ECO-ART at the Vittoriano Museum in july with “Crush” by Fabio Ferrone Viola

Recycling can become a work of art? Fabio Ferrone Viola say absolutely yes: plastic waste, bottle caps and crushed cans are a source of inspiration and become of the works to bring in major museums such as “ambitious manifesto of environmental education targeted to spread – through art and creativity – greater awareness of ecological distress “.

From July 5 to 31, you can see 30 works by the artist at the Vittoriano – Ala Brasini in the exhibition “CRUSH – Global Manifesto”, an exhibition sponsored by Michele Valori Association.

Crush “refers to the act around which the artist’s research, or crush the crumpled cans collected on the street. From this the term “crushismo” coined by Ferrone, an expression that describes its particular technique used to achieve something that can be once more “useful”, covering the “waste” of a new artistic dignity.

Recycling is the watchword of Fabio Ferrone Viola Roman artist born in 1966 grew up in the US where he was fascinated by the lights, the colors, by American culture. Thanks to its creative activities, a designer and production manager for the family company in 2006 decided to devote himself full time to art and gives life to the Trash Art.

His works tell of the experiences and passions but also the feelings of impatience than the advance of environmental degradation. Cans, bottle tops, scraps, are recovered and treated like oil colors back to life in other forms. His works, figurative and abstract, attempting to draw attention to the urgency of the ecological disaster.

We deepen with him his artistic career.

Where does your inspiration towards recycling? I have always suffered from the pressure of consumerism dictated by the policies of the major brands and corporations that require us to use more and more low-cost products and little durability. We are invaded by cans, from caps, Plastic envelopes, garbage. In a beautiful country like ours, rich in beautiful landscapes and history should be taken utmost cleanliness in order to be the most visited and instead we are inundated with waste! So, with this stimulus, I started using colored and reusable waste just to make people understand that the right path is that of “recycling”.

Trush from the Crush. How it developed your artistic career? “Crush” is an onomatopoeic word English meaning “crush” and these cans that I picked up in the street in the many trips I made I got the idea to use them as wallpapers of my works. “Crush” global manifesto is the title of my next exhibition, aluminum caps and cans with their colorful graphics tell many stories. I have collected more than ten thousand pieces and I made the 30 works that bring on show next July 5th to the Vittoriano museum.

From entrepreneur to artist, what has changed at the professional level? The turn of the century brought with it the end of many social dynamics not surprisingly since 2002 our lives have changed completely. That year Europe began to use the single currency. The euro has doubled the costs of raw materials and halved the purchasing power of our portfolios materials, not to mention the disastrous opening to the Asian markets that have radically changed our lives for the worse. And yes because without telling anyone many European countries have literally opened the customs to products manufactured at low cost and without union rules predestinando death our working and artisan class. So even fashion, as a supporting industry of our country has been disintegrated in this logic that has enriched the politicians but destroyed … zeroed million people and their fundamental induced. My company “The altramoda spa” was swept away in this slow agony although, fortunately, my entrepreneurial group of family mold was reduced in small companies and is shared with the new more agile and effective strategies in the market. Unfortunately in this new phase the only winning strategy is the care of the price and we creative we were limited around because of cost. So in 2006 I decided to devote myself entirely to my artistic project starting to work on my creative skills. Since 2001, in fact, I had already started my little art studio and there I found myself to develop my first works on canvas. Since 2009, then, I devote myself to participate in exhibitions in Italy and abroad. The difference of course is radical, even if the creative phase of a stylist part though to style content and communication, but the “work” of the artist is realized during the implementation of the work itself. The true artist is his feelings his soul, even if the designer creative and free to 90% should follow the directives and the logic of markets.

A complaint to the practice of disposable and culture of “consumerism”. How art and creativity can express these concepts and make them reach the public? What effect do you think that they can bring? Unfortunately most people do not lingers and pulls straight. I hope that my works can make people think that “throw” is not a good way to live, but we need to raise our children with this civic education otherwise there will be an artist that takes! If we do not start by policies to raise awareness for the care of our territory, since the children’s classes in schools, we will never change things.

Where did you find the materials to create the works? Most of the cans to gather in person in the street, not only in Rome but wherever I go I get to the asphalt collect aluminum worn down by the wheels of the car and crushed by traffic … unfortunately, wherever I happen to find large amounts of these containers that once used are left in the ground and this is also the meaning of the sub-title “global manifesto” because a few exceptions, all over the world the rudeness and ignorance invade our planet.

Traveling a lot for work, before he embarked on his artistic career, he has seen how in the world there is this unhealthy habit of throwing things on the floor. He found crushed cans everywhere from New York to Paris, from Asia to Africa has been able to verify how common this gesture of disrespect, and began to think to accomplish something using these “waste” and propose them as a vehicle d ‘ art to launch food for thought, a message of Love (so much so that many of his works have the word “Love” in the title) that can stir the conscience and start to make people appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.

Do you have any role models in the arts? I love art in all its forms, which are pictorial or of any other type. I love Street art as well as the Macchiaioli of the 800. But having lived in the United States have absorbed much of the pop culture 80 years and, as well, I have always loved the graphics of Jasper Johns and very colorful prints of Andy Warhol, the ‘urban African Basquiat, the Robert Rauschenberg collage, “action painting” of Jackson Pollock that makes me travel with the thought. In my works often I recall the stimuli of my “teachers” and precursors that are devout, but not for this I would plagiarize but on the contrary, my techniques are always evolving and without false modesty, I would carry on the paths they themselves initiated.

What are your inspirations in the environmental field? My environmental stimulus is born from the suffering of our planet, the ozone hole from the die-off of animals due to pollution. For example I follow, and I participate in a lot of the “Green Peace” campaign and other associations related to the environment and animal welfare. I hope as soon as possible you can understand how to dispose of and reuse the garbage that we see today in every corner of the road so that a problem can find a gain for everyone.

Your future projects? Immediately after the exhibition at the Vittoriano with my gallery owner Paola values we decided to run “CRUSH” Manifesto Global in other cities in Italy and abroad. [Keep us updated on future dates ed]. In addition already in this Vittoriano event we decided to sponsor a to help in the recovery process and volunteer Onlus Anidan the Italian NGO in favor of about 300 children from a school in Lamu in Kenya, where these children need and have helped in the growth and in their art education. My next project ‘to be able to go to them and organize real “stage” education with the help of physical material and my other artist friends.

In fact, the Roman stage of the exhibition is the forerunner of a larger touring project that other cities will involve in the future in the wake of the passion, the emotional involvement and experience of Fabio Ferrone Viola in the onomatopoeic sound Crush has found the leitmotiv of his art.

The exhibition, sponsored by the Lazio Region and the City of Rome, promoted by Michele Valori Association, in collaboration with Micro Visual Arts, sees as a media partner Inside Art, as a partner the Rome University of Fine Art (Rufa) and as a technical sponsor Casale del Giglio and oasis Noce Valley. The exhibition is organized with the support of Anidan. The catalog is published by Gangemi Editore.

THE EXHIBITION

The thirty works proposed by Fabio Ferrone Viola were made by assembling cans and scrap materials, and turning waste into a resource. The artist born in 1966, known and appreciated in Roman circles for his language Trash Art, he invites with his creations to a global ecological conversion. In strong opposition to the culture “disposable”, the exhibition unfolds around the concept of recovery, which becomes complaint against the vicious circle of consumerism. Discarded cans and collected by the artist on the street corners, manipulated and “ennobled” creative interpretation, buy so surprising new meanings and become spokesman for a social content expanded.

The crushismo born so with the intent to raise awareness to greater care of the environment through a path born in 2000, when the artist began to use cans of soft drinks giving a personal response to consumerist global thinking. They take the form of art varied materials: not only cans, but also boxes and plastic caps, wooden boxes and pieces of disassembled objects, pc, residues of motherboards and disparate waste materials, making this mission the common thread of all his research. An art, that of the artist, who escapes from existing schemes to become the voice of a great effort in the field of green policies through a new compositional expression.

The exhibition curated by Paola Valori is accompanied by a catalog published by Gangemi Editore featuring an essay by Vittorio Sgarbi, eclectic and explosive personality perfectly in line with the thinking and unconventional works and over the top of Fabio Ferrone Viola.

For the occasion, to make a further contribution to the communication aspect and dissemination of the exhibition, a monitor said with shocking images of the pollution damage, through photographs made by students of Rufa (Rome University of Fine Arts) that portray Roma and surroundings.

In the arts and architecture, the Michele Valori Association launched – in partnership with Micro Visual Arts – a multidisciplinary program dedicated to contemporary artists open to research and experimentation.

Rufa married Michele project of values deciding to participate in its implementation, not only for its purely educational purposes but for the full inclusion of youth engagement in action for change. The students of the photography course, in fact, told through images urban decay as a result of the mix of consumer culture and neglect citizen. Beaches as a dumping ground, piles of garbage on the sidewalks, degradation and widespread neglect. The photo report, the result of a collective work entitled “TRASH” – in sharp contrast with the concept “CRUSH” instead contained in the commitment environmentalist Ferrone Viola – focuses the attention on the other side of the coin, and brings to light one social degradation insight really abhorrent, that emerges strongly from the pictures and talking an urgent message of necessary confrontation.

Arianna Pasquale

Parole, lingua e linguaggio, arte e le nuove tecnologie sono quel filo rosso con il quale mi diverto a tessere le mie giornate. Innovazione e sviluppo di nuovi orizzonti gli spunti che mi fa piacere incontrare. Giornalista, editor, copy writer e content media. Dopo la laurea in Filosofia del Linguaggio e della Mente a Napoli, mi trasferisco a Roma dove mi specializzo in comunicazione per il web e i nuovi media e per diversi anni sono caporedattore del mensile “Next Exit, creatività e lavoro” approfondendo temi di economia della cultura. Ho curato la pubblicazione di diversi progetti editoriali, tra cui Young Blood, annuario dei giovani artisti italiani, e RomaCreativa, per fare una mappatura dei creativi italiani nel mondo e nella capitale.