Stefano Cescon is a painter and decorator born in 1989. He has remained faithful to primary colors. This choice comes from the artist’s desire to be consistent with his sole interlocutor: his work.We appreciated Stefano’s work, not only because art has always flowed in his veins, but because he is an experimental artist, who dares and does not set a limit to the artistic universe. Stefano goes beyond paper and canvas to benefit from a completely new and original material: beeswax.
His project is called, in this regard, “Honey Boxes”. Wax is an organic and living matter, it expresses its own will according to who shapes it. Perhaps like the artist.
Hi Stefano, where did your passion for visual art come from?
I don’t think I can define a starting point and distinguish a before and after. For me, it has always been the aspect in which I felt most fulfilled and not just a passion.
Taking a look at your path of studies, you went from painting to decoration. What links these two disciplines?
“Decoration” is a generalist and misunderstood term, in this case it includes several “disciplines”.
If Painting is a discipline (although contemporary art includes many meanings to this definition), then by Decoration we mean different processes that distinguish the personal research of an artist. Talking about Painting, it is simply the definition of a medium, exactly as Drawing is meant as practice on paper (or similar), generally speaking. Decoration doesn’t focus on the medium, but on the expressive freedom to invent one’s own process using, and sometimes mixing, different practices.
The graphic line, the palette of social media, and the web in general have unequivocally contaminated the artist’s imagination since the aesthetic education of the new generations is no longer promoted.
The Outside world tends to influence the artist’s research and visions. How would you describe your creative process?
Obviously, the digital era we live in has marked a contemporary aesthetic. Over the course of ten years of attending the “Academy of Fine Arts”, I myself was able to observe a change from a type of gestural and material painting to a rarefied and, in many cases, two-dimensional one. The graphic line, the palette of social media, and the web in general have unequivocally contaminated the artist’s imagination since the aesthetic education of the new generations is no longer promoted, or rather “not only”, by the visits to galleries and museums (which were places previously dedicated to the physical discovery of art), but also by the biggest global image aggregator: Instagram.
This paradigm determines not only a change in the processes, but also in the topics.
In my case, I always start from my vast repertoire of standard images and graphic palettes which I find on social networks, and then I re-interpret them in my expressive code, adding to them a smudge, an imperfection that can humanize them.
Do you still feel the need to use only a few colors in your works to be more authentic and close to your art?
Yes, I always use primary colors as a starting point, with rare exceptions, to then extract all the others from them. This choice is linked to the fact of maintaining a basic coherence to the overall project.
Venice undoubtedly has a specific light, which is not warm and enveloping like some cities in southern Italy and not cold or sharp as other places in northern Europe.
The element of water seems to be at the base of your artistic vision. Definitely, it is related to the city where you live, Venice. What role does water play in your art?
This is something I have only recently become aware of.
Venice undoubtedly has a specific light, which is not warm and enveloping like some cities in southern Italy and not cold or sharp as other places in northern Europe. Quoting Brodsky, we can consider this as a light that defines, clarifies forms, and impresses them in the eye of the observer. Certainly, it comes not only from above, but is reflected by the waters in which the city is immersed. It therefore seems to me as an excellent option compared to the virtual world I was talking about earlier. These two worlds, so distant unconsciously, contaminate my tonal choices and meet on the surface of the works, sometimes mixing, other times leaving the signs of a vivid discussion.
Our “DARE” spirit leads us to think, realize, and act out of the box. Tell us how you came up with the idea of working with beeswax for the “Honey Box” Project and where did the need to create different shapes come from?
I sensed the value of this material for the first time three years ago during a visit to a “vernissage” at the Marignana Gallery in Venice. There, at the time, Silvia Infranco was exhibiting her works, which I could call specular to mine.
I can’t explain it exactly, but I think it was the softness of the material and its inherent power that left me something that accompanied me in the following months.
I work on multiple forms because I believe that a multiplicity of signs can create a dialogue between them. They work like an alphabet that, if placed in the right order and space, forms a unique language.
What do you think distinguishes you, Stefano Cescon, from all the other artists in circulation?
Personally, I believe that what distinguishes artists among themselves are the processes they put in place, even more than the theme they try to develop.
When I listen to a piece of music I may not understand the lyrics, but, regardless of that, the style comes to me in a universal way.
For example, if we consider painting, it is natural to think that it is a medium saturated with processes because of its centuries-old heritage. Of course, it is always possible to invent something relatively new, but it is not obvious.
I consider my work an alternative form of painting. We must relate the tradition from which we come with new languages and methods, only in this way today it’s possible to get our own stylistic and expressive figure.
But it’s not up to me to decide if that’s enough to distinguish me from other artists, even if, in this sense, I think I make my contribution.
To know more about Stefano Cescon's work, click here.
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