Lorenzo Madaro from Lecce
Your new daily ritual ...
Very simple: I wake up, studio, I read, work, I write, I teach online with my students from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce, project; I talk on the phone or chat for hours on the phone with friends, fool around. Then I go around the block. Every day I go to the supermarket just to buy yogurt. I carefully observe all the details that my gaze encounters along the way: front doors, peeling shutters, balconies. Every so often on the street I also meet my high school Latin teacher and I tell her that she is always in great shape. And I dwell on corners never seen before, after so many years that I live in that street that connects my house to the supermarket. Then I watch two or three movies a night, but it depends on the evenings. And I go to sleep. Every day like this. Regardless of the last few days, where I also happen to escape to the sea: Otranto, Torre dell’Orso, in two days I will go to Porto Selvaggio. Waiting to be able to return to see exhibitions, museums, galleries and artist studios in Rome, Milan and elsewhere.
What you're missing? Your personal experience of "absence" and "lack".
I don't miss the exhausting rhythms, leave the house early in the morning, maybe the flights before dawn, the long days of intense work. I miss my closest friends very much, the beautiful evenings, the walks. So I miss being able to come home late. And of course I miss the exhibitions, the works, the skin of the works.
Museums and galleries have reacted to the moment with digitalization and virtuality. What are your "strategies" for establishing new relationships?
As for the galleries: I hope that we will soon return to a massive commitment in the gallery spaces, perhaps with an ever greater commitment to Italian artists, which deserve concrete support. But I think it's all the more important, Today more than ever, return to the artists' studios, perhaps in the company of collectors. I think it's important to come back, all together, in the places of creation, of close dialogue and planning: you have to work as a team to allow artists - and all of us - to have spaces for concrete confrontation. And museums should also start from the artists' studios.
How do you imagine the world, when everything will start again? We are realizing that we can live with less mobility?
We are deluding ourselves of this ability. Then we will lose our memory and go back to life, male, like before.
When all this is over: one thing to do and one never to do again.
One thing to do? See a good exhibit. One thing not to do? Visit a beautiful online exhibition.
Lorenzo Madaro he is an art critic and curator. After his master's degree in art history, he obtained a second level master's in Museology, museography and management of cultural heritage at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. He teaches History of Art and Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lecce. He collaborates with "Robinson" of Repubblica and is an art critic of the Roman edition of the same newspaper. Among the recent exhibitions: Umberto Bignardi. Visual experiments in Rome (1964-1967), Bianconi Gallery, Milan; Quiet, I retire to paint a picture, Blacksmiths Gallery, Milan, 2019; 1900s in Italy. From De Chirico to Fontana (Otranto Castle, 2018); To Keep At Bay, Bianconi Gallery, Milan 2018.