Jago
The works of Jago is a testament to the beauty and power of creativity, and he is a shining example of what can be achieved through dedication, passion, and hard work.
- Do you remember the moment you felt that art and creativity would be a fundamental part of your life?
You know Iive always been a creative child, but creativity as I repeat every day is the result of two ingredients put together: curiosity and enthusiasm.
Two emotions that I never abandoned and always tried to keep. I immediately realized that my interests were going towards a direction that was not necessarily contrary, but different, compared to the others; my needs, my desires and my curiosity turned to things that did not correspond to the group I was a part of. You realize from the beginning that there is something that, if you continue to cultivate it, can also become a profession.
- When did you realize that being an artist was also becoming your profession, not just a way to express yourself?
You know all the things I did I did out of necessity, I couldn’t give up on taking care of myself. Then came the theme of survival and family needs in which I was clearly called to intervene, and then art was the way I could, with an attempt made by a crazy entrepreneur who makes innovative start ups, to try to invest totally in what could be my talent, my predisposition and my natural ability. Out of necessity I repeat, I have only dedicated myself to creativity, but always tried to combine it with survival.
- All your works seem to have “a soul”: is there something or someone from which you take more inspiration or do you find it within yourself?
Look I have no idea if my works have a soul, you have to see if I have a soul, literally I’m me, I’m never worried to tell the truth, but I can tell you that somehow
even whit this conversation, even with your questions you give me the opportunity to dig deeper into myself.
I have always been led to ask myself questions: who was I? Why? What I can tell you about past teachers and the need for mentors, is that the best teachers are the dead because they cannot forbid you to become their student. My best teachers were the teachers of the tradition, where you don’t need to ask questions in order to learn and instead just go there and look, for wether the works are sculptures, drawings and so on they are within reach of all. It’s a privilege to converse with you and have this exchange, because this also contributes to my work. And to repeat this even further, we need to surround ourselves with better people than we do. We are the average of the people we frequent and the places we live in.
- Art and communication today go more and more hand in hand: according to you is it art that conditions communication, or vice versa?
Art is always political, art always speaks of its own time even if you have no idea what to say. Art is always talking about the contemporaneity and the world you live in, as well as the person you are. We are the result of external conditions, so art has always been communication. Regardless of what you want to say through that gesture, or whether you want to say nothing at all, the moment you share a content, a sound, etc the interlocutor will use it to put in their own things. To explain this concept, something beautiful happened to me: in Naples, in the church of Sant’Ansfeno while I was making the piety, a lady from Sri Lanka came in and began to pray in front of that work. She then kissed her hand, touched the sculpture and left. I could have gone there and told her “Ma’am, this work has nothing to do with religion”. But if I had intervened I would have given up the great privilege of finding out that the things we do are given back to us and they know how to enrich us with meaning, so I stopped wanting to explain because I know that other people use art as empty containers to fill. Basically the communication is this: we share sounds that are containers that we fill with our emotions with our history, but when they reach the ears of others, those containers are emptied of our things because they have nothing to do with the things that others will put inside them.
This is the fundamental sense that you have to start from if you want to deal with communication. A good communicator has to also be a great listener, and you can’t communicate with art if you don’t know who you’re talking to.
- Where do you see yourself in the very distant future when you’ll decide to
retire?
I will not decide to retire, at some point I will just turn off and there will be a great feast. I want to live my life and I have what I love. I know what I have to do: I want to spend my life continuing to learn. Being wildly ambitious, but is also right to do things with measure. I want to be myself, but I have no idea where I’ll be, I can’t predict the future. I can tell you where I’ll be in two steps. But I know what the direction is, and I strive every day for it. The next step I will take and the next word I will say.
- What do you do to maintain balance in your life?
Look I sleep 8 hours a night, when I lived in New York I slept 4-5 max 6 a night because I made 3 hours back and forth by train every day to go to work. Today I fell in love again, I’m reading 5 different books. Reading is the only thing that can save us, if you do not read you only live your life.
- What is your greatest fear?
My biggest fear? Good question! I never thought about it. I’m afraid of a lot of things, but I’ve always been reckless and potentially all the things that frighten me also attract me and so I throw myself in.
- Do you have a recurring dream or a particular desire that you would like fulfilled? If so, Which?
Desire in general has been a fundamental engine of my whole life. Desire for personal fulfilment, to want to become the best version of myself, and a need to do my best to try and if I had an idea I had to try it. Desire can also be both an engine and a prison: when one desires a holiday, the moment one desires it, he ealizes that he does not have it and therefore suffers, life is suffering.
- Let’s talk about the world around us,
What do you like and dislike about the so-called “Western civilization”?
We are a mirror, a version of all possible versions, but I can tell you that I am in love with diversity, in the way I express my potential. So in New York I become something, in China I become something, in Italy I become something. I let myself be conditioned by everything around me. It is beautiful to hear the debates where it is said that we are this, we should be this, that is wrong, that is not. But we are everything, we are the saint, the dictators, we are the genocides. We don’t care about wars on the other side of the world until we get in each other’s faces and
don’t touch each other. It’s our hypocrisy that keeps us alive.
- In this period there is a war on our doorstep, the war in Ukraine, which could potentially spread in an unpredictable way. I don’t ask what you think about it, but rather: What is the role of art in these contemporary tragedies in your opinion?
Trust me, I’ve been to Ukraine with save the children, seeing for myself part of the result it produces. I’ve always been good at filling my mouth with catchphrases and sayings. But when you see, when you participate, when you experience compassion, things change, it becomes difficult to talk about it, it becomes easier to act and say: ok I am called to be different. I believe in actions and so I want to live.
- Who are the most inspiring artists nowadays? Whether it’s other sculptors or musicians, painters, philosophers or whatever.
All those who died for sure and all those who do things that know how to interact with humanity, those who have an audience that does not necessarily have to be the one that frequents institutional places, but that also participate in the community with their gestures.
- How would you like to be described, with an adjective or just a few sentences?
I would not like to be described. They can describe me as they like.
- OK you’re at a traffic light, on the other side of the road is Jago at 15, you have the chance to talk to him for 30 seconds and give him advice, what would you say to him ?
I would probably trip him up. I would have made him even more difficult than I was. I know myself and I know how to react to the difficulty, if I had had to, I would have created more and probably I would have left because knowing me I would have ruined the day for sure. Better not talk to yourself if you meet.