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Futuro Antico. Interview with Luigi Fassi
Jan 23, 2024
Ludovico Pratesi
Luigi Fassi, director of Artissima, believes that in the coming years, attention will be focused on social justice, in a global world where, as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli once said, there is no mercy in art.
What are your inspirational references in art?
My references are interdisciplinary because I include every artistic form that centers on a rigorous and complex creative process. I am aware that, as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli said, there is no mercy in art: either you are worth it, or you get out of the way. Two areas of constant attention for me outside of visual art are poetry and dance, particularly in their contemporary developments.
What project represents you the most? Can you tell us about its genesis?
The projects that have mattered most to me are those conducted in close contact with artists, such as commissions and residencies, as well as those built from theoretical urgencies, like group exhibitions. For the first example, I think of a project I realized a few years ago with Kilianj Kia Henda for the Steirischer Herbst Festival in Austria, focusing on the Slovenian border. I invited the artist to tell the story of that complex cultural geographical context, between the memories of the Iron Curtain and the present marked by the flow of migrants. In the second case, I think of the group exhibition Crisis of Presence, which I curated in 2016 at the Pori Art Museum in Finland, reflecting on the idea of a crisis of presence as expressed in the writings of Ernesto De Martino.
What importance does Genius Loci have in your work?
I have never interpreted my work within a genius loci, except for the one shaped by my own training, experience, and a sense of belonging to certain values and ideas.
How important is the past for imagining and building the future? Do you believe the future can have an ancient heart?
Each of us is intertwined with the past, whether we are aware of it or not. Those who engage with the past open themselves to immense horizons that will illuminate their future as well.
What advice would you give to a young person wanting to follow your path?
Perhaps the most obvious yet essential advice: continue studying as much as possible, engage with artists and curators, and invest as much energy as you can in travel and personal development.
In an era defined by post-truth, does the concept of the sacred still hold importance and power?
I would certainly say yes. The sacred, as far as I’m concerned, approaches mystery, but even more so as redemption and hope stemming from an awareness of one’s own finitude.
How do you envision the future? Can you give us three ideas that you believe will guide the coming years?
In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in attention to the theme of social justice. I believe (and hope) that a forthcoming development will be a return to the discipline of ethics, understood as the ethics of values and the individual. It is a terrain fraught with difficulties but also immense potential, where I am convinced, we can pay renewed attention to many authors from the European tradition, engaging in dialogue with all the needs, demands, and explorations of the global world in all its forms.