materialism. It is the fulcrum of the essay ‘Abstraction as Resistance’ by the artist, writer and performer Roberto Floreani (De Piante Editore, 2021), considered today the most mature and convincing abstractionist in Italy. “The essay crosses the history of Abstraction, since its origins (1912) – explains the author to Adnkronos – characterized by an intimate relationship with spirituality, thus questioning the inner dimension of man and how this can be foundational in the life of each of us. Characteristics that today appear obsolete, compared to a widespread superficiality, the prevalence of price over value, the excessive power of materialism “.
“Reaffirming the relevance of inner listening, in my case through art, automatically becomes a denunciation, a form of resistance to this drift of society” says Floreani. But in the essay many topics are addressed: the rediscovery of forgotten artists, the spirituality declined in Theosophy and Anthroposophy, up to the influences of finance and cryptocurrencies. A very topical essay, then? “We live in complex times – he highlights – tackling the topic of art today also means dealing with all these areas”.
Resist, then … and what could one give up? “Claiming a resistance does not automatically mean escaping the current flow that pushes in the opposite direction – replies the artist – It is a daily struggle also between the comfort of the politically correct, too often veiled in hypocrisy, and the extreme inconvenience of be considered ‘out of date’ and therefore disqualified from communication. In reality, that of the Present is one of the central figures of the last century: claimed by Nietzsche, Jünger, Camus, Baudrillard and many others “.
“It is the courage to affirm one’s own original opinion that can change things – Floreani remarks – not the consent devoid of truth”.
What is the role of Art and the artist today, a time of appearing and not of being, of materialism, of social exhibitionism, in a digital and therefore multimedia era, dominated by the speed of information? “The ‘resistant’ artist who invokes intellectual honesty, the courage of his own opinions, the search for an inner dimension, plays a social role in himself – he underlines – and his contemporaneity is also revealed in his attitude to current times : social, fast, multimedia. One thing therefore by no means excludes the other. If anything, it is the way of dealing with both “.
What does it mean to be an artist today for Roberto Floreani, what difficulties in this choice? “Since 1980, the year I graduated, I have done nothing else – he tells Adnkronos – accepting the great difficulties of a completely improvised sector, devoid of reliable references, with a market, the Italian one, in fact very small. One step at a time, often made up of sacrifices, always aimed at convincing one’s research. Not feeling like advising any of my daughters to follow in their father’s footsteps, never giving up, as in sport and in life in general “.
“The artist, however, has never been a figure characterized by an easy life – he notes – It must be said that the historical avant-gardes of the early twentieth century have claimed a different attention to the artist, who has emancipated himself from a general situation of precariousness and often of real non-existence. In the contemporary there are numerous examples of artists who have become authentic economic and communication rulers. In almost all cases it remains a complex choice even today, hardly practicable and achievable without other economic support, characterized by great interior contrasts also caused by a widespread, often frustrating, rate of misunderstanding “.
“Even if you would not say from the statistics, I believe that an indispensable gift of the artist is psychic solidity – he then observes – In fact, many artists give in to despair and often succumb”.
There are those who see the artists in a sort of ivory tower, as an elite distant from the real needs of society. “It may be true, but only in part – replies the author of ‘Abstraction as Resistance’ – The need to ‘do tribe’, in an often elitist way, concerns artists who ride the news by looking at the golden world of fashion, the main investor in this area. I feel I belong to a different history, like most of the abstractionists of the last century, which has as its precedents the futurists, the abstractionists of the 30s, 50s, 70s, figures like Umberto Boccioni, of whom I wrote a biography from the side of the artist, where a total identification with his own research becomes dominant. The authentic Art-Life, therefore “.
Let’s talk about young people, bombarded by constant social solicitations and false myths: how to approach them to art? “Simply by dedicating myself to it – replies Floreani – I collaborate with numerous universities and participate with a certain frequency in conventions and conferences. If the initiatives are carried out in places dedicated to culture – because this is what it is about – and not to entertainment, if the speaker’s commitment is to convey intensity, authentic and not empty and stereotyped messages, the young person remains the most receptive subject. . There can undoubtedly be ample margins of distraction such as the pestering of social media, however preferable to that of hunger, for example, but a truth that in the end we should tell ourselves is that involvement in this kind of thinking has always concerned a small minority. Reflection, mass depth, the vanguard of consensus do not exist, they never existed “.