INTERVIEW WITH ARTISTIC DIRECTOR MATTEO BONACCI

Tell us about yourself Matteo

French by birth but Italian by adoption, I grow up in Catanzaro, in the coast part of the city. My memories, since childhood, are related to the sea, the open air and street games. At the age of 11, I was exposed to the world of dance and I madly fell in love with it, understanding that creation mixed up with communication, would be the symphony of my future.

Later I studied Design at Naba - New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, since I am passionate about social networks and new media. Since September 2017 I work as a Freelance Art Director and I collaborate with the digital agency Ready2Fly and some other music clients as Polydor and Universal Music.

your greatest inspirations or influences?

I don’t have a particular influence, I have models to inspire me in time but they change with it. In the last period I was definitely fascinated by the vision of Olafur Eliasson,. I saw his exhibition at the London Tate Modern. I was there alone, and yet I did not feel alone. I was a spectator and at the same time part of it. I wanted to propose these feelings again in my latest work. I believe a lot in the synaesthetic process, perceiving feelings with the other senses and then translating them into something visible.

Tell us a bit about your creative process?

My creative process starts with a ritual. After dinner, coffee with mocha, sugar cream whipped with the first drops of coffee (Italian secret) and music. In this way I get away from the world, the phone doesn’t ring, no one calls you and the night becomes a cradle. From this moment on each time is a different experience, which often takes me to some roads still unexplored.

One of the works I am very proud of, is the cover of the song "De Fuera" (made in collaboration with 3d artist Marika Monterisi). This request came to me during the first lockdown and quite absurdly I was called to represent the concept of evasion. It was a particular process that before coming to the definition of the elements,

I had a moment of reflection on the subtle difference between what is "inside" and what is "outside".

This year I want to dare more, in everything. I want to experiment and continue to amaze myself with everything that happens to me.

How has this year changed your creativity

We don’t have time to delay, if you’re thinking about doing something, it’s because you’re already ready to do it. It’s a personal process that’s also dragged on my creative path.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I would like to share (excuse wordplay) my desire to share.

Referring to the previous question, the art director is a profession that is often imagined as solitary. It’s true, loneliness is part of a process, but what keeps me alive is the will to share what happens to me. In the future I would like to create a creative group, not to teach them (I would not consider myself up to it) but to be sure that there are people every day ready to teach me something.