GianMarco Porru
GianMarco Porru is an artist based in Milan, Italy.
GianMarco Porru is one of ArtConnect’s Artists to Watch '21.
GianMarco Porru’s research looks into cultural narratives often constructed and transmitted via oral storytelling and manifested in popular material culture, folklore and communitarian knowledge. He asks how precise geopolitical, natural and spiritual contexts exceed organizational systems. The research he conducts on these discursive and visual archives often originates from an interest in ethnographical analyses and methodologies and later results in works that cross a range of media including performance, video, photographs and sculpture.
Naz Cuguoğlu
Curator
“GianMarco Porru is a storyteller. You can imagine him sitting by the fire at night to tell a story that’d haunt you for the rest of your life. His stories take unexpected twists, make you uncomfortable, and take you on a journey that is beyond the sensual experience. The history is "man-made," and Porru is both aware and awake. Hence, he approaches cultural narratives, mythological stories, and oral tales in his video and performance work and demands agency on those stories while also questioning their accountability.”
ArtConnect asked the winning artists to share with us a glimpse into their creative life to get a sense of their personal inspiration and artistic process.
How did you get started as an artist?
I've always drawn a lot and followed this expressive mode up to high school education. I think it's necessary for me to firmly believe in a vision and make it real.
How would you describe your artistic approach?
In my recent inquiry, I’ve been particularly looking at how humans, inserted in a precise geopolitical, natural and spiritual conformation, use these features to produce stories, actions, forms of consciousness and ultimately "create" those monsters that exceeds organizational systems.
And how about what inspires you?
I've studied in a theatre academy for a few years, and this world, but also the dance world, inspires me a lot and is always a starting point for my research.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced as an artist?
I think trying to be a self-employed artist is a big challenge itself.
GianMarco Porru working on a project
Describe a typical day in the studio/wherever you make your work.
I often work with people that can help me in my projects, like dancers or performers. The first thing that I do is have breakfast with them and talk about the goals of the day. Then comes my favorite part, when I get to see them expressing themselves in their languages. After that, we get straight to work on the project and at the end of the day I take some time for writing down or drawing something that can help me the next day to develop the research.
David Revés
Curator
“GianMarco Porru's work gains special relevance for the way it collects, updates and renews traces, nuances, images, and movements of a culture that is on the way to disappearing but still endures. In a contemporary context, where daily rhythms are intensified and abstracted, the relationship with culture has become more volatile and instantaneous, images are consumed in a voracious and undifferentiated way, losing their mythographic and, therefore, community-rooted background.
His work develops an enduring relationship with Time, proposing a living and metamorphic archeology where a strong connection with the Earth — and with the various modalities of we overlay it with a contour of containment and habitability — is activated. There, in a tension between past and future, the plan for a becoming-community is formed, where History is not mitigated and where the present time is not unobserved.”
Is there a medium, a process, or a technique that you haven't used in your work yet but would like to try out?
Yes, I would love to work with glass, and I'm now looking for a place in Venice to experiment with the traditional venetian techniques.
What are you currently working on? Or an upcoming project you want to mention?
I'm now working with two dancers on the second chapter of my creation called LSDP, a staged performance inspired by Le Sacre du Printemps. This chapter is a deep research about the moon, its movements and phases.
How does it feel to be selected as an ArtConnect Artist to Watch?
I'm very glad to have the opportunity to share more about my work and my artistic research.
See more of GianMarco’s work
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