Meeting Giusy was my first big test and it means a lot to me. At that time I tested my skills and it represents the first proof of confidence in my work by people from the art world. But most important it was the first step of a path I would have chosen to follow a couple of months later.
Once back at home I bought a MacBook Pro that has become my greatest resource after my resourcefulness. Even before to unwrap it I took a train to Bologna where I went to visit Arte Fiera, meet people and doing another step on the way to enter the art field.
I remember February as a sad time. I was graduated from six months and I could not see perspectives. There were a lot of art activities but I could not have many expectations on them for my future. Spending a night with friends in Reggio Emilia I was not able to see anything good in my future.
I went to Rome and as usual I felt good at the museum. Then I went to Milan. It was different from all the other times. I decided to leave. When I performed with Marina Abramović my departure was already booked. Unpredictably, I had to leave earlier than ten days because of an invitation from Tate. I packed my luggages and left for real. I had to leave. I left my home to find myself, to recover my dignity, to grow up and make me new.
The invitation for the Red Mansion Art Prize. I was invited by an artist involved in the exhibition. A great evidence of everything I did until then had been right. I saw Zaha Hadid for the very first time.
It was really cold at CSM Interim Show in Bermondsey in May. But if I am not wrong V22 gallery is in the same place where Damien Hirst held his very first exhibition.
I was not saving energy and a night at Whitechapel Gallery became the hardest night as a londoner ever. I went back home by my last energy and I went to sleep with temperature. However, I did not give up because I did not go so far from my homeplace to give up.
Summer arrived and my health recovered. I spent a whole afternoon at CSM Degree Show but I did not find what I supposed to find.
My three-month English course was coming to an end when I went to Elephant & Castle at SuJeong's house with Seah. There are so many nice people in the world, why should I stay here waiting to meet them by chance? I prefer to go all around the world to meet them as soon as possible. That is what I like to do!
At the beginning of August I joined a four-hour queue to meet Mr.Brainwash, say something unpleasant to him and get a signature. The first 250 visitors would have get a limited edition print. I was the 243rd. But I did not get my print yet. Fucking Americans!
My time in London was ended, I had reached my goals and I went to Turnpike Lane to say goodbye to the person who helped me the most to take the decision to move to London five months before. The morning after I changed five buses to went back home. It was worth it staying till dawn.
I said goodbye to all my friends and on September 7th I left London going back to Italy. It was still hot in Italy but even there summer was ending. I was going to live the third winter in a row.
What happened after I signed the Frieze contract.
The day before leaving London I attended an interview at Frieze headquarter. Two weeks later I went back home Frieze offered me the position of Press Assistant at Frieze Art Fair 2012. It was a dream coming true. Just other two weeks at home and I would have been in London again. Finally I got a job in London. At one of the three most important art fairs in the world.
However, there was a meeting to attend before leaving Italy. I went to Milan and I met two art curators that worked for last year Venice Biennale. We talked about my art projects and I had some very good tips that night as well as a great chance to meet established people I was dreaming to talk to since several months.
I was ready to go to London for the fourth time this year but just a couple of days before taking the plane I received an e-mail from New York. One of the several contests I entered some months before went well and one of my paintings had been selected to be displayed at NURTUREart 2012 Benefit in New York. I would have dealt with it as soon as I would be back home after Frieze.
Firstly, I met my friends Kana and Takeshi that hosted me for ten days while I was working at the fair. They are the best people I met in London so far and my thanks to them will never be enough. I slept on their living room floor for ten nights: I called it Japanese style sleeping. The second day they offered me to join them in their bed but I refused. I was living my long-time dream and I wanted to have Japanese friends since I was a child. That is the reason why sleeping on the floor was not a problem at all. During those days I felt the happiest man on Earth. I can say that the week I worked at Frieze has been the best time in my life.
I was hosted in Chalk Farm that is ten minutes walk from Regents Park, where Frieze was placed. Every morning I got up and walked through Regents Park until Frieze tent. It was such a lovely time!! I did not complain even when it was raining, I did not have an umbrella, I slipped on the sidewalk hitting my knee and I got home completely wet.
As Press Assistant at Frieze Press Office I worked with the most successful people I have ever met in the Arts field: Tate TV, RAI, MTV, Fondazione Trussardi, Fact Not Fiction Film. I met not only established people but also guys working in the arts field with same great motivation of mine. I am proud to have become friend with some of them!
I really wanted to stay more in London but I had to pack a painting and send it from Italy to Brooklyn, USA. I just had time to have a dinner with my best friends. I was really pleased to see Sue that night.
We went to eat Korean food and while I was going back home I was so much happy that I danced!
As soon as I arrived at home in Italy I started to prepare all the documents I needed to send the painting in America. I took a train, went to Bologna at the Ministry to sign papers, went back home, called the express delivery company, packed the painting and the day after I said goodbye to the first ever painting of mine to be displayed abroad.
The weather was awful also in New York and NURTUREart annual benefit was postponed because of the hurricane Sandy!
At the end of yet another trip, sitting on the train while traveling, it was very rewarding to think at all the things I had done till then, including my painting that would have been exhibited in New York very soon. Sandy was gone and the exhibition was ready to open. NURTUREart 2012 Benefit was the most successful benefit in NURTUREart's history and even ARTINFO wrote about it.
I did not wait that all of my reviews were published that I was back in London for the fifth time in a year. I had to do something I did not have chance before: I booked open days and I visited universities such as Slade School of Fine Art, Central Saint Martins and Royal College of Art. If it was the first time to enter Slade and RCA it was not for CSM. It was my aim to know better CSM and now I can say to know what I wanted. And please, let me say that for a guy from Castelnuovo Fogliani (nobody knows where it is, right? check Google Maps) like me it is a real pleasure to have friends that attended or are studying at CSM!
Thanks to Frieze now I also have friends that work at art galleries and it was great going to visit them during their working time. They made me feel part of the art business and honestly there is not anything better for me. But a successful business needs good contacts and I have to keep fresh my ability to be in the right place at the right time. That is why on Saturday December 8th I was around Bethnal Green. Cell Project Space was my destination. To be there I did not have time to eat that day. At ten in the night I was unbelievably hungry but it was worth it!
Jan 28 Bologna - Arte Fiera
Feb 22-24 Roma - three-day trip with Martina
Mar 17-18 Venezia - Premio Arte Laguna opening night
Apr 1-3 London - Damien Hirst Press View at Tate Modern
Apr 14-Sep 7 London - studying English and having one of the best time in my life
Oct 7-16 London - working at Frieze omg
Oct 28 Venezia - getting wet with Hyun
Nov 8-11 Padova and Torino - having lovely time with artists and people from Contemporary art world
Dec 3-11 London - meeting friends all around London and thinking about my future at some great schools
2 Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011, Gagosian Gallery - I have been at three of them: two in London and one in Rome!
3 The Unilever Series: Tino Sehgal 2012, Tate Modern, London - I was bored and a bit lonely so I went to Tate because it is one of my favorite places in the world. I found Tino Sehgal directing a huge performance piece that involved so many people I could not count them. I do not even know how many times I saw this performance in three months...
4 Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes, Carsten Höller, MACRO, Roma - DOWNLOAD 6mins AUDIO from Double Carousel by Simo Monsi!!!
5 Doris Salcedo (Plegaria Muda and A Flor de Piel), White Cube, London
6 Alberto Garutti didascalia/caption, PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milano
7 Tomás Saraceno On Space Time Foam, HangarBicocca, Milano
8 Leander Schwazer A symbol of freedom, Placentia Arte, Piacenza
9 The Red Mansion Art Prize 2012, Royal Academy Schools, London - I was in love that night, I was in love with art. And I can not say how many times I went there just to watch Kate Liston's Moon Rabbit.
10 Gillian Wearing, Whitechapel Gallery, London
11 Jessica Rankin 'Skyfolds 1941-2010' , White Cube, London
12 Silvia Hell A Form of History, Placentia Arte, Piacenza
13 Fabrizio Passarella Retrophuture, The Gallery Apart, Roma - I watched this video four times in a row, recorded the audio and started to listen at it obsessively since then.
Stefano Arienti
Achille Bonito Oliva - he was the first person I recognized during Frieze Art Fair opening day.
Loris Cecchini
Gordon Cheung
Willem Dafoe - he performed The Abramović Method at PAC in my same group.
Chris Dercon - he introduced Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate during the Press view.
Emilia Faro - she gave me a lift to the bus stop in Torino last November.
Attilia Fattori Franchini - is she one of the cleverest young curator in London? We will see!
Debora Ferrari
Alberto Garutti
Massimiliano Gioni
Niklas Goldbach
Fulvio Guerrieri
Zaha Hadid - I saw her three times in six months...
Silvia Hell
Zhang Huan - I keep wondering if that kid who could enter Zhang Huan's exhibition opening at White Cube wearing orange crocs was his son.
IOCOSE - I can say half of them are some of the kindest people from the art field I met so far.
Kaarina Kaikkonen - she looks like a witch but I like her works.
Mr. Brainwash - he must give me that fucking limited edition print for which I stayed in a four-hour-long queue! WTF!
Hans-Ulrich Obrist - it can be understood when an exhibition is curated by him. He makes curating an art.
Aimy Palo
Fabio Paris
Yan Pei-Ming
Giusy Pirrotta
Domenico Quaranta
Leander Schwazer
Tino Sehgal
Nicholas Serota - it was nice to saw him very closely twice this year because last year I saw him in so many pictures preparing my degree thesis.
Amanda Sharp
Luca Traini
Eugenia Vanni
Liu Xiaodong
Driant Zaneli - I would like to meet him again and have another tea together.
The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius
Marina Abramović - The Artist is Present by Matthew Akers
Cesare deve morire by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Self Made by Gillian Wearing
The Abramovic Method, Marina Abramovic, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (Italy)
#smilesfilm - To The Light, Yoko Ono, Serpentine Gallery, London (UK)
Work No.1197 - All The Bells, Martin Creed, United Kingdom
A portrait of: Damien Hirst, Enquire Mag
Silvia Hell disegna una nuova mappa d'Europa, Artribune
L'utopia non è per tutti, Enquire Mag
Una nuova mappa d'Europa, JulietArtMagazine.com
L'interpretazione dell'individuo, JulietArtMagazine.com
It was very exciting when in the second half of September Frieze offered me a job and working at the fair was so rewarding but when the last minute of the last day came and I realized that Frieze would have been in my CV forever… well, I felt something somewhere between my heart and my stomach that I had never felt before in my life. Dreaming forever.
NUMBER TWO: DAMIEN HIRST exhibition Press view at Tate Modern - April 2nd
How many lines I have already written on this exhibition and how great I felt every time I visited it?!! It was just the best curating exhibition I have ever seen.
NUMBER THREE: EATING A PIZZA IN PADOVA - November 8th
I just wanted to go at the opening of Augmented Place exhibition in Padova. I met one of the curators that introduced me to one of the artists that invited me to have a pizza together with the exhibition crew and the night ended having the loveliest dinner of the year! Pizza Parmigiana rules.
NUMBER FOUR: FALLING IN LOVE IN KING'S CROSS - January 11th-16th
Well, it was my best time ever until then! I went to London to meet an artist with an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins… and I was working… that day at Costa… it changed something in my mind forever.
NUMBER FIVE: THE RED MANSION ART PRIZE 2012 PRIVATE VIEW - April 19th
I was in London from less than a week and I was on the list of a Private view at the Royal Academy. I was in London because of that, honestly. It was nice to see Zaha Hadid in front of me in the crowd.
NUMBER SIX: SPERMA SELECTED FOR NURTUREart 2012 BENEFIT AT CHARLES BANK GALLERY, NEW YORK - October 3rd-November 11th
Seriously, if my first exhibition in America is at number six it is clear how amazing this year has been.
NUMBER SEVEN: MEETING LUCA TRAINI AT ASSASSIN'S CREED ART (R)EVOLUTION OPENING IN MILAN - September 20th
A long path took me in Milan that night. A path started more then a year ago at the Venice Biennale and that included a great day at Università Cattolica last March and five months in London. It has been a long path, the most enjoyable one.
NUMBER EIGHT: PERFORMING WITH MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ - March 22nd
I was a performer at Abramović's The Abramović Method at PAC, Milan. It was a unique experience to meet Marina. She has an aura. If you are in the same place at the same time as her it is possible to feel her presence even if you can not see her. Unique. And The Artist is Present movie moved me.
NUMBER NINE: MEETING A FRIEND AT GAGOSIAN GALLERY IN BRITANNIA STREET DURING Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 OPENING - January 12th
That was amazing to me! I went to London to meet and interview artist Giusy Pirrotta. My friend Mattia came with me to have a couple of days off in London. The night I went to meet her Mattia and I split up and decided to see us later. I was at the opening at Gagosian Gallery trying to be as much professional as I could as an interviewer at his first experience ever when suddenly I recognized Mattia in the crowd while he was writing something on his notebook! I said something like "Sorry Giusy I saw a person I know I'm going to say hello give me a minute please". It seemed like: Oh my God, it is his first job experience abroad and he already knows that kind of people you can see at Gagosian Gallery openings… it was so funny and exciting!
NUMBER TEN: GOING TO THE PUB WITH AFF - December 8th
That night I was hungry as fuck! As I said it was worth it but I would not have been there if I had not met Paolo for a coffee in New Cross last August! That was a very nice time and to attend his talk at Chimera Q.T.E. has been just another step on my way to the future.
When at Zero… in Milan the microphone hangs from the ceiling that was part of Cumulus installation by artist Michael Sailstorfer fell off and crashed to the ground while I was walking in that room with two friends of mine - March 22nd
My first day in Laytonstone, I almost cried at the supermarket. It was Tesco - April 15th
The awkward moment when Aimy left me outside the Saatchi Gallery - April 26th
"A Selected History of Abstract Film III", Whitechapel Gallery, London: watching a short abstract movie by Eggeling at the Whitechapel remembered me when I watched it for the first time a long time ago at the high school. It was so significant to me knowing my long path started to be the right one when I could not even understand it - May 3rd
Watching Self Made by Gillian Wearing at Whitechapel Gallery with Ji Won. She was so nice with me but unfortunately I got temperature that night and the only thing I could do was going home sad and very ill. We did not go out together anymore since then :( - May 11th
Those two months I lived with Sue!! - June to August
Central Saint Martins Degree Show - June 21st
The Olympics Opening Ceremony on the same day of my birthday in the city where I was living. I do not know when it will happen again. That night I did not feel lonely. I felt at the heart of the world - July 27th
Standing four hours to be the 243rd visitor at Mr.Brainwash first solo show in the UK ever! - August 5th
That crazy night in Shepherd's Bush when Neverending Studio came out from the maddest part of my mind - August 6th-7th
That afternoon I was sad, I went to Leonard Street and entered the first gallery I saw. It was the rightest one. I really don't know how things like that can happen sometimes. - August 11th
Meeting Driant Zaneli in Torino and spending lovely time with him till that moment I was too hungry to keep standing as usual! - November 10th
My first review on Artribune - December 2nd
MA AICI Degree Show Private view night at CSM! - December 4th
Drinking a hot tea with a brand new friend at Arcade during my fifth time in London this year! - December 7th
Recently I met the greatest teacher I have ever had in my career as a student. I met him at the high school but we are in regular contact and some of the writings on art he suggests to me are often the best I could read. In the past two years we met once a year just a bit before Christmas to share ideas and talk about our activities. At the end of this year meeting he asked me: So, are you going back?
I like writing on exhibitions and it gives me the opportunity to go around, meet people and make contacts as well as working at press offices. But inside of me it is not the best thing I feel I could do.
For a reason or another I often put aside to work on my artworks but if there is something that gives me positive energy is that. What to do then? Desire for independence is increasing. However, where can I go without money?
Anyway, one of my intention for 2013 is to go and live somewhere far from my home for at least six months. Going back to London? Maybe more distant. I would like to go around the world and see many things I have never seen. Above all because visiting new places I could discover they are better than all those I have already seen. Australia is fashionable but I do not feel it right for me. Maybe Korea or Japan. Or some small european country where I could become a popular artist in a few years. All of these plans are nice and I believe it would be great realizing them. I know I could do that and some people I admire have started to think I could do it as well.
On the other hand, traveling so much makes me lonely. I feel so lonely from some time now. Here at home no-one of my friends seem interesting to me anymore. Those people able to give me positive energy are far from me, busy and they are not even my real friends, most of them are a generation older than me.
Despite this, all that I had this year was given to me from London. Next February I am going to be there again because I already booked other open days at several schools.
Will I take the IELTS?
Will I study abroad?
Will I get a job abroad?
Therefore seems that the way is already outlined in front of me but this time it is almost impossible to make definite plans. My heart knows the direction in which to go and although at the moment it seems that I do not have much in my hands, things done up to now give me the greatest number of potential I have ever had.
I must never give up.
PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW TO DOWNLOAD
THE ULTIMATE SIMO MONSI 2012 PLAYLIST!!!
↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
36 tracks and 6 unbelievable BONUS CONTENT
including
OMG SIMO STYLE VIDEO on YouTube!!!!!!!!!!
⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento