Pietro Dente: Urban Symphonies
The undisputed protagonists of Pietro Dente's artworks are cities: urban skylines of large contemporary metropolises, real and surreal spaces that capture the viewer's gaze, and that hint at panoramas of a much more mysterious 'Elsewhere'. We met with the artist to explore the poetics behind his latest production.
The series "Aria Dura per la finzione di uno scorcio urbano" was created in 2008. Can you tell us its genesis?
After years of various technical and stylistic experiments, in 2001 I started to insert transparent sheets of Plexiglas on the canvas. At that time, I was creating naturalistic landscapes on both canvas and Plexiglas, overlapping them using spacers: this overlapping wanted to represent the idea of an almost psychedelic splitting of reality, the plate as a parallel reality, similar to that of the senses but ethereal and elusive. With this technique I made many series with different subjects, until I came to a first breakthrough in 2007. Returning from a trip to Berlin, I began to work taking my cue from the landscapes I had experienced and photographed in the city, initiating a synthesis between the technique developed in my previous works and the disruptive (at times even somewhat oppressive) power of the urban spaces of the metropolis. I entitled that series “Scorci berlinesi” and the next one ”Città in festa”. In the latter series, I started layering and scratching the acrylic background on canvas and intensifying the use of colours, making them brighter and more vibrant. In 2008, I started to create more complex and structured urban compositions in the series “Aria Dura per la finzione di uno scorcio urbano”. “Aria Dura” (Hard air in English) is solidified ether, the plane where 'magic' happens and where art recreates reality.
The visual impact of your works comes not only from the extremely faithful perspective views and the skilful use of colour. The almost immersive perspective you use is the result of a synergy between the subjects and the materials you choose, capable of reproducing a third dimension that 'leans' towards the observer. How important is the technique you use within your work?
Technique for me is one of the most important and interesting elements in an artist. Through the technical medium, the artist can realise his poetics and thought. The idea for my works often stems from the reinterpretation of reality through the search for space and colour with the help of plastic materials. By “technique” I do not only mean painting technique, that would be obsolete, but a combination of heterogeneous elements that come together in the creation of the work. Before the use of polycarbonate, I experimented with a variety of materials such as: wire, polystyrene, plastics, wood, oil paint, light bulbs and neon, computer prints, toy soldiers, etc. At present, I prefer to paint views of metropolises almost exclusively from above, creating the details on the transparent sheet with relief colours, which I then superimpose on the acrylic-painted canvas to create a three-dimensional effect. This gives the work power, continuous movement and surprising optical effects.
Reality and surreality. Truth and fiction. Momentum and method. Abstract and figurative. Observing subject and observed object. The rhythmic contrasts in your works are the result of well-calibrated contradictions and various artistic influences. How do you manage to bring this creative chaos together in each piece of art?
Chaos is very important in my creative process, and it often collides with and is influenced by strict rules that I try to impose on myself in order to materialise it in the work. This contrast between rules and chaos is omnipresent in my production (in an old series of oil paintings with saints and knights there were even small spaces where one could improvise anything). These two elements are in perpetual battle with each other and, like arcane powers, are currently in an unstable equilibrium. It often happens that one prevails over the other automatically and unconsciously, like when I prepare a detailed list of colours that I then forget, ending up using completely different ones!
Regarding my artistic influences, I feel great gratitude towards them and towards my predecessors including: Klimt, Magritte, Klee, Kandinsky, Cage, Duccio di Buoninsegna and many others, so much so that I dedicated a “series within a series” with “Punto, linea e grattacielo”. In this series, which is still open, I merge my urban views with styles and methods of other artists of the past who have transmitted something stimulating to me. The question of the contrast between abstract and figurative I believe is based on very limiting assumptions, in the sense that a composition - even from the past - in order to hold up must use lines and colours that in themselves I consider abstract, systems and expedients that isolated from the subjects become something else. I believe that the subject for many artists has been a pretext to show something else, something better, something beyond the reality perceived by the senses. This is the true purpose of art, too often disguised by subjects that one is 'forced' to represent. My landscapes full of elements are but a pretext to indulge myself with lines and colours in which I immerse myself to the point of forgetting the subject in favour of a colouristic and spatial overview that I could define as abstract.
Your works are chaotic and silent at the same time, compositions - we could say - with a synaesthetic aftertaste. What influence has music had on your poetics and on your artistic production?
When you create a work with many elements, it is very difficult for there to be a minimal harmony. However, it is also true that, like in a symphony, full parts and empty parts come together to create harmony and balance. The influence of music has been fundamental for me and I have also tried my hand at creating it. Often, in parallel with the various series of paintings, I composed music using the same themes and/or methods used in the series at the time. I composed music for the 'Medieval' series by composing music for organ and harpsichord; or while I was in a materic/abstract phase as a painter, musically I was atonal/minimalist. I also remember a period when I was 'playing' with war using toy soldiers and computer art while composing suites and symphonies with military marches and bombings... the last musical work was in 2008 and is parallel to the last series which continues to this day. It is a mix of all the previous music but with sounds closer to urban environments. While I paint I also always listen to music, possibly very loud, and when I create buildings I often feel like I am drawing musical notes; but then...who will know how to interpret them?
