8 Questions with Giovanni De Benedetto

ISSUE03 Cover artist.

Giovanni De Benedetto is an Italian visual artist featured in Al-Tiba9 Original issue

Giovanni works with photography, video art, and music. His projects have multiple points of view. The observer is an active part of the creative process, and each artwork shakes the spectator from the inside. Starting from 2012, he took part in several solos and collective exhibitions with his main project PREMATURE, exhibiting in cities like Venice, Paris, Miami Beach, Berlin, and Bangkok. In 2019 De Benedetto was selected by fair art director Cristina Salmastrelli to be part of The Next Generation initiative within the 15th edition of the well-known PULSE! Art Fair in Miami Beach during the Miami Art Week, exhibiting the artwork PREMATURE #77. In the same year, he was selected for the 4-month artist residency program at coGalleries in Berlin, which culminated with his first solo exhibition in the German capital at the gallery located in Berlin-Mitte. De Benedetto is also featured in several art magazines and publications. During the current year, he was featured on the cover of Al-Tiba9 Magazine Issue03.

www.giovannidebenedetto.com | @debenedetto.giovanni

Interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj.

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Giovanni is a klecksography artist who enhances the aesthetic power of his original paintings through the mean of photography. The union between these two different media creates an outcome that highlights certain features that otherwise they would be hidden, making the photography of the artwork the final piece that stands on its own. He aims to broaden the people's points of view, making them embrace multiple perspectives at the same time to establish a temporary emphatic connection among them for feeling more close as human beings on a deep level. Giovanni's work gains the attention of such professionals due to the socio-psychological dynamics involved in his work. It deals with the human mind and subconscious, such as psychotherapists and criminologists, as well as art collectors.

Giovanni, Welcome back to Al-Tiba9 magazine in its ORIGINAL issue. You are the Artist Cover in ISSUE03 that features your project PREMATURE; please tell us a short introduction about yourself.

Thank you, Al-Tiba9, for having me again in your beautiful magazine. I am a human being who feels the need to express himself throughout an accepted method together with a deliberate choice to relate to what we call it "chance," even if I believe in a harmony that surrounds our reality. I like to think about working together with this harmony, trying to connect myself with it, and when I succeed, my artworks come along. It isn't about mystical terms, but it pushes me to keep investigating.

What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

What I care most about my work is how people reflect themselves into it. I always invite the viewers who come across my project to take any PREMATURE artwork as a mirror for reflecting themselves. The artwork will reveal itself before they do. As every one of us is different, with diverse life-backgrounds, we interpret the same PREMATURE artwork differently. Therefore we may see different things into it, creating our work of art according to how one understands reality. The power of PREMATURE is to shift the focus from this private realm to a community one, where people share with others their visions, putting themselves in others' shoes to embrace multiple points of view at the same time.

I think it is crucial nowadays to push people to work on their empathy. We are surrounded by a ubiquitous flow of information coming from millions of people throughout social networks. Still, the fact that we are connected does not mean that we understand or care about each other. I believe that as individuals, we have never been so distant from each other. Gathering together in big online and offline groups can be useful for achieving significant improvements as humankind, which is relevant, though. Still, if you zoom in, we are living alone in our impenetrable bubble of reality.

I mean, that we are screaming to make our voice loud, but is there someone on the other side willing to understand it and not merely to hear it? It is so important to call people for empathy. I aim to ease this process with my work. I hope that what we are living right now will move us in this direction.

In this ORIGINAL issue, we notice the involvement of colors and simplicity in your project. Could you explain this new version of PREMATURE?

The pieces featured in this issue are the outcome of my artist residency program in Berlin from last year. I had the aim to obtain tridimensional textures to create artworks that would seem pop up from the wall. The light plays well with the pattern and emphasizes the idea of freezing the time. Shooting the artwork when the paint still wet, making every PREMATURE artwork eternally fresh. I also found a perfect exhibition solution, printing the artworks on Hahnemühle fine art baryta 325 gsm paper and mount them under museum glass with a black wood frame. Regarding the minimalism, if compared to the previous PREMATURE collections, I wanted to present something more cohesive-oriented to get a natural feeling when I watch it.

What new techniques do you employ to get the results you want?

Talking about PREMATURE 2019 collection, I changed the quality of the paint, and I experimented with colors, mixing them with additives. I also incorporate new chromatic solutions. I experiment with new surfaces like canvases and different kinds of papers.

You exhibited lately in Miami During Art Basel Miami 2019; tell us about this experience, and how did the international scene react toward your work?

I exhibited it at PULSE! Art Fair in Miami Beach, it was a dream that came true for me. Thanks to the fair director Cristina Salmastrelli, I had the chance to put my work to the attention of an international audience, and this taught me a lot in 5 days of fair. Moreover, I established new relationships there that may lead to new collaborations and projects, so I can say it went over my expectations.

Any shows, galleries, or publications where our readers can find your work?

At the moment, my work can be found on PULSE! Art Fair website. Starting in March, I joined the Ungalleried family. In this new and exciting curated online gallery, some PREMATURE from the latest collection can be purchased, and of course, they're always available on my website.

What advice can you give to beginning artists?

Deeply understand what you are doing and its evolution along the time, find the right platforms for exhibiting to put your work at the attention of the right professionals, learn from rejections, stay positive, and the most important thing: DON'T GIVE UP!

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