Assignment #8

1. Again, tell us about your site. What is the mission and philosophy of it? What are its main activities?

2. To what extend have your initial impressions of the site changed and/or remained the same? Consider how your frames of reference has shifted since you began your service work. 

3. What information about the site would you still like to gather, and how would you go about learning it (who would you talk to, where would you go, what types of questions would you ask?)

When Julie originally mentioned the possibility of working with an art organization as an internship, I could not imagine the opportunity that I was going to receive.  Art has always been a passion of mine, and to have the chance to work first hand with artists was not what I was expecting.  My service-learning site was working with Artists from GIGA, which stands for Giovanni Italiano Groupo Artisti. 

Natalie, Manka, and I met with Matteo Peretti and he instantly welcomed us into his studio.  Matteo is a contemporary artist who was born and raised in Rome.  Once he was 19 he moved to Ohio to obtain his Bachelor’s degree in visual arts.  He then moved to London where he went to school to obtain a Fine Art M.A. and in 1995 he founded GIGA, “an exhibition space where shows and events are held, which enrich the contemporary art world, a liberal environment where influential artists and critics collaborate”.  The studio is located near Piazzo Navona and is across the street from Matteo’s collegue and girlfriend’s studio, Adina Drinceanu.  Adina was born in 1980 in Romania and studied at The Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci. 

 

Both artists vary in styles greatly.  Matteo works generally with old and small toys using them as a collage to create a larger image.  He uses his childhood memories to inspire his pieces and generally uses matte colors to spray paint the artwork.  Adina typically uses pencil to draw living people in everyday life.  Her current collaboration of artwork is about a group of young adolescents that are victimized in society because of their status of “emo”.  Not all of her subjects for her artwork are emo but are alienated because of their dress and lifestyles.  Adina generally portrays these people in gray, white, and black on a canvas and then paints colorful floral backgrounds that pop from the canvas. 

At the beginning of service learning Natalie and I were working with Matteo and assisting him with some of his pieces that consisted of foam.  The majority of the time we would pick at the foam and until the surface had a mountainous texture.  He would then take the newly formed foam and cut footprints and eventually add miniature “FBI” figurines to the foam and the result was imaginative and unique. 

After working with Matteo for half of the duration of the service learning we began working with Adina.  It was very exciting to begin working with Adina considering the work we had been helping with had become repetitive.  Working with Adina opened some doors to ideas that I had never thought of before.  Adina wants her art to inspire young people to not feel alienated in a not so welcoming world.  Not only was it enlightening to hear her opinion on immigration, as she is from Romania, but it was wonderful to make connections and through her meet other artists to stay in touch with.  Consequently she has also been a very helpful resource for my research project: Contemporary Art in Italy. 

My frame of reference has not changed but grown.  Working with these artists has opened my mind to see art differently and to see the world of art differently.  With this opportunity I have been forced to ask more and more questions about contemporary art and how it survive in an ancient art world. It makes me wonder how artists grow with time and how they create new art that younger generations can relate to.  With only Natalie and I attending the GIGA service learning we fortunately have had the opportunity to get to know Matteo and Adina well.  I feel we will be in contact in the future, we have told Adina if she comes to the states she should get in touch with us.  She has also promised to send Natalie and I her final product of a piece we have been helping her with.  Overall this opportunity has been absolutely amazing and I feel grateful for the chance to learn, grow as a student, and connect with people I would usually have the possibility to.