TOWARDS NEW PERSPECTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY ART
Verter Turroni – 1965 – is an Italian artist and designer, co-founder together with Emanuela Ravelli of imperfettolab.
Quotation marks have been placed around the verb “to work” (in its past participle form) precisely to emphasize more forcefully the industriousness of this artist, his indispensable manual practice, his complete adherence to the act of creation which, within the potential of matter, finds not inertia but a life that springs forth between acting and not acting. This is a primitive movement, one that is also a struggle for control over the process, whether it be oxidation or an imprint does not matter, because his way of proceeding is a phenomenological machine that does not fully defer to the vision of the one who operates.
Marco Bazzini, in “Il risveglio dell’angelo” (critical text).
How did your passion for art begin, and how did you decide to make it the center of your life, turning it into a profession?
I believe that what nourished my passion for art and for my work was, first of all, the environment of the home in which I was born and raised. My father painted, and painting was a natural presence, together with artworks and art books that inhabited the spaces as necessary things. The fact that my brother also became an artist is, for me, further confirmation of that family condition: it is not something we chose, but a language that grew onto us, shared without the need for explanations.
Art became a profession at the moment when I recognized that this research was not separate from life, but my most precise way of moving through it.
How do you transform an idea or a “simple” sketch on paper into a sculptural work?
For me, a sketch is never preparatory. It is not a project, nor a mandatory step toward sculpture. Rather, it is a gesture of pause, a form of light concentration. I work continuously with my eyes and my hands; form is built through making, correcting, and looking again. Drawings retain an experience of form, a passage of the gaze.
What role does intuition play in the way you choose, combine, and let materials dialogue in your works?
Intuition is central for me: it is a form of silent intelligence, built over time, after more than thirty years of work. When I speak of “intuition,” I mean the ability to immediately recognize a possibility. First I observe, for a long time, and then the hands translate what the eyes have already begun to understand. It does not arise from nothing: it comes from the habit of looking, from continuous practice, from having learned to feel how far a material can go and where, instead, it resists.
Your creations evoke organic forms and precarious balances. What inspires you most?
I am inspired by what has passed through time without losing its mystery. Archaeology and history have taught me to read forms as traces: fragments that carry with them a use, a ritual, a stratification. My works are born there, at the point where an artifact and an organism seem to speak the same language—that of matter that resists, changes, and continues to tell a story.
When you begin a project, do you start from the idea of creating a usable artwork, or do you create a beautiful form and then think about its use?
“As a designer, I start from an idea of use and context, with the necessity that the object can be recognized and desired. Compromise is part of the job: I do not experience it as a renunciation, but as an intelligent negotiation with reality. I never define one of my design projects as a work of art.
Design remains a territory with its own rules, a place where form must find a way to inhabit and be inhabited, not merely to assert itself. When I work as an artist, I do not seek compromises; expression is free, it does not have to please, it does not have to function. These are two different but communicating attitudes: the designer carries the artist within, and the artist keeps the designer’s rigor alive. It is in this ambivalence that I am able to move without betraying either side of myself.”
As a designer, what challenges do you face in making each object unique for collectors and interior designers?
“The main challenge is keeping uniqueness alive without turning it into a stylistic device: my collection exceeds ninety pieces, and each new object must add something, without repeating itself and without betraying a language built over time.
When I began, in 1997, collectible design in the world of furniture and interiors was not a recognized path as it is today. The collection was able to grow thanks to far-sighted collectors and interior designers who believed in me. The challenge is to remain radical and independent, yet capable of dialoguing with those who choose our pieces, listening to the context, without losing the direction of the research.”