Azzurra Immediato’s investigation for GAME OVER.Loading continues in dialogue with Luca Gamberini, banker, writer, poet, author of theatre monologues, founder of the #PoesiaEspressa® / #ExpressPoetry® brand a performance linked to the instant writing of poetry with Olivetti Lettera22.
Azzurra Immediato: What needs should / would society today like to see expressed through culture, and also through the creativity and ideas of each individual?
Luca Gamberini: The ability to go beyond. I see that this main need isn’t fulfilled today or is only partially fulfilled. Moving beyond. Beyond the pandemic, beyond 2020, but also beyond the office, daily boredom and the daily microcosm that becomes a suffocating horizon. For me making culture means: saying “dear culture user, you’re much more, you have much more. I don’t pretend to give a job back to someone who has lost it or, worse still, replace a loved one who’s no longer here. But with art, I can help you escape. Come with me. And whether this is for five minutes, an hour, thirty seconds, a day or whatever, I’ll give you the chance to go somewhere else. In fact, beyond. Because afterwards you’ll no longer be the same. Art is what keeps time together, it holds different periods together and generates – as a result of this and in this way – the future.
How do you imagine new cultural entities coming into being? What is a “new cultural entity” for you?
As far as this is concerned, I feel very liberal: anyone and everyone can – have a right, in different ways, to – make culture. To be able to make culture and self-identify as a cultural entity. The individual as well as the collective. Rather than the opinion of authority – of the “auctoritas” that confers cultural status – I believe, rather, that we need to be authoritative. I want to make a provocative statement. Instagram posts may well be cultural entities. In the same way as their authors. However, everything can be found on social media: everything. Authoritativeness does not therefore derive from a “like”. Or rather: it’s an indicator. Authoritativeness is inherent in the artistic act that, paradoxically, could have zero likes. Authority comes from the person who generates the artistic act, from the entity. All artists know in their heart whether they are operating as a cultural entity or not.
New cultural entities, on this basis, can in my view arise anywhere and in the most diverse ways. As in the Gospel parable, it depends on which soil the seed is sown in. If, in fact, a cultural entity develops today, we’ll see this tomorrow or the day after, in a kind of cultural selection. That’s why I feel liberal: fewer rules, more attempts and, in ten years’ time, we’ll see what’s left of value, because it’s authoritative.
“Cultural hybridisation” and “crossing the frontiers of knowledge”: illusion or reality? Is it possible to think of a new, innovative habitat in which culture and other universes of knowledge can engage in dialogue and merge?
This has always been the case. And it will always be the case. I would also add: in a world as hyper-connected as ours, hybridisation is made even easier and simpler. “Contaminatio” is a Latin term. And the playwright Terence was bitterly criticised for including “sections” of Menander’s texts in his comedies. Instead of which, he was a pioneer, a genius, giving life to the most intimate and true form of art. In other words, dialogue. Worlds that don’t communicate with each other tend to become extinct. This happens because whenever two worlds communicate, at least two different audiences are involved in the interchange. This is also because they give birth to new, third worlds that will never be the zero sum of the two parent-worlds. Experimentation is the chemistry that will save art from boredom, habit and what has already been seen.
images: (cover 1) PoesiaEspressa, @ Paratissima Art Fair, Torino, October 2020 – credits Vincenzo Parlati (2) Luca Gamberini, photo: Francesco Rossi (3) Stilemi, @ Paratissima Art Fair, Torino, October 2020 – credits Luca Gamberini (4) L’arte svelata, @ Museo Civico Archeologico Bologna, December 2020 – credits Federica Guidi
Luca Gamberini (Bologna, 21 April 1986) lives in Corticella. After receiving a classical education at the University of Bologna – Modern Literature (2008), Italian Studies (2010), Medieval History (2014) – he became a banker, writer and poet (“NeoKlassico”, 2014;) “Un etto d’amore (Lascio?), 2018). He is also the author of monologues for the theatre (“Tra Venere e le Sirene”, Teatro degli Angeli, 2018). Founder of the #PoesiaEspressa® brand, a performance linked to the instant writing of poetry with Olivetti Lettera22, which he usually uses to compose, he has performed in various museums, galleries and events both for contemporary art (Mambo, Paratissima, Galleria, De’ Foscherari, Museo dell’Arte Moderna di Roma, Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna) and literature (Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, Book Pride Milano, BookFest Pisa, Buk Modena). In October 2020, Gamberini participated in the “Paratisisma Art Fair” in a group exhibition titled “In Praise of Incoherence and Chameleonism” with the series ‘#Stilemi’; ten plates of poems illustrated using the Olivetti Lettera22. His new collection is scheduled to be published by Mondadori in March 2021.
The interview to Luca Gamberini is part of GAME OVER.Loading, a project aimed at researching and studying new “cultural entities”, people, objects or research from different disciplines (physics, bio-robotics, AI, agriculture and medicine) and transporting them into the art world. This is a research project, but also a gesture that goes beyond simple interdisciplinary dialogue, becoming quite radical: a real “transplanting” of research areas aimed at preparing future c(o)ulture, where “creativity” equals “invention” and “invention” equals contributing to a transformation. A spark, a sign of a genetic mutation, a change of direction, a short circuit. A different energy that is also marks a change which is taking place and could constitute new lifeblood for the Culture system. This first phase is an investigative one aimed at visionaries, hybrid thinkers from various fields, including those from the cultural sector, who can express their views on current needs, each in relation to their own disciplinary field while generally respecting culture and society at large. Project team: Anita Calà Founder and Artistic Director of VILLAM | Elena Giulia Rossi, Editorial Director of Arshake | Giulia Pilieci: VILLAM Project Assistant and Press Office; Chiara Bertini: Curator, Coordinator of cultural projects and collaborator of GAME OVER – Future C(o)ulture | Valeria Coratella Project Assistant of GAME OVER – Future C(o)ulture. Previous interviews related to Azzurra Immediato’s investigation: Leonardo Jaumann(Arshake, 28.01.2021); Amerigo Mariotti, Arshake, 25.02.2021); Anuar Arebi by Azzurra Immediato (Arshake, 31.03.2021). All published interviews and interventions: Interview to Primavera De Filippi by Elena Giulia Rossi (Arshake, January 21, 2021); interview by Azzurra Immediato to Leonardo Jaumann (Arshake, 28.01.2021); interview to Valentino Catricalà by Anita Calà and Elena Giulia Rossi (Arshake, 04.02.2021); multiple interview Stefano Cagol to Antonio Lampis, Sarah Rigotti, Tobias Rehberger, Michele Lanzinger, Stefano Cagol (Arshake, 11.02.2021); interview to Amerigo Mariotti by Azzurra Immediato (Arshake, 25.02.2021);Andrea Concas’s video intervention (Arshake, 18.02.2021); Interview to Peter Greenway by Stefano Cagol (Arshake, 04.03.2021), Intervento di Giulio Alvigini, Bye Bye Boomer, Game Over Art World (Arshake, 11.03.2021); Interview to Ken Goldberg by Elena Giulia Rossi (Arshake, 18.03.2021); Intervention of Eduardo Rossi, invited by Chiara Bertini (Arshake, 25.03.2021); interview to Anuar Arebi by Azzurra Immediato (Arshake, 31.03.2021); Interview to Giovanni Gardinale by Valeria Coratella (Arshake, 15.04.2021).
