Francesca Calzà
Francesca Calzà - Your professional experience and studies highlight a continuous interchange between performing arts and photography. How has this connection to theater influenced your artistic research?
Flavio Di Renzo - I have always sought a language that would adapt to my needs, following every phase of my personal growth, life moments, and inevitably, the social context around me. Drawing alone was never sufficient, nor was performance art, explored first through contemporary dance since the age of 9 and later with TeatroDanza. However, one day, during a lesson with Catherine Diverres at the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art in Milan, where I had recently moved to complete the final year of Art School, I found a small camera in my hands by chance. In that moment, I realized that it would be the missing link in my artistic practice. Through the viewfinder, everything around me disappeared, and an intimate and unique relationship with the dancer was triggered. I was on stage, dancing with them, and felt part of that lesson from a distance. Theater has been my training ground, providing not only the initial technical skills but also a precise, symbolic, allegorical aesthetic where images are punctuated by music, creating a harmonious resonance.
Francesca Calzà - Your work integrates various media capable of complementing each other, as demonstrated by the SlashFolder AR App, a tool you developed to animate your shots, giving them a mutable form. What need gave rise to this innovative idea that combines AR and Fine Art Photography?
Flavio Di Renzo - Building on my previous response, it was clear that photography alone, despite its ability to project me onto the stage, would not be enough. Beyond the moment of capturing an image, its product is static, immobile, and silent. A quote from one of my stage photography teachers, Roberto Masotti, inspired me: "Images must sound". Why not make it possible? Today, through AR, images move exactly like they did in that theatre, resonating. The Opere in continuo divenire format allows me to make my works changeable over time, enabling me to deepen them and continue the narrative. Even though one day my works will be distant from me, I will always be in communication with them through Augmented Reality. It is therefore Art that collects within it Digital Art that would otherwise only live on a monitor to be enjoyed. In this way, different languages merge, coexisting exactly as on a stage.
Francesca Calzà - Without straying too far, I would like to address with you the challenges presented by new technologies and their impact on photography. You have incorporated augmented reality into your shots to expand their expressive possibilities. How do you think these tools can be implemented without replacing artists?
Flavio Di Renzo - Every language evolves and follows the flow of history, as well as the different possibilities offered by technology. I believe it is inevitable. However, I have tried to harness the potential of these tools in the best possible way. Firstly, AR does not replace reality but adds expressive possibilities. It has the ability to bring together different artists who meet through different languages in a dimension that overlaps with reality, yet does not diminish it, collaborating "hand in hand" for a common purpose. At the core of every operation, albeit digital, there is the artist's need to communicate something, an idea, a message. Although it involves artificial intelligence, behind every artistic operation, we will always find a human mind moved by motivation and personal experience, which is unique and inevitably phenomenological.
Francesca Calzà - If you had to identify some reference figures and moments that have influenced your career, who would they be?
Flavio Di Renzo - I was talking about lived experiences that motivate my artistic commitment. Certainly the first of these is the one with my family, in particular with my grandmother Lena and the L'Aquila earthquake of 2009, which turned her life upside down. At the foundation of every project for me there is always the goal of transforming a negative event into something positive for others. My photography is a kind of laic prayer that aims to transform fears and difficult moments into extremely positive messages, even though the stylistic imagery I bring to the stage has dark and somber tones. I would mention Silvia Lelli who confirmed my work during my studies. I also mention Chiara Ferella Falda, who gave me many opportunities to prove myself in the field with exhibitions and major artistic initiatives. In conclusion, I remember being struck by Gabriele Croppi's theatre shots and his way of constructing the scene. In general, I have always been very attracted to romanticism and man's relationship with nature; citing the philosopher Immanuel Kant or the German painter Caspar David Friedrich, and finally citing William Turner, I think it depends on where I grew up, in the mountains.
Francesca Calzà - Speaking about our origins, I perceived mixed feelings towards your homeland, Abruzzo, a region to which you are deeply attached and to which you have dedicated an important project: Più. Can you tell us about this intricate relationship?
Flavio Di Renzo - The relationship with my homeland has always been complex, a bond of love and hate, because as a child, Abruzzo was not sufficient for my curiosity and desire to create. In the Più project, I tell the story of a land that betrays, gives life, work, and family, but at the same time takes away everything trembling and leaves great voids. It was difficult to define myself as a person in that land and I often remember some experiences as traumas. However, as I got older, I came to appreciate more the value of returning. Only later did it become clear to me that my starting point would also be my final destination. Thus, a light was kindled in my search, and according to my poetics, I discovered the need to tell, value, and make those places known. Più is a complex multidisciplinary work that uses an Abruzzese female figure who, despite having lost everything, rediscovers herself as the protagonist of her life. It is a journey composed of many stops, each reflecting on significant existential themes such as traditions and values, looking to the future with earthly awareness.
Francesca Calzà - Physicality is a recurring element in your photography, visible in works such as Lungs, Bodyscape, Riparo dal passato and Giunti. What drives you to be intimately connected to the corporeal dimension?
Flavio Di Renzo - I believe it's because I have worked on my body since childhood, analyzing the changes due to growth and expressing emotions through dance and performance. Each image is laden with symbols, allegorical containers in which the spectators can find their own experience and make the artwork their own. In fact, Nonna Lena has become everyone's grandmother, tied to the olive tree, a symbol of strength and durability sharing with the future generations her present, which has already passed. In Lungs, I depict two lungs branching out like trees without leaves. Recently, Nonna Lena was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, so it will become increasingly difficult for her to breathe. In Bodyscape, her body becomes a landscape and her bare skin resembles the grassy but bare fabric typical of high altitudes. The reflection in the lower part of the work attests that her corporeality will one day no longer exist, but will always be reflected in the memory of those who remain. Riparo dal passato shows a woman finding shelter in a shed made with a "tarp", a dark green net that we use to gather olives. Her hands, always joined in prayer, make visible the faith, symbol of family and strong bonds. And after all, Giunti focuses specifically on the effects of work and sacrifice through Nonna Lena's hands, also symbols of a lifestyle dedicated to the land.
Francesca Calzà - In conclusion, I would like to ask you about a special project, Emikrania, a work that will focus on a medical condition, migraine with aura, with the intention of involving professionals in the medical field. What is the source of this path?
Flavio Di Renzo - Everything is organically connected. The Emikrania project will draw on all my experiences and stems from the need to tell the story, through the artistic gesture, of migraine with aura, a condition from which I have suffered since childhood. Emikrania has accompanied me for years, seeking a strong opportunity for realization, craving dialogue and is about to come to light after years of research and exploratory journeys with the aim of raising awareness. The viewer will experience all the phases of a migraine attack in an artistic way. It is a complex, multidisciplinary and multi-sensory work, divided into three chapters, corresponding to the three phases of a migraine attack with aura. The viewer will be immersed in an exhibition that will lead him or her to experience each phase at first hand. In the initial chapter devoted to the aura, mixed visual languages will be explored, combining digital and analogue photography to the multi-layered exploration of different types of aura using augmented and virtual reality in order to juxtapose artificial intelligence with unconventional and analogue techniques. The subjects represent a metaphorical representation of the world around me during a migraine attack. The second part, which will explore the theme of loss of touch and speech due to temporary paresthesia, will be dedicated to performance. Meanwhile, in the third and final part, sounds and various interpretations of darkness related to concepts of isolation and loneliness will be investigated. This phase will be supported by medical reports and visual examinations conducted over the years, providing the viewer with a positive comparison that will encourage them to become sensitized to the treated theme, understanding the importance of this medical issue which is still too isolated and unknown to many. The nature of this project is rooted in a widespread and often ignored disorder. It is one of the most debilitating chronic conditions, so it is my duty through my art to show a new way of perceiving reality. I firmly believe that through sharing one can find comfort, strength, inspiration or simple reflection.
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Flavio Di Renzo (1993), born and raised in Abruzzo, even before finishing his studies he decided to move to Milan, where he still lives and where he graduated from the Art High School. From performing arts to dance-theatre, in Milan he discovered photography, in which he found his most authentic language. However, the strong link with theatre persists. This synergy takes the form of collaborations with the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Art, as well as the National Dance Academy in Rome, the Burri Continuo Theatre and Ater Balletto. In Milan, he completed his training at the European Institute of Design (IED), where, thanks to the photographic project Tra apparenza e inganno (Between Appearance and Deception), he was awarded a merit scholarship for the master's degree in advanced photography, supervised by Silvia Lelli and Roberto Masotti. This path led him to realise In Equilibrium, on the Borde, exhibited in the IED photography collective with the support of Il Fotografo magazine. In 2022, In Equilibrium, on the Border will be one of the protagonists of Kaleidoscope, curated by Fortunato D'Amico and Chiara Ferella Falda for Genova Be Design Week 2022 and Genova stART at the Lazzaro contemporary art gallery. Among his exhibitions in Milan, he boasts the solo exhibition L'Uomo e la Città - Expo 2015 - Riflessi, curated by Chiara Ferella Falda and produced by Superstudio13. He specialized in Augmented and Virtual Reality at the Italian Institute of Design (IDI) in Milan. In 2021, he founded SlashFolder App. Thanks to this tool, he develops the format Opere in continuo divenire: through the creation of the SlashFolderAR app, Augmented Reality brings works of art to life. In the same year, he presented the Più project, which received the high patronage of the Abruzzo Region at the MIA Photo Fair in collaboration with RED LAB Gallery, where Artribune magazine reported it as one of the ten most interesting stands of this edition. This was followed by honourable mentions at the Monochrome Photo Awards and the Annual Photo Awards and, among these, the work Bodyscape reached the finals of the Arte Laguna 2023 Award at the Arsenale Nord in Venice. In addition, he is one of the artists of Looking for Art, for which he is taking part in the art project for Palazzo Borromeo Segno, curated by Francesca Bardazzi, followed by the group exhibition, curated by Marco Eugenio Di Giandomenico, Free from Barriers, presented at Palazzo Reale in Milan and subsequently exhibited at Spazio Big Santa Marta. Recently, he was honoured at the well-known Turin contemporary art fair Paratissima.
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