Perino e Vele


Angelo Capasso: Michelangelo, the work you exhibited as part of Castelli in Aria at the Castel Sant’Elmo in Naples, can be seen as emblematic of your artistic approach. Its “monumentality,” “ephemera,” “resistance,” “softness,” and “classicism” are all qualities pertinent to the kind of “manual” approach so typical of your work, as is the papier-mâché you so frequently employ, despite its being a rather poor material. Has it become essential to your creative process?

Luca Vele: I don’t know if you can consider Michelangelo to be “emblematic” of our work. It’s certainly true to say that it represents an important stage. In our earlier pieces, the “ironic” component was predominant. With Michelangelo, however, we concentrated more on “formal” concerns. Obviously it wasn’t our express intention to carry out a monumental or classical sculpture. We do consider the soft properties of papier-mâché irreplaceable in our work now. It isn’t a “poor” material, but it is simple, which is why we weren’t really drawn to it in the beginning, but its intrinsic potential in manual work renders it of much greater interest. So much so, in fact, that it has had an increasingly important role in our work and we now consider it invaluable…


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




Angelo Capasso