Drago Questionnaire

PAOLO CENCIARELLI | DRAGO QUESTIONNAIRE

PAOLO CENCIARELLI

IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME
IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS

What is your present state of mind? Gloriously confused, by a very precise type of confusion.
Fight the Power or Power the fight? I wouldn’t like to choose between the two. In time I have learned the value of subversion; now is not the time for a revolution, we need to get into the system and change it from within: subversion.
If not yourself, who would you be? A subversive?
What is time? A measurement. The measurement.
Do you have faith? Of course, my own.
Where are you now? In my studio, even if it is a non-working day. It isn’t easy for a subversive.
Your sliding doors? I struggle with being in control and I have asked myself that question many times. Taking a step back, and not taking into consideration issues that in the end were resolved, my biggest sliding doors question is what if I had decided to leave Rome?
Your butterfly effect? I imagine that everyone MUST have felt this effect at some point. I am a big fan of going with the flow, particularly if it flows in the direction of my dreams.
How is culture “infected”? There is a problem: I always thought that culture was singular, going back to the concept of flow, a movement made of currents, different temperatures; a sea of waters. Today’s “system of cultures” identifies more than one culture – multiple cultures?
I’m not so keen; I don’t want to give into the idea of a melting pot of cultures, or even of cultural sectors, gradients, ladders and air locks. There is only one culture, and there should only be one society and one politics, respecting and cherishing our differences, that together define “us”. Is trap music not similar to the virtuous gesture of an athlete? A bounce is also a sound, not just noise. I don’t think culture is infected, culture is a woman who wants to be swept off her feet and doesn’t like condoms. If I need to talk about infection, what and where is it? Is it given by a virus or bacteria? Power, money, talks, sex, drugs or even writings, texts, gestures, artworks with the aim to move us all? I am ready to become ill, but I am studying the symptoms and appropriate medicines to overcome the illness so I can move on to the next phase, to produce artwork.
What art do you have in your living room? Andy Warhol, Bansky, Donzelli, Mustafa Sabbagh, Le Corbusier, Davide Monteleone, Gianni Colosimo, some posters, photos and some mounted butterflies – a gift from a wonderful friend.
Your favorite heroine? Enrica, my mother.
3 books that changed your life? Cathedral by Carver, Liquid Modernity by Bauman, Pandora’s camera by Fontcuberta and the Dylan Dog comics.
What would you like to toast to? I have so many things I would like to toast to that I am not sure, in any case I would like it to be on a terrace amongst colored lighting.
Your greatest accomplishment? That I understood that I don’t know much, I matured late, the ability to make fantastic mistakes, and my HCES club.
In which restaurant would you want to eat your last supper and what would you order? McDonald’s, with a box of 20 nuggets, 2 mustard sauces and a ketchup.
Looking at yourself in the mirror, what do you see? What I haven’t managed to achieve, what I would like to achieve and sometimes, what I will achieve.
Your biggest regret? I don’t want to think about it.
Your ideal view? A skate park with a great bowl, a nice and easy one, friends, parked motorbikes, and already knowing what you will get up to that night.
Who is your favorite artist that nobody has heard of? Max Schaaf
Which artist should everyone know before the age of 18? Jason Jessee

You are organizing a dinner party, which 3 people would you invite (dead or alive)? First of all I could do with having two dinner parties: one with Sergio, Jason Jessee and Michael Jackson, and the other with Ettore Sottsas, Gillo Dorfles and Fabio Mauri. I would talk to both of them about the other, and then after going through a selection ourselves, would come the invite, the dinner invite.
Which books are on your nightstand? As of recent, the last book my Massimo Carlotto and Pandora’s camera, which I have had for years.
Yin or Yang? Both, thank you.
Your favorite Exhibition? All over by Jasper Waldesten and Fotografiska in Stockholm.
Your favorite Museum? Louvre
Your favorite Curator? Where do I start…
Who is winning: the streets or the institutions? The street is always winning… Before, the street was having an impact on the system, now the system has to change if the streets wants it to, the street is the foundation of the system. I repeat, we must all look at subversion as our best weapon, a clean and sharp one.
Who do you dislike? Arseholes. Don’t ask me which ones because they are the same ones that you don’t like.
A personal legend? Lorenzo Preti.
One film that changed your life? If it changed my life I could not have been grown up, so either RoboCop or Terminator. Then I watched Santa Maradona.
Your idea of poverty? There is only one, and it’s nothing to joke about. Then the idea of poverty already tells you something social status.
Your disguise? Can’t you tell?
Your idea of mystery? Something that is so far removed from us that it is unknown. It is the emotion that comes with being next to the foundations of real art and science. Those who do not know it and are not able to found amazement or joy, or like dead people, a candle blown in the wind. As Einstein said, the mysterious, albeit mixed with fear, created, amongst other things, religion.
Your favorite hero?Capitan Spaulding.
The theme song to your life? Kind of Blue.
Your enemy? Everyday hecticness.
Your favorite drink? Americano, thanks.
If you could choose, how would you like to die? In bed, I am too old to die young now.
Your motto? NO GUTS, NO GLORY.

Vangelo MMXVIII Paolo Cenciarelli

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