Source: RADIO MARCONI

official article excerpt:

Journalist

00:00:00 – 00:00:32

Let’s talk about art. There is the art of the past, modern art, contemporary art. Well yes, there is also the art of the future. We ask this artist named Cesare Catania, who is exhibiting right now. The exhibition began last week during the Salone del Mobile Design Week in Milan, but the personal exhibition of Cesare Catania, who is with us in these minutes, continues at the San Babila gallery in Milan, in via Visconti di Modrone 6.

Welcome Caesar!

Cesare Catania

00:00:33 – 00:00:35

Hi everyone!

Journalist

00:00:35 – 00:01:10

Painter, sculptor and also metaverse artist. So, since we’re a bit of a boomer in this show, I’ll ask you…. the metaverse, more or less, we are coming to understand, because we have dealt with this new reality in various transmissions which, however, I will ask you later on to explain to us how you work in this parallel reality and what it is in fact that we begin to speak in this last period. But let’s start with the slightly more material things. What is on display at the moment in the San Babila art gallery?

Cesare Catania

00:01:11 – 00:01:51

At the moment there is a personal exhibition of mine in the San Babila gallery with about thirty works. There are fourteen new works, belonging to a new collection which is called precisely like the exhibition, therefore “Feelings and Emotions”, plus another sixteen works belonging to the old collections.

The new collection is a sort of x-ray of the sensations and emotions that an artist feels during the execution of her works. The old ones, on the other hand, belong more to my Cubist current.

Journalist

00:01:52 – 00:02:00

Well, what are the themes you work on and what are the materials you like to work with, both in sculpture and in painting?

Cesare Catania

00:02:01 – 00:02:49

Let’s say that in the last period I really like to approach art with a sort of introspection. It was already a path that I had initially followed at the beginning of my professional career as an artist. Then I had abandoned it a bit to give more attention, more space to what surrounded me, therefore to the reality that was around me. In this latest collection I wanted to return to the more introspective part, precisely with this new collection. As far as materials are concerned, let’s say that the latest collection is made of acrylic silicone, so it is an absolutely material collection, both from a pictorial and sculptural point of view.

Journalist

00:02:49 – 00:02:53

Let’s try to tell some of your works on display,

Cesare Catania

00:02:53 – 00:03:51

Maybe we dwell on a work called shyness. “Shyness” is a work that essentially describes the approach of an artist in front of the white canvas or the shapeless mass of clay that she has yet to model. So basically it describes the state of mind of the artist who feels really small, therefore “shy” towards his own work, because he hasn’t created it yet. It’s still all potential. At the implementation level there is still nothing. So, in my opinion this is exactly how an artist’s approach should be, an artist who feels too self-confident in front of his still unrealized work, I’m afraid he’s probably more ready to create a design work than a ‘artwork…

Journalist

00:03:51 – 00:04:16

I also give your website for anyone wishing to enter your universe:

www.cesarecatania.eu

However, what you were recounting earlier also has connections with the world of writing: being faced with a blank page and perhaps one full of notes, which perhaps correspond to the artist’s preparatory drawings or preparatory sketches. But then the picture is still to be written!

Cesare Catania

00:04:16 – 00:05:06

Exactly! Very good! That’s it! It’s exactly like you said!

Then the artist…. I speak of an artist, but in reality I should speak of art…. We are not necessarily talking about pictorial or sculptural art but it could also be in the art of music. It could just be the art of writing. So it’s exactly what you just described: the writer, when he finds himself in front of a blank paper, has perhaps written only a few notes or some preparatory drafts. But it is exactly the same feeling, the same feeling that a writer feels. And so does the artist when he finds himself in front of a yet unrealized work. Well, it also seems normal to me that he has this feeling of shyness … So with this work I wanted to pay homage to this feeling.

Journalist

00:05:07 – 00:06:01

Cesare, I ask you to stay with us. In the meantime, I remember that you will soon lead us into your art present in the metaverse. We are talking about contemporary art and perhaps also the art of the future. If it is not already art of the present…. meanwhile you can go and see something more tangible. It is in the San Babila art gallery in Milan, via Visconti di Modrone 6i, where the personal exhibition of Cesare Catania, painter and sculptor, is exhibited. And Cesare Catania is also present in the metaverse these days. Among other things, there was a meeting at the Lac in Lugano in recent days at the MetaForum.

We are with the artist Cesare Catania; in this parallel universe, which is the metaverse, there is also room for art.

Cesare Catania

00:06:02 – 00:06:59

But yes, let’s say that today the Metaverse is still considered a parallel universe. As you said, I believe that it is actually something much closer to us than we expect, if only because it gives us the opportunity to daydream, therefore to live in the reality that surrounds us in an augmented way . So from this point of view surely the metaverse can be a sort of accelerator of our emotions. And art in this sense is certainly the main subject, the pivotal object that revolves around the metaverse, but above all that populates it; because a metaverse with no content, well… is by definition of little interest. In short, art in this sense, especially digital art is becoming the main filling object of all metaverses!

Journalist

00:07:00 – 00:07:02

And what are NFTs?

Cesare Catania

00:07:03 – 00:08:00

Terminologically speaking, NFTs are defined as Non Fungible Tokens, i.e. non-fungible tokens, which are substantially registered, traced under the Blockchain to guarantee the uniqueness of their ownership. Today, the term NFT identifies two types of objects called collectibles and those of Cryptoarte. Sometimes today people put a sense, a negative connotation to NFTs. In fact, from an artistic point of view, people have in mind those NFTs, those images that after all may have become famous but that don’t have an important artistic content.

Journalist

00:08:13 – 00:08:28

…I think I understand. It is a scenario that is opening up now and I imagine that in the coming months I will return to talk about it more and more often about this and something that also has to do with cryptocurrencies.

Cesare Catania

00:08:28 – 00:09:24

But… then… in reality, the only link between Cryptoarte and cryptocurrency is the underlying blockchain which certifies, guarantees the transfer of ownership and possibly uniqueness. This is all in all, because in effect we are now starting to see NFT trades also in current currency. So all in all it is a link, I repeat, which perhaps has more to do with the world of belonging. But in reality then in fact I don’t see this link very much, it’s a link if you like by now a bit weak. Certainly, however, I see much more of a connection between Cryptoart and traditional art. However, there are not many traditional artists who have also turned to the digital world and who have done so in a personal way, not delegating the production of the artistic part to others. In that case there is certainly a very strong bond. You should consider that when a digital work is created, very often people think it is a replica of the traditional work of art, but in reality it is not. When you go to develop a digital work of art, you go to create a real work of art from scratch, perhaps starting from the same inspirations that you had when you created the traditional work. But in reality the two are completely different works.

Journalist

00:09:53 – 00:09:57

And then with these effects you certify that it is unique and unrepeatable….

Cesare Catania

00:09:58 – 00:10:13

Yes, let’s say yes, unless the owner, let’s say the artist, decides by his own will to make a work in multiple copies; a bit like making a limited edition of one hundred pieces.

Journalist

00:10:13 – 00:10:19

have artist copies, signed and certified

Cesare Catania

00:10:20 – 00:10:51

Absolutely yes!.

Let’s say that today the only real limit is the reproducers. That is, technology today is at the limit as regards the digital part, in the sense that probably in a couple of years we will see devices that will be able to express 100% the potential of digital art. Today, at most, there are probably some holographic fans, maybe some viewers, some screens….

Journalist

00:10:51 – 00:11:19

Visit his website to get to know him better and see where he will be exhibiting in the future. www.cesarecatania.eu

Thanks again Cesare Catania,

Cesare Catania

00:11:19 – 00:11:21

Thank you all!