INTERVIEW | Federico Alcaro
10 Questions with Federico Alcaro
I am an architect based artist. During my practice as an architect, I approached from the first moments the graphic representation of dystopias with an architectural connotation to critically represent some phenomena of modern society.
The process that I follow starts from a current issue which, in my opinion, requires attention to improve our life (and the environment) and the life of future generations.
The images are always quite critical and provocative in the form of dystopias with an architectural connotation (I think dystopias are a good communication technique to bring out an issue) full of symbols and icons. Also, the use of contemporary elements to break the rhythm of the illustrations makes the image more contextualized to the present day.
Federico Alcaro’s biggest influences and inspirations refer to names from both architecture and art world like: All the illustrations made in the XIX° Century (especially in the Nouvelle Géographie Universelle: la terre et less hommes.), the illustrations of Gustave Doré, the collages of Max Ernst and Tudor Evans, the visions of Piranesi.
@federico.alcaro
Federico Alcaro
ARTIST STATEMENT
Federico Alcaro’s artworks “Abusive, Informal, Formal,” “Layers,” and the diptychs “Sacred - Profane” represent the physical relationship between the formal and the informal city. Capturing and abstracting situations of many places around the world these images want to point out the thin line(s) that divides the different concepts of survival and life, emphasizing the right of the movement and the right of the city.
The diptychs “Lost Connections - Common isolation” stress some social behaviors that create material and immaterial barriers and boundaries between people. Barriers that upset our social system with repercussions on the places (natural and artificial) that surround us.
Abusive, Informal, Formal 40x40cm, year 2018, Federico Alcaro
The nomad city lives within the sedentary city, feeds on its waste by offering its presence in return as a new nature that can be traveled only by inhabiting it.
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INTERVIEW
Could you tell us a little more about your background, and how did you begin making art?
I don't have a specific artistic background, I am an architect, and I work in the social field, emergency contexts, and developing countries. I've always tried to find a way to express some concepts linked to my job and others transversal derived from personal researches.
This experience led me to observe situations out of my ordinary life. Since then, I have tried to grasp and represent those events that characterized our everyday lives, which we sometimes do not pay much attention to.
I represented these social and urban dynamics through collages, experimenting with different styles and forms of representation.
"Abusive, Informal, Formal" is one of the first artworks I made in the event of my master's graduation indeed. From that moment on, I kept this visual language as a form of art, not only as an expression of myself but also as a plentiful of meanings that can reach everyone and bring a critical reflection on everyday life.
Do you have a role model that you've drawn inspiration from when working as a graphic artist? Tell us more about your source of inspiration.
I don't have a specific aesthetic model of inspiration. The strongest influences and inspirations refer to names from both architecture and the art world, such as all the illustrations made in the 19th Century, especially those present in the Nouvelle Géographie Universelle. La terre et les hommes, the illustrations by Gustave Doré, the collages by Max Ernst and Tudor Evans, engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On the other hand, regarding the messages I try to send through my artworks, the inspiration comes mostly from continuous research and updating on social life dynamics. Thanks to my job, I have the chance to develop research on the most diverse range of issues. These researches enable me to analyze some phenomena of contemporary life, which are often recognized but still sometimes ignored by most people. My inspiration may also come from what happens in the world, thanks to all the means of communication we have today. If there's a particular issue that catches my attention -and that I think should also catch everyone else's attention- I take it, focus on it, and turn it into an artwork. So this becomes a sort of research in everyday life, ever-evolving, and in line with modern living.
In the diptych "Sacred and Profane," this research is evident, putting in contraposition the meaning of these two opposite words, emphasizing the backlashes that may have on our common living. Despite being commonly attributed to the terms "good" –sacred- and "evil" –profane-, intermediate dynamics between these two antonyms result from this: what can represent something good to someone can be evil for someone else and vice versa. So, looking at the two artworks, we find ourselves in two different scenarios where these two elements can be easily distinguished. However, at the same time, the represented elements -both contemporary and historical but with current influence- show us some resonances of sacredness and profanity absorb different meanings and put into a new light the concepts we have idealized, one way or another.
Layers, 40x40cm, 2019,
The work “Layers” represents the relationship between an architecture that is no longer preserved, no longer untouchable, the historical one, which has become difficult to maintain that contrasts with the real problems of desertification and rising seas due to the pollution of the man who failed to stop, and a post-futuristic architecture, which literally rests its foundations on his own ancient memory.
The city raising itself with a steel plate to detach itself from that world now decadent and in the hands of migrating humanity, always in movement, where borders no longer exist. People live in those places of the past that, although resilient, don't seem to have anything to teach to the future. And so, lessons from the past have been ignored over time, looking for more and more fingertips technological innovation that has created a fragile future as much as the foundations of new cities.
What is the role of architecture in your art? How do you successfully translate your feelings and thoughts using symbols, icons, and contemporary elements into a graphic work?
The role of architecture is both central and secondary in my artworks. Architecture isn't always the protagonist but is still needed to make the observer merge with the context. Architecture is one of the highest artistic expression of human being and has always been connected to human beings. The common imaginary bounded to historical and contemporary architecture helps, in fact, the different elements and symbols absorbing their meanings enhancing the immersion and the empathy that the observer feels looking at artworks: a ruin, a building, a skyline take the observers to familiar places; therefore, they tend to feel attached to it and move the artworks' critical meaning in their context of life, even if entirely different from what is represented.
For example, different "Layers" of architecture are represented as a metaphor for historical memory and other dynamics connected to it. From all of this, we can show how architecture is the protagonist of a dystopian story where the old is submerged by the new, in turn, obscured by new centralities and life cycles. So, both ruins and the above "futuristic" city recall common daily elements symbolizing this passage from the new to the old, which seems easily transportable to various contexts worldwide. Moreover, every urban city and context may mirror this metaphor though changing the artwork's subjects.
There isn't a real system or process thanks to which it can successfully convey meaning using symbols, icons, and contemporary elements. An artwork usually comes from one simple concept I want to represent, to which other concepts are conveyed through the reflection and the dialogue of the artwork itself. I tend not to overcharge the image with too many symbols to avoid its in- or miscomprehension.
To highlight this one simple concept, I use standard, well-known elements or others easily attributable to it: putting the various images together may cause that more images interlock and may take to a plurality/amount of similar/related concepts.
In "Lost Connections," one can notice many similar elements altogether: in the foreground, people immersed in the swamp, in the background the dark and stormy sky about to fall upon the city, Moses leaning forward almost desperately; all of these emphasize the despair that characterizes the image. The central element is the symbol of the connection, but everything around it constantly recalls the concept of non-connection with themselves and everything around the scene.
Why do you use this visual language?
It was a sort of recall. I was amazed at artists, architects, 19th-century explorers' engravings as I dreamt of being able to emulate their techniques and express the concepts I had in my mind. Even though I didn't have the time to study and learn those techniques, I found myself experimenting with different languages of representation. After a few attempts and final products, which I didn't feel belonging/that suited me, those engravings came back to my mind. I understood right away how I had to merge the various engravings to recreate the images I had in my mind; it felt almost a completely natural movement, as I have been making it forever. It was then that I realized that maybe it could have been my way to express the thoughts and messages I had in my head, almost trapped, in the form of abstract/non-real images. Though I don't make the engravings with my own hands, I make them my own by giving them new meaning or emphasizing the already represented ones.
What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?
My attention is mostly focused on the artworks' meanings, as I want to communicate with people about contemporary problems through art, intended as a form of expression and communication. Since my interests involve social themes, especially in emergency and potentially emergency contexts, I need to emphasize these contemporary dynamics to reflect upon how we live and how we might live. Dystopia, intended as intrinsic and expression of my works, helps emphasize the concepts exaggerating them, so they are easily noticed.
Sacred (40x50cm, 2019)
This image shows a moment of daily life, the entrance into the place of worship, an immense and majestic door that represents the importance of sacredness, a place of social and cultural exchange, a melting pot of new ideas. Sacredness that shows itself both in the foreground, with the commonly more natural gesture of a cult (bowing towards one's own figure of worship), and in the background, with the sacred city immersed in its unchanging beauty. But this scene is split in two when the eye focuses on the informal settlement established between the countryside and the city, given by the extreme preservation of the historical heritage. A metaphor that can be read with different lenses such as the formation of gated communities in the large elite areas of cities, to protect their (sacred) territory from the "advance" of migrants in search of salvation.
Profane (40x50cm, 2019)
In this image are shown the forms of profanation in everyday life: the profane at the service of the good can be found, as shown in the foreground, the withdrawal of fossil water using oil extraction technology; but as well as obtaining a primary asset for survival, in many other cases, a series of negative consequences are triggered which see the first victims in the environment and the building, historical and cultural heritage.
This is represented by the submergence of a past civilization's ruins, by the desecration of a pyramid, used as a quarry for the extraction of stone material, by the proximity of oil wells to a city, increasingly unstoppable desertification, and an imminent sandstorm on the background.
How do you keep yourself up to date with the latest digital trends and technologies that have today a significant impact on the art world?
I don't keep up with the latest digital trends and technologies that influence the art world. I know art is changing; it has always been in development and kept up to speed, both as a concept and techniques. Of course, digital technologies will radically affect the way we benefit from art and approach it: many magazines, galleries, and temporary exhibitions are examples of this change. Living in Venice, I have at hand examples of art from the past, the present, and sometimes that future. I have a sort of access, maybe not at 360 degrees, to this world. I observe and feel that we live in a time of changes and from many art websites and social media. The change of direction whose destination can be noticed, maybe luckily, is unknown.
How did 2020 influence the way you express yourself?
Of course, 2020 is a year that none of us will forget. We have learned to think, act, and live with completely extraordinary everyday life dynamics. In some way, this has created a change in ourselves and in what surrounds us, with the hope of becoming more resilient.
For me, 2020 meant deep introspection. During the Italian lockdown, I had the chance to think about myself and what my art could be for others. Maybe a tool for communication and dialogue, not just mine but of public domain, an equitable platform to start a dialogue from and that could gather and represent common feelings.
This dialogue is rather evident in "Common Isolation": not only because the situation represented involves everyone on Earth but also because it conveys, though popular elements, a sense of freedom that was more than desired throughout the lockdown period. Moreover, the two main characters are taken from the 2020 Venice Carnival opening (that was then suspended due to national lockdown). They represent that sense of freedom bringing back to mind, quite romantically, that normal life before the pandemic outspread.
Lost Connections, 40x40cm, 2020
The image represents a critical vision of the present too tied to digital connections, so much that we lose the connections with what surrounds us, with each other and with ourselves. Specifically, the scene depicts Moses carrying the only true commandment: connection. But this connection is as fragile as the world around us of which we don't care about it by despairing for a little more speed. Halfway between a funeral and a divine sign that tries to awaken us from digital sleep.
Common isolation 40x40cm, 2020
We are all in a prison without bars, closed in our domestic societies, at a safe distance but close in common isolation. We feel inside bubbles formed by the same soap that we compulsively use to disinfect our hands. We desire freedom and we desire each other.
What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future?
I am currently working on subjects that represent contemporary life issues, problems within society, relationships between people and between people and the context they live in, and possible scenarios connected with those human relations and human nature, in general, that may develop over time. Furthermore, I am working on a project where I attribute each of my artworks a word or a neologism to create a dystopian imagination. A sort of dystopian vocabulary, where some common and uncommon terms may help people comprehend and deepen the meaning of the various works and increase dialogue around possible contemporary and future scenarios.
Finally, Share something you would like the world to know about you?
I don't think there is much more I can add. What you see is what I am. As I have already said before, art is a rather powerful means of communication and dialogue. We can learn from and think about everyday life. My goal is not to affect people's lives, but I hope to give a few inputs to stimulate change, even if a minimal part, some dynamics that in the long run may lead to negative consequences for the whole world, for us, and for those who will come after us.