Gio Pagani
1. Where were you born and where are you from ?
I was born in Parma and graduated in architecture with a specialization in architectural design and restoration at the Politecnico in Milan.
2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?
Klimt and his passions, Romanticism, the Viennese secession, and the revolutionary fervor of the Bauhaus.
3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?
I was born into a family with a passion for antiques, with whom I breathed the aesthetics of objects, the uniqueness of places, the depth of messages in art.
4. What led you to the design creation ?
The love for the approach to aesthetics of Gio Ponti and many Italian architects of the 1950s who always understood the importance between the designed space and the objects that would inhabit it. The architect’s vision “from the spoon to the city.”
5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?
Instinctive, connected to the emotions of places that I keep in my heart, places that touch the soul and communicate the desire to give shape to feelings.
6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?
My days are always different. The journey – either physical or daydreaming – and the dialogue with people who are close to me are a fundamental constant to my creative workflow.
7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?
I love to research materials. it is they who often dictate the forms and give life to objects. I am fascinated by the material when it is able to transfer organicity and nature.
8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?
Each object hides details related to manual and artisanal work, now rare crafts that must be preserved. Each material calls for specific techniques and a brings with it a unique experience.
9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?
Know the past, understand the soul of the objects that have marked our history, to start giving memory and culture to new works.
10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?
I like to think that I have eclectic and fluid thinking that allow me to explore different stylistic languages. Creating often means to lay bare, to study, to understand in order to explore unknown worlds.
11. What designers and artists have influenced you ?
Gio Ponti, Luigi Caccia-Dominioni, Carlo Scarpa.
12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?
Axel Vervoordt, Christian Liaigre, Rick Owens, Vincenzo De Cotiis.
13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?
Lou Reed for his nocturnal, libertine, rock poetry and David Bowie for his chameleon-like ability to change, self-deny, and reimagine himself.
14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?
I love taking ideas from the past and transport them into the contemporary.
15. Is there anything you would like to add?
I create through looking at my own past to revolutionize my future approach…. I aim for eternal growth and love the change.
Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Harmony with the people I love.
2. What is your greatest fear?
To lose my passion.
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m still looking for it.
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Jealousy and indifference.
5. Which living person do you most admire?
Those who have the courage to live for their passion without compromise.
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
I’m not extravagant.
7. What is your current state of mind?
Exploring a future that I have not yet written.
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Force.
9. What is the quality you most like in a man ?
Sincerity.
10. What is the quality you most like in a woman ?
Acumen.
11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Wonderful, with elegance.
12. Which talent would you most like to have?
Concreteness.
13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Each imperfection has made me who I am.
14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Giving life to a dream I had just by listening to my passion.
15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A marble sculpture.
16. Where would you most like to live?
In front of sea.
17. What is your most treasured possession?
My affections.
18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Don’t have mercy.
19. What is your favorite occupation?
Dream shapes, spaces and aesthetic.
20. What is your most marked characteristic?
The patience.
21. What do you most value in your friends?
The honesty.
22. Who are your favorite writers?
James Joyce.
23. Who is your hero of fiction?
Corto Maltese.
24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Gio Ponti.
25. Who are your heroes in real life?
My parents.
26. What are your favorite names?
Vittorio and Virginia.
27. What is it that you most dislike?
Wickedness.
28. What is your greatest regret?
Not having tried everything, and the time passes unavoidably.
29. How would you like to die?
Watching the opera of Turandot at the theatre.
30. What is your motto?
Per aspera ad astra.
