GIFs. Cinemagraphs. Graphic Design. Video. Crafts. Textile Design. Inventor.

-Interview-

Is that really you hanging from those ropes?

Yes, I’m an aerial artist used to flying high, suspended upon silks or on a simple rope.
I love to perform aerial dances with my body over the heads of the spectators, transporting the viewer to a magical dream world.

When I use aerial silk, I feel like a butterfly free to fly everywhere. That’s why I’m in love with this discipline. Who would not want to be able to fly?

I have my parents to thank for introducing me to find this way of expressing myself. When I was three years old, my parents took me to see the circus, once a year, usually in December. I dreamed of doing what that the special lady on the stage was doing. When I discovered a circus school in my city, I realized my dream.

Since you started making GIFs and cinemagraphs, do you see the world differently?

As a child I found comfort on immersing myself in a world of images: real or unreal, drawings or photos, vertiginous views and dynamic glimpses.  Growing up, I decided to make that world my work. So gifs don’t show me the world in a different way, for me they are actually the perfect medium to express my existing world view.

Tell us about this project. 

I got involved in a special project called Performance of theatre, dance, singing and aerial silks. The name was born by uniting possibility and ability. The project was about job opportunities and individual skills. The challenge was to communicate awareness, a racing world, an escape against time. That is why I decided to represent the show with a clean geometric construction, but also intricate and complex background illustration where the city lights keep hope alive. Using a GIF I underlined the complexity of different layers that compose the poster. The poster became a direct metaphor of the show. 

It’s Christmas eve in Turin, Italy. Take us through your family’s Christmas traditions, and please include what’s on the menu.

I celebrate Christmas eve with my mother’s family. We have a big dinner all together where my mother cooks something different every year. There is only one rule: no gluten, because grammy is intolerant. Anyway, the best part of this day is after dinner when we play Tombola! It’s amazing because this is a very easy and simple game, but we never grow weary of it. It’s amazing because our grand parents are very competitive, but they are also a little bit deaf so every time they end up with fabulous scenes!

If we wanna talk about the menu, I have to tell you about Christmas day when I celebrate with my father’s family. Here, there is grammy Laura that cooks Lasagne, a traditional Italian first course. My grammy could win the guinness world record of layers of pasta in Lasagne. In cookbooks or restaurant Lasagne has no more than 10 layers. Laura’s Lasagne has at least 22! To finish a portion is a challenge, it turns into a marathon!

Do you think people spend too much time on their phones?

Yes, I do. I spend a lot time on my phone too, but I think there are different way to use it. I attended a course of social media communication in the last year, and I discovered the real potential of phones. It was amazing because you can exercise the practices of the traditional telephone while applying new opportunities offered by digital.

What game are you guys playing? The cards look interesting.

Here we were using traditional Italian fortune telling cards. No one of us are card readers but we have fun trying to predict each other's future anyway. In the cinemagraph I captured my friend was turning the last card. The idea is to imagine what fate he uncovered. 

Do you have a hard time asking people to sign model releases? This guy for example.

Yes. Everybody tells me they will sign the model releases, but they do spend a lot time doing it. The guy in the picture is a coworker and a friend. He rides his bike everywhere, so I wanted to capture this essential slice of his personality.

These strangers shared what night means to them in the video you created. What does night mean to you?

I love the night because I can close myself in my room and dream. I hate sleep, I think it’s a waste of time. Anyway the night gives me the opportunity to run with my thoughts and lose myself in my mind.

What inspired you to destroy a camera and invent a new lens?

The lens project born because I read a Cyberpunk novel that inspired me to explore the Cyberpunk culture in relation to environments, visions and technical solutions.

I imagined that in the future the sunlight would become too bright to permit to our eyes to see, and that we would need to use a special lens to filter out the light. This is the reason why I create the CyberLens. I’ll be ready when the future becomes real!

What does it mean, to you, to be Italian?

I reply with a quote.