Manuela Brevi - Emma Gravagnuolo, Interview with Bianco-Valente, 2009

What is the first work of art you ever saw? When and where did you see it?

Giovanna Bianco: The Mona Lisa, as a young girl, in my school books.

Pino Valente: I believe it was Ragazza materiale, a 1993 exhibition by Eva Marisaldi at Raucci/Santamaria. At the time I was a Geology student and I never would have imagined that, before long, that world would become mine.

Tell me a work by another artist that you wish you had made yourself

B. The installation Olafur Eliasson created for the exhibition "50 Moons of Saturn." Remarkable.

V. In Iñárritu's film 21 Grams there's a scene in which several birds fly downward, as if they were dead leaves falling from trees.
It's a scene that lasts only a few seconds, but it has an incredible evocative power.

Who would you like to be if you weren't Giovanna Bianco? Why?
B. Myself.

Who would you like to be if you weren't Pino Valente? Why?
V. Do you know the old Dash detergent commercial? Well, I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's.

And if you hadn't become an artist, what would you have done?

B. I would have made films.

V. I would have found another field in which to do research.

The best part of being an artist...

B. Not living by routine, feeling free.

V. The freedom to manage your own time.

The most interesting thing about working as a duo?

B. The energy that comes from sharing our ideas with each other.

V. Observing how far two people can become a single entity.

And the most difficult thing?

B. Avoiding passing our anxieties on to each other.

V. Determining, after the fact, who a piece of work started with.

The period in art history you love most?

B. Pop art, the historical avant-gardes in cinema.

V. I love the asymmetries lived without discomfort in the Middle Ages, and the transition between the sixties and seventies in Italy: Boetti, Pascali, De Dominicis, etc.

What is the most beautiful work of art in history?

B. The Pantheon.

V. One of the most beautiful is definitely Piazza del Campo in Siena.

How does one of your works come about?

B. From a reading, from an idea that comes to you suddenly, from the incessant communication between us, which is a constant stimulus.

V. From words.

What do you look for in a work of art?

B. Emotion.

V. Charm, poetry and lightness.

Do you collect works of art? Which ones?

B. No, but sometimes I've wished I could buy one.

V. No.

Which work would you buy if you could?

B. A "Propagazione" by Penone.

V. I would buy design from the '60s-'70s and contemporary design.

The most beautiful exhibition you've seen recently?

B. 50 Moons of Saturn, many of the works were interesting.

V. Carsten Nicolai's installation at Volume in Rome.

And the worst?

B. I've seen several.

V. I'll be self-critical: our installation for the exhibition Dedica, celebrating Artiaco's 20 years of activity. Because of a timing issue we were forced to change the piece, exhibiting a work designed for another space. The exhibition itself was very good; our contribution was below par.

What can't you stand?

B. Falseness and arrogance.

V. Artists whose work always looks the same, those too focused on themselves who don't grow as people.

The thing you're proud of?
B. Clarity.

The thing you're proud of?
V. Independence.

What are your passions?

B. Traveling, reading, cinema, walking in nature.

V. Electromagnetic waves, and the well-founded suspicion that they underlie living forms and everything that happens to them.

And your quirks?

B. Dust, the kind that settles on things.

V. I don't have a cell phone or a watch, I don't wear rings, bracelets, necklaces, or anything that could be traced back, even remotely, to a leash.

Do you listen to music? What kind?

B. A lot, and very varied.

V. I love music. Recently 24Grana released Ghostwriters, a beautiful album. A few months earlier I had the Co'Sang album stuck in my head. Unexpectedly poetic.

Your favorite reading?

B. Novels, essays of various kinds.

V. Non ora non qui (Not Now, Not Here) by Erri De Luca.

Your favorite films?

B. Metropolis, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 8½, Seduced and Abandoned, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, Psycho, The Shining, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Big Lebowski, Brokeback Mountain, One Man Up…, it would take too long to list them all.

V. Recently watched: The Edge of Heaven, Gomorrah, Amores Perros, City of God.

Your ideal city?

B. Horta, one of the Azores islands.

V. Naples, but only on condition that it keeps making itself hated/loved every new day, and that I can keep traveling around the world the way I currently do.

Life's mistake?

B. Thinking we're immortal.

V. The things that seemed like mistakes to me at the time have often turned out to be real strokes of luck.
In the meantime, the perspective from which I looked at things had changed.

A cardinal vice?

B. Nutella.

V. Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

The most welcome invitation?

B. That of our friends Rosaria and Salvatore; he's a top-level chef, he cooks for royalty and presidents, and incredibly he lives on the third floor of our building. It doesn't get better than that…

V. To share.

Your greatest success?

B. Independence.

V. Having learned to keep the right distance from things.

The thing you do best?

B. Always arriving late!

V. Helping friends.

And the thing you do worst?

B. Public speaking.

V. Answering the phone.

A gift you'd like to receive?

B. Design objects from the '60s and '70s, I'd love that.

V. I love gifts that aren't tied to material things.

Three indispensable things?

B. Thought, awareness, freedom.

V. Giovanna, the sun coming into your home, putting passion into what you do.

Describe contemporary art in three words

B. Undemocratic and often specious — that's only two words…

V. Self-referential and stifling.

Describe your work in three words

B. Experimental, forward-looking, profound.

V. Poetic, profound, emotional.

Describe yourself in three words

B. Touchy, talkative but very accommodating.

V. Brilliant, but too slow in carrying out projects.

Describe Pino Valente in three words

B. Curious, helpful, stubborn (too much so).

Describe Giovanna Bianco in three words

V. Solid as a rock.

Plans for the future?

B. Continuing the RSM project, begun in 2001, traveling to very distant places off the tourist track, places you'd never have dreamed of going.

V. Seeing friends more often.
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Taken from Arte Mondadori , January 2009

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