1. What are the foundations of your research (Art Identity)?
I have been active on the side of Performance since the early seventies, operating within the Art of Behavior, a trend parallel to Body Art.
My activity has always been characterized by performative urgencies, states of grace, expansions of the spirit, introspections in the search for the self; favoring the procedural and dreamlike aspect in my works.
2. Who are the artists who have guided you in your research?
Interested in a different dimension of making art, I looked around more and more
that back; I learned the history of art step by step, as I proceeded within me
himself considering it more important to hear than to understand or know. I have no guidelines
details… I let myself be carried away by emotions, suspended in a liquid dimension that
tastes contemporary and archaic at the same time, through so rituals that
draw sap from two distant poles: from the tragic ceremoniality of the ancient Greek world and from
reflections of primitive shamanic practices.
3. Define yourself as a human being using three adjectives.
4. According to your vision, where is contemporary art going and where would you like it to go?
… always be “autre”.
Angelo Pretolani is a conceptual artist, active in the field of performance since the early seventies. The trend he was a part of was called Behavior Art, parallel to Body Art.
At the age of twenty, even though he had never seen a live performance, he invents the first one, called "Minotaur". Angelo walks through the city passing under the scaffolding of the construction sites, to symbolize how the city is becoming a labyrinth, a trap in which the individual experiences a strong sense of disorientation and isolation. The title of his performances plays with his own name, from "Angelo Pretolani" the "Apparitions" are born. They consist of brief interventions in public places that underline the creative and ephemeral presence of the performer. Alongside the performances, he often creates pictorial or photographic works. Poetry, action, theatre, video and painting come together in an inextricable weave.
Since 2008, he has been the protagonist of an operation that takes the title of "Under the pavement there is the beach", visible on Facebook. The title takes its cue from the 1975 film by Helma Sanders, in turn taken from a famous slogan of the French May… Sous le pavés, la plage. These are minimal performances, focused on introspection and absorbed as spiritual and bodily experiences. Until 2013, the artist posts every day for five years, after which it is reduced to every Friday. He describes in words a performance of a few minutes that he performs in private, often making use of some objects, including bay leaves, a clear reference to the dimension of Poetry. The performance is then accompanied by a work on paper, made with ballpoint pen ink diluted with alcohol. The first 163 performances were published in the homonymous book published by Fiorina Edizioni, 2011.
He has exhibited in Italy and abroad. We remember his presence at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona in 1977 and at the Venice Biennale in the Italian Pavilion in 2011.
