visual art & photography
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Artist statement
Extended statement
I constantly search to accumulate knowledge and experiences in the world around me and in my activity; at the same time I try to give image and body to my visions. In the searching, in the works, I express my relationship with time and space, with a predilection for long segments of time rather than instants, for bottomless spaces with unlimited horizons. At other times the works reveal the search in the area of interaction with the mutations and metamorphoses that surround me and involve me. Or I express my discomfort in the face of the violence and lack of humanity of humankind. In short, in my works I try to make syntheses of my knowledge and cultural, philosophical and ethical beliefs. Mine is a continuous search for synthesis between form and content, ethics and aesthetics.
I have been a photographer my whole life and have exhibited as an artist for over two decades. At the age of seven I discovered how much I loved photography, at thirteen I was developing photographs in my own small darkroom. At eighteen just before enrolling in the philosophy department, I was already a professional photographer working for a daily newspaper. I went through, one by one, all the analogue photography phases of black and white and then of color, and then the advent of digital photography, and in the meantime I discovered artistic expression. While photographic techniques loom large in my works, there is not, however, documentation. My works can be visionary, with an apparently antique flavor, dramatic, or bursts of color. Much of my work evokes deep ties with Italian Futurism and Surrealism. Increasingly they are materico with a mixture of antique and current techniques. I work with encaustic photography: photographs imprinted on a wooden panel and worked in encaustic with beeswax and natural resins. Alongside this, I continue with my wife the research in the world of camera-less photography.
I love the relationship with my public, with those who come to see me in the studio, even unexpectedly: to talk, to discuss with me, to fantasize, to feel good together, even if there are differences. In this way I can make myself understood, explain my path, the point of arrival reached with my works. From the public come stimuli for future paths.
My work, my research are not solitary: I work in symbiosis with my wife Lia, not only together or with her at my side, but really in symbiosis: we elaborate, we discuss, we argue, we synthesize, we agree, we convince each other, and in the end we realize the works.
The works are signed Paolo Aldi if they start from an idea purely mine and conducted only by me. Others, those made four hands with Lia, are signed with the initials LPA, Lia Paolo Aldi to be precise. All of these works, whether unique or in limited and numbered editions, are signed, dated and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.