Francesca Calzà
Discover the talents of T.O.E. Art Market through a series of exclusive interviews with the artists featured on our platform. Together, we explore the artistic practices and research pursued by the artists who enrich our community with their unique artworks. Each week, we invite you to get to know better the challenges, languages, themes, and stories behind the works available, allowing you to connect with the creative minds that make T.O.E. Art Market a vibrant and dynamic showcase.
We are here in the company of Luca Granato. Let's start with a few questions to get to know him better:
Francesca Calzà - Would you like to tell us a bit about your artistic journey? How did you come to art?
Luca Granato - I started as a street artist during the high school. I remember having a lot of fun scraping the spray can on metal or walls, creating abstract effects on the letters. From there, it was a short step to several years of informal painting on canvas. At some point, I set aside the canvas as a support and began working directly with materials I found both in the city and the countryside, like barbed wire, nets, and metal sheets. Through these materials, I reflect on the concepts of constraint and precariousness.
Francesca Calzà - What encounters, cultural references, or moments have had a strong impact on the development of your research?
Luca Granato - Some encounters with people and organized groups that promote alternative living practices in places that today seem destined for abandonment have been very important. I loved the poetry of Franco Costabile, as well as the writings of Antonino Anile and Carlo Levi. I have learned a lot from Gurdjieff, and I appreciate Steiner.
Francesca Calzà - Are there any constants in your work? What drives you to investigate these topics?
Luca Granato - I enjoy working on intimacy and observing how time modifies my memories and history. I have always lived in Calabria and analyze the socio-cultural landscape that surrounds me and how certain forms influence my thoughts and behaviors.
Francesca Calzà - How do your cultural roots and personal experiences influence your artistic practice? Can you give us some examples?
Luca Granato - The South is a land of strong contradictions, and often one finds oneself moving within the constraints of unspoken and seemingly immutable daily rules. Everything and everyone push towards passivity and, as a last resort, emigration. On one hand, I witness my land emptying and desertifying rapidly. On the other hand, since 2019, I have been personally following the landings on our coasts and studying their consequences. An example can be given by the project "Lenti nel sogno", born as a posthumous reflection on the Cutro shipwreck, highlighting the sense of seeking intimacy that drives some people to undertake such a journey.
Francesca Calzà - How does a work come into being? Do you always start from a predefined idea, or does it arise from the creative process?
Luca Granato - My works arise from the suggestions of what surrounds me. I seek and document the poetic and dramatic heritage of the places I inhabit, the last testimonies of the bond between man and land, to build a historical and geopolitical mapping. I believe that, at the origin of a work, there is an initial spontaneous idea or spark from which one begins to design and refine, always remaining attentive and observant of what happens in the meantime.