Derivatives

Derivatives – of art, culture, life, and its applications. And of its pervasiveness.
When I thought of delving into, once again, trying to give meaning to an intense and therefore contested passion (art), I realized I couldn’t simply focus on discussing and promoting art in a purely critical, didactic, doctrinal, and/or commercial way. All these aspects are valid because they are part of it, but I went in search of understanding how to transfer and enhance the emotional aspects.
How can I keep my feet grounded in reality and, at the same time, try to convey what I feel, see, experience, imagine, think, dream while I navigate lost within an exhibition, a gallery, the environment of a village, in front of the art of the surroundings, the sea, or the mountains. Or a desert.
I tried to identify the elements that stirred emotions within me. In the end, I couldn’t escape, and I still can’t escape, the fascination of its pervasiveness.
Some time ago, while speaking with someone (I don’t remember who) about the profession of communication, which has allowed me to make a living for over forty years, I heard and repeated concepts that developed within me in a completely spontaneous and natural way. Anarchic, if you will.
To communicate, you have to live moment by moment, capturing the stimuli that daily life offers you. It presents itself to you. It presents itself simply before your eyes. Walking among the exhibited works of a museum and brainstorming with those accompanying you or by yourself, thinking about how to convey that message; sitting in a square at a bar while drafting a copy or sketching (for those who still know how) a campaign.
One of the rare pleasant memories from middle school is anchored to the spring days spent with the art teacher, drawing from life the life of my city.
The most intense pages from the war fronts, Gian and Fausto when we were together at the foreign agency, they didn’t write from the desk at Foro Bonaparte, but from the front lines where the battle raged (as I write this, we are witnessing the drama of human hypocrisy culminating in the war between Russia and Ukraine).
The same goes for the perhaps noblest aspect of communication, which is art.
When I taught at the Academy of Communication, I always told the students that the only form of pure communication is art. Because it is not born to convey a message from others, but to communicate itself. The artist’s vision, their emotions. It is born to evoke in the viewer their own feelings, which inevitably cannot and should not be tied to any objective or necessity. And the artist’s sentiment does not necessarily have to align with that of those who enjoy or do not enjoy their vision (their work).
Art is free. Or it should be.
While talking with Guerino, who knows a lot about anarchy and freedom (not just that), he gave me a vision of art that I found not only truthful but sublime. And in some aspects, true. The beauty of art encompasses everything and its opposite.
For art to be art, it must be useless. This is one of the necessary aspects for it to be considered art (in fact, Guerino, and another enlightened mind called Immanuel Kant, said the same). In fact, we could live perfectly fine without art. It would only be a world much worse off than it currently is, but we could still live. Although, in fact, art is perhaps one of the earliest forms of communication, dating back to prehistory.
I find this concept extremely poetic. Uselessness. It gives me an even stronger sense of freedom. To wander aimlessly in search of nothingness, to enjoy that existence that life has ultimately gifted us.
Due to its natural disruptive force, it generates derivatives of all kinds and forms. It is called creativity. It is called artistry. Call it whatever you like, and it generates easily accessible beauty, accessible to most.
Because in the contradictions and freedom of art, art itself is not democratic at all (a term I detest), but rather selective in all its expressions. Whether it be in terms of legibility, intelligibility, or acquisition.
Its derivatives, on the other hand, are not. They are sometimes simpler, easier, more direct, more accessible, and purchasable.
Welcome to the land of derivatives.