Interview with sculptor Antonio Tropiano: “I sculpt from words”

Antonio Tropiano, 47, famous sculptor Saint Catherine Ionian (Catanzaro), who with his art elevates the name of Calabria in Italy and abroad. After studying in Bologna and Florence, he continued his studies in the field Philology of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Then he collaborates with a well-known publishing house as a publicist on art history and humanistic literature. From childhood, he showed a penchant for plastic creativity and the natural versatility of wood, which are well combined in sculpture. In 2015, at the invitation of Vittorio Sgarbi, he took part in the Venice Biennale. In his art there is a world of words and sensations, a real mutation of things into something else. To get to know the artist better and the deep meaning inherent in his creations, we met with him. This interview followed and was conducted exclusive to italiani.it.

Antonio decided to devote himself to sculpture after teaching medieval philology. How did this transition happen?

“In fact, there was no transition: in the sense that there is no decision of continuity between these two moments of my life. I continued to sculpt, albeit in a private and very reserved manner, even during my teaching years. My need to study the form of things made of matter was at a certain moment so acute that when circumstances changed, I decided to indulge the inevitable fate by devoting myself entirely to sculpture. And then the philologist and the sculptor are working on the same topic: error.”

He fell in love with this art form at a very young age, thanks also to his grandfather, who was a cabinetmaker.

“My grandfather died before my mother got married, so I didn’t have the opportunity to learn directly from him those masterful secrets that would certainly make my job easier. However, I believe that from the moment I first used his tools, I felt a kind of reverence, an incomprehensible need to earn this privilege by confessing it to the wood fiber. I felt I had to bring your idea to life.”

How is a sculpture born?

“This is what I ask myself every time I finish. In fact, I think I sculpt because of the urgency: in the sense that I try not to give in to this inevitable need to speak my mind, to provide an expression of my individuality, which seems to be inherent in this season of peace.. Thus, I find myself observing phenomena for which I trace the etiology, bringing together apparently dissimilar and incompatible aspects and parts, but which instead reveal the relevance of a new point of view.

Why do you prefer linden wood to create your works?

“I have no predilection for either entity. Of course, linden or walnut wood (as well as cherry, maple, ebony, etc.) lends itself very well to carving and often allows you to create complex shapes with a difficult texture. In addition, they have a veining texture that does not create optical distortion when looking at them.”

Among his sculptures are known “fragments” of bodies and limbs. What are they?

“I’m drawn to the metamorphic power of a shard, a shard. In my opinion, this is where the mutation of one thing and its idea into another takes place; there the form of an object or body acquires the meaning of a symbol through its own material.

He is also an essay writer. What is the connection between writing and your sculptural work?

“As many as you can imagine and more. I have devoted my life to words and I believe that naming things is the greatest invention of mankind. It is with the words with which I begin when I give way to sculpture: in the intervals of the term, I, in fact, trace that modulation of meanings, that conceptual connective tissue that informs the chosen figure.

Which one best expresses your thoughts?

“Definitely one I haven’t done yet.”

What is the “core of Adele”, its penultimate, extraordinary “being”?

Adele Abbruzzese. That was the name of the young Chochara, who was destined to become one of her favorite models. Rodin. In fact, he portrayed her in many of his writings; and notably he sculpted it in clay (and later in plaster) in a small sculpture, now in his museum in Paris, called “The Torso of Adèle”. Absolutely one of the closest people to me. At this time, the master was working on the Gates of Hell, and he used Adele to depict the figure of Eve. At the same time, Adele became pregnant by a young salesman, and in her pregnant state she experienced many inconveniences posing nude in Meudon’s cold studio in the middle of winter.

So she did what any mother would do to care for her child: she ran away and was never seen again. The master fell into a state of disappointment because the figure he was now making looked too much like Adele to start all over again. He decided to move it to a corner and, looking at it after several weeks forgotten there, he realized that the unfinished part had the same expressive power as that depicted in the drawing. Thus was born Rodin’s “incompleteness”, one of the greatest sculpture revolutions of all time. What was actually caused by Adele: well, I wanted to pay tribute to this, as well as to a thousand other cases where great intuitions arose by chance and thanks to the contribution of minds whose history was meant not to preserve memory. “.

What connection does this have with your homeland?

“I came back after a long time because I felt the need to look at things upside down. My sculpture needs an inversion of perspective, an inversion of the gaze and a place where everything changes slowly, because the time that inhabits it is not in a hurry: this is the right place for sculpture.”

What is your favorite place to hide to unleash your art?

“That’s what I’m answering you from.”

He has exhibited in important international galleries and museums. Where would you like to go?

“To the next glass of red.”

(Photo courtesy of Antonio Tropiano)