Among the many paths that we have traveled so far together with the many artists of the art world, today the journey of passion and recycling is in Italy and we will talk about a fundamental theme, in common between “The Green Side of Pink” and the artist Fabio Ferrone Viola: recycling. We’ll talk about how pollution has pervaded the world and the art that has come to the rescue.
Born and raised in the eternal city, with a history of art and fashion design behind him. His travels around the world and the experience in the family business made him the artist he is now. Guided by his entrepreneurial parents he immediately entered the world of business, learning the role of warehouse management. In the 90’s he founded a clothing line (Compagnia Italiana) which he followed as creative director for many years, until 2007. Shortly after, he decided to found a smaller company with his brother and focused on his path as an artist.
Hello Fabio, the team thanks you for this collaboration and look forward to hearing your story. Let’s get started! What pushed you to make this sustainable and ethical choice for your works? Do you think your works reflect the ethics of recycling?
In the companies I founded, ecology was well established in my purchasing policies, even in the past the focus was on reducing waste.
In my works recycling is a source of inspiration. The materials used and intended for distribution are a source of waste, in fact in 95% of my works this philosophy is always present. I also use unusual materials: discarded weapons, for example, missile guns, pistols, and rifles. There is also the plastic object par excellence that we find in our hands every day: plastic bottle caps, cans, stereo cassettes but also gasoline cans.
Your works have as a central focus the citation to Pop Art, tell us about your approach to this artistic movement “sessantina”
My inspirations are many, from Robert Indiana, Robert Rauschemberg, his famous collages caught my attention, but as well as the artist Jackson Pollock and many others.
In the present, new art methods are crucial to my imagination, but in particular, my travels have had a strong impact on my art. In the 1980s I traveled to the United States, taking art classes and workshops at New York University. America was a source of inspiration, because of the great phenomenon of consumerism, while Italian, English and French artists gave me poetry and visual journeys.
The protagonist of your works is recycling, a new life is given to these discarded objects, tell us about your personal exhibition “Crush”
Crush is the name of the exhibition I made at the Vittoriano in 2016. With this exhibition, I tried to give voice and express my strong suffering related to the pollution that has pervaded the world. I invited schools and universities to participate, with the invitation to photograph the garbage they found on the street, and then publish them within my spaces.
In your works you express a strong empathy for sustainability and the environment, what do you think is essential to make people aware of buying products with low environmental impact and try to lead a “green” lifestyle?
Surely the best way to reduce is to eliminate plastic packaging, to force companies to withdraw their products from the market, banning disposable products. Fundamental would be to create awareness campaigns in schools, educating children from childhood.
At this moment in history, environmental issues are on the agenda. What is the message you would like to leave to the readers of The Green Side Of Pink and to the users of your artworks?
My message is “WARNING”, always hidden in my works. What I try to convey is mainly the concept of reuse and the ethics we talked about before. Objectively also leave a nice visual memory, both for what we see but also guess the materials that were used for the realization of the work.
I think and hope that my works can help to reflect on this great problem, perhaps to raise awareness among future generations.
We have reached the end of this journey of passion and recycling. For the more curious ones, the artist’s works can be found in Rome’s RestelliArtCo, Orler, and Damiani art galleries. For obvious reasons, we will not be able to visit the exhibitions mentioned, but we invite you to browse through his website.
Fabio invites us to discover the works of friends and colleagues: Luigi Folliero who uses purely plastic, Luigi LAC Ambrosetti, and Biagio Castilletti.
If you’d like to learn more about artists who make recycling into art, read more here.
