Giovanni Di Stefano
Experimental
Basel, Switzerland
You do not have the current Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to upgrade Adobe Flash Player
You do not have Adobe Flash Player
To listen to this audio clip you will need to install Adobe Flash Player
About
http://web.mac.com/giovannidistefano/Giovanni_Di_Stefano
This music free to share under a Creative
Commons Music Sharing License.
MySpace
Eventualist Projects
Spontaneity
A quest for the genuine and spontaneous expression of personality forms the core of Di Stefano's art. In this search, he is confronted with the problem that spontaneity cannot be prescribed (Watzlavick calls this the "paradox of spontaneity"). Di Stefano's solution to this problem is to set -- himself and/or others -- a very precise assignment. But anyone attempting to fulfil this task accurately will make mistakes. These mistakes are the aesthetic event, because they are the involuntary, unmanipulable expression of personality.
The assignment can take on many different forms:
Experiments in blind painting
The essential feature of Di Stefano's series Blind Painting is that those attempting the assignment have no visual control over their actions. They therefore have to concentrate not only on the assignment itself (e.g. painting in a circle without crossing its perimeter) but also need to memorize all the actions they have already made.
Memory adjustments
Even the works made with open eyes place great demands on the memory. They demonstrate that perception and memory are creative acts. If perception is interrupted, e.g. by the removal of a stimulus image, the information (e.g. the position of polygons) is no longer verifiable. And whether the exercise is with a blindfold or not, the imagination plays a role. Our imagination is supported by its experience with reality, and yet what it produces always diverges from reality and is the expression of our deepest personality. Memory in other words is never precise and our errors are involuntary creative acts.
Everyday gestures
48 strappi, 200 x 200 cm, 2005
The assignment to execute an everyday gesture with a degree of precision (e.g. tearing a sheet of paper) also evokes errors/imprecision that are, once again, the expression of an individual's singularity and uniqueness.
Eventualism
Eventualism is an art theory, a theoretical foundation originally formulated by Sergio Lombardo (Rome) and then elaborated and developed by him in collaboration with the group Eventualisti for the generation of artworks.
The 'event' lies at the heart of eventualist theory. Or put another way, the moment at which someone responds or reacts to an eventualist stimulation is the artwork.
The theory divides the aesthetic process into three phases:
1st phase: the artist creates a stimulus, an incitement, for the audience/participants
The eventualist artist does not stand at an easel to be guided by intuition, skills and taste to create in colours and forms a beautiful or provocative picture for the viewer to marvel at. Instead, the artist creates an assignment that the audience must perform.
2nd phase: the artwork, i.e. the event
Anyone, with or without artistic abilities, attempts to fulfil the assignment, i.e. responds to the artist's stimulus. The artwork is that moment/those moments in which someone executes the assigned task.
3rd phase: documentation of the event
The product of the fulfilled assignment is a record of the artwork. In other words, the picture, the sculpture, the written response, the drawing is, together with the project specifications, merely documentation about the artwork itself.
The 5 aesthetic concepts in eventualist theory
1. The artist renounces all personal expression
The artist who develops the assignment for the public is not guided by personal tastes and avoids any decorative form. The principle followed is minimalism, that is the most direct path or the simplest methods with the absolute minimum of moments when an arbitrary choice must be made (e.g. left or right, green or black).
2. Structurality
The elements comprising the stimulus are interconnected in a 'neutral' structure; i.e. it is not aesthetic motives that provide the framework or the configuration but the elements of a program or a mathematical model. In this way, there are practically no loopholes through which the artist's predilections can slip into the assignment.
3. Spontaneity
Spontaneity is unintentional behaviour that cannot be simulated. Spontaneous behaviour occurs when it isn't wanted! For example in the form of errors when concentrating on the fulfilment of a task, and in dreams.
4.Interaction
The stimulus generated by the artist is not a completed artwork to be viewed and interpreted, it is the reactions to the stimulus that form the artwork. And the possible responses to a stimulus are infinite. In eventualist art, there is not simply reception of what the artist produces but also an integral reaction to it.
5. Eventness
The adherence to eventness as a moment of unmediated reaction to the stimulus ensures that the reaction is neither play nor artistic simulation, nor indeed a prenegotiated act. For those who take on the assignment and respond to the stimulus, the entire personality is integrated in the event to such an extent that they cannot help but manifest their identity and authenticity.
In contrast to other art movements which accommodate or have accommodated public participation, for eventualism it is essential that participants' reactions can be recorded and evaluated in order to verify the efficacy of the stimulus. For example: the more varied the reactions to one single artistic stimulus, the better the stimulus. If the reactions of different people are similar, the eventualist artist will consider 'improving' the stimulus for the next action. This means that the public's reactions contribute to the development of a stimulus and thus also to the artwork.
Giovanni Di Stefano / spazio.gds
Webseite (Deutsch)
Giovanni Di Stefano
1958 nasce a Roma.
1978 Diploma di Maturità Artistica, I° Liceo Artistico di Roma
1982 aderisce al Gruppo Eventualista
1985 Diploma di Pittura, Accademia delle Belle Arti di Roma
dal 1998 vive e lavora a Basilea
2001 fonda lo spazio.gds a Basilea: dove vengono realizzati
esperimenti artistici e organizzati incontri con persone interessate
1958 in Rom geboren
1978 Diploma di Maturita' Artistica, I° Liceo Artistico in Rom
1982 schliesst sich der Gruppo Eventualista an
1985 Diploma di Pittura, Accademia delle Belle Arti in Rom
Lebt und arbeitet seit 1998 in Basel
2001 gründet er den spazio.gds in Basel: Atelier und Ort des
Experimentierens und des Austausches mit interessierten Personen.
Stats
- Plays today
- 0
- All-time plays
- 493
- Profile views
- 1,506
c l o u d, Jan 19, 2009:
"u" is/are quite intense. ;)
Wishing you another creative year, G!
Delightfully
Markus
PANGEA, Jan 3, 2009:
Hello Giovanni, Very happy new year!!
c l o u d, Dec 16, 2008:
Two new trax deeply moved me... Thanks.
c l o u d, Sep 24, 2008:
New track's beautiful.... ;)
Hughes/Scherzberg/Wiese, Sep 17, 2008:
Die allerherzlichsten Grueße vom HSW Trio
PANGEA, Aug 9, 2008:
Hello Giovanni, it's a pleasure to find so creative artist in the net as you are. I love your stuff.
Grazie.
ongaku-hh, Jun 3, 2008:
Herzlichen Dank Giovanni
ich freue mich Dir und Deiner klugen und schönen Kunst auch hier verbunden zu sein.
Tibet - und die blind paintings - sind sehr eindrucksvoll
Grazie mille!
Udo
c l o u d, May 10, 2008:
:)
Stefano Giust, Dec 19, 2007:
Penseir pa' la fin da'l an // No me ferme / mai / a fâ bilancjus / E soi un flum / che ?int a / murî / in tal mâr / al mo?ena / sgrifa / carecja / claps / cencja pensâie sora / un parcêe / s'a val la pena / s'al riva ad ora / s'a se ferma prima (Federico Tavan) ...................... Pensiero per la fine dell'anno // Non mi fermo / mai / a fare bilanci / Sono un fiume / che andando / a morire / nel mare / macina / graffia / accarezza / sassi / senza pensarci su / se ne vale la pena / se arriverà in tempo / se si fermerà prima (Federico Tavan, poeta friulano)
Camusi, Dec 19, 2007:
sempre felici di ritrovarti....... qui....... o in un tram....... oppure nella cucina di una vecchia casa di montagna....... o ancora in una stradina europea.......
giorni cosmici....... s.