Name: Guerrino.
Surname: Santulliana.
Agency: I Love Models Management.
Age: 20.
Height: 192cm
Place of Origin: Belgium – Italy.
How were you discovered: I was discovered at the street at Brussels.
Favorite music: I love many different styles.
Hobbies: Swimming and running.
Favorite piece of clothing: Shoes! I love it since I was a little boy.
Favorite film: The rum diary.
Favorite food: Pasta.
What turns you on? Nice people.
What turns you off? War and racial discrimination.
Describe yourself in 3 words: Young, dynamic and considerate.
Describe a day in your life when you’re free: I enjoy the small, beautiful things that life has to offer.
What would you be doing if you weren’t modeling? I would make furniture.
Who is your favorite fashion designer? I love the many different styles, fashion is very monumental.
Are you single? Yes, I’m a free boy…
Favorite part of your body? My eyes.
What do you think about Forget Them Magazine? It’s amazing.

YB — Describe your artistic research – the use of geometry and time.
DB — The relationship and perception we have of time is one of the main theme of my research.
I think of time as a solid element in continuous movement: a monolith so overwhelmingly large it can only be perceived exclusively in portions. These parts or sides can be viewed as different eras or moments in history. In fact, certain sides of a shape are momentarily hidden but that doesn’t mean they are gone or past. I don’t see time as a straight line. These thoughts have found a way of expression through geometry thus having a capacity to translate something extremely complex into something more approachable. Geometry builds the needed distance to make it indispensable for a broader understanding.

YB — In your drawings, you create patterns of lines in acrylic or pencil over the initial image that you get from books. I am curious to know more about your choice of images: antique statues, paintings of the 17th century (i.e., Diego Velázquez, Simon Vouet, Pantoja de la Cruz).
DB — I started the path that brought me to my current work on paper, pushed by my frustration with photography and the media that I studied. Looking for a more physical approach in 2008 I began using photographic images mainly acquired from the internet. I tried out different options, using images from art history which seemed to perfectly match what I needed at the time. They offered a starting point: having a background in photography I often find it difficult to start-off with a blank surface. On top of this, art history allowed me to work directly with the mood of the image, freeing me from the historical responsibility that any photographic image has. Since then my range of background images have moved in many directions, art history, architecture and antiques are still strongly part of my work. I even use my work on paper, my sketches, as a brain warm up for my sculptures or more pictorial pieces.

YB — Sometimes the drawings you do entirely cover the image leaving only the surface of the eye free of lines and sometimes the lines you draw create a rhythmic game of diagonals. Can you explain more about this?
DB — Everything begins with the choice of the background image. That’s already a good fifty percent of the job. I try to understand where to focus my attention, how to improve the image and how to build the communion that will form the final work. If I’m working on a portrait I often underline the eye to suggest the importance I give to a gaze or a contemplative look. Through the eye of a person an entire life can be sensed and it’s often through the eyes that these classic works carry their capacity to build a bridge over time. From the eyes spring tensions that I look for in all my work.

YB — The performance: You performed at the Artist Space in New York, at the Watermill Center, the Plymouth Art Center, and PS1 in New York. How do you integrate the performance into your work? Can you tell me more about the Performance at MADRE in Naples.
DB — I have worked a lot with performance as I am strongly fascinated by its capacity to build legends. The uniqueness of an action performed in a specific space and limited time offers the most precious gift to the audience, making them part of something that will never happen again. It’s like a scale model of life: there is birth and death and there is nothing you can do to rebuild it when is gone. It’s unique and ephemeral more than any other media. I have never considered myself a performance artist: I never felt the urge to perform. For me, it has always been about the building of an image. My presence has often been purely logistical: doing the action myself was the only way to ensure the precise result I wanted. I wouldn’t mind working with actors in the future, even though the only test I have done so far has been a disaster. I also feel that my relationship with performance is changing. I’ve been enormously influenced by masters like Marina Abramovic, Tehching Hsieh, John Cage and they have brought me to the point of working with longer durations, physical endurance and a radical minimalism in movement and elements. At the moment though, I feel I’ve said what I need to say about this specific structure. Now my interest in time-based work seems to push me towards collaboration with music and theatre. I am Legion, the performance I presented at the Madre Museum of Naples under the curatorial line of Eugenio Viola and Adriana Rispoli, is a perfect example. On the base of the noise of a storm (fully reconstructed digitally) I asked two marvellous guitarists to improvise while I scanned time, like a metronome, sharpening a long knife over a stone. The performance happened almost in full darkness to concentrate the perception completely on the sound. There was no documentation, only a full audio recording of the two hours. The title is a quotation from the gospels. While visiting a village, Christ encountered a man who is said to be possessed by evil spirits. When asked about his name the man answered: “My name is Legion as for we are many”. The work represented all the heavy thoughts that haunt all of us and provokes the possibility to project them all into a herd of pigs as described in the bible. How wonderful that would be.

YB — Which artists are important to you? Who has influenced you? Who do you look to when you work?
DB — I follow a really wide range of artists and authors from all kinds of media.
Between the masters I’ve definitely been influenced by Agnes Martin, Carl Andre, Marina Abramovic, Tehching Hsieh, Marisa Merz, Marlene Dumas, Louise Bourgeois, Baltus and surely I’m forgetting many others. From the younger generation I love the work of Rachel Whiteread, Oscar Tuazon, Victor Man, Andro Wekua, Becky Beasley, Tatiana Trouve, Dahn Vo, Gedi Sibony, Jason Dodge, David Ostrowski, N Dash and I could go on.
I look at a lot of art but often I find inspiration in cinema, music and literature.
I love Bela Tarr movies, music by Arvo Part, Aethenor and Om. Books like The Tartar Step by Dino Buzzati, The Conformists of Moravia, The Plague by Albert Camus or Nausea by Sartre all had an influence on my work. I find a lot of inspiration also in architecture.

The sculptures by Andreas Senoner transmit a strange sense of peace. It’s the same emotion that takes you when you are staring at a beautiful landscape and you feel something unexpected emerging from within. But apart from personal impressions, this is not a coincidence.
Born in Bolzano (1982), Andreas lives between Florence and Val Gardena, in the heart of the Dolomites, two natural sources of beauty and inspiration that left clear marks on his works. His sculptures made of wood, painted with acryllic colors and pencils, follow the thread of the great tradition of wooden sculpture, which is typical in Northern Italy and deeply related to religious items. But there is also an unconventional twist of contemporary taste that makes them unique. The mood is a fascinating mix of dreams, fairytales and a certain delicate nostalgia.

GM — Why did you choose wood for your sculptures?
AS — After having experimented a lot during my training as an artist, I decided to come back to wood because it’s a material that I learnt to handle when I was very young. Wood sculpting brings me back to my roots and to a tradition which is part of my native cultural background. I consider wood, with its colors and its grain, a living material. Through this I can express the softness, the warmth and the fragility of the human body.

GM — Does speaking about trends in Arts make sense to you?
AS — Maybe yes but in my opinion the word trendrefers to a range of concepts related to volubility and to the will to follow a certain model. I like to think that in arts there are many different realities expressing different fields and different cultures. At first they may seem far from each other but if you reflect deeply on themyou’ll find they aremuch closer than you thought.

GM — I was twenty years old but I won’t let you say it’s the most beautiful age of life is the title of one of your works. What did you do at twenty? Do you feel lucky compared to your peers?
AS — I feel lucky because in sculpture, I found a way to convey my energies and my ideas. When I was twenty, I was a student of fine arts. I had many projects in my mind and my suitcase was always ready. At the time I didn’t know who I was going to be, but my desire was to explore and to find new sources of inspiration.

GM — You exhibited you works in Italy and abroad. Is there a special place where you wish to exhibit?
AS — Art is also an opportunity to travel. In the future, I would like to have the chance to know far-off countries and to interact with foreign cultures. My dream is to take a long trip to Asia so I can study Eastern traditions.

YB: Let’s talk about the choice of the objects. I read that you select them from the street. How do you choose them? I am curious to know a bit more about the procedure. What drives you to choose a neon lamp, a piece of furniture, a basket ball in between other objects that you could potentially use?
PW: I like to think that the objects find me. Usually I know right away if I like an object, they are like people in that way.

YB: Do you feel that the types of objects that find you have changed over the years? Or take the direction you are taking?
PW: No.

YB: Are you looking for a final sense of beauty, elegance and formality in your work?
PW: No, I’m looking for each work to take on its own identity. Once I start to see it, I step away.

YB: Let’s talk about the practice of painting and painting in general. How would you define your relationship with it? Would you define it more like an allusion to painting, a new way to define painting, an ironic definition of painting, or?
PW: My relationship with painting is a daily one. I need to do it regularly like all the other things I need to do each day in order to not feel miserable. Nothing about my relationship with painting is ironic.

YB: I read some time ago about your work and other artists who are trying to redefine “painting”. What do you think about your work and this statement?
PW: I am more interested in acknowledging “painting”.

YB: The show “Gracias”at UNTITLED. Can you talk a little bit about the show? Why that title and why the work “Untitled Podium” placed in the middle of the room?
PW: Most of the objects and materials I use come from my neighbourhood which is predominantly Spanish speaking. “Gracias” was a thank you to all those households that donated their trash to my language. Regarding “Untitled, Podium”, I just felt the space could use a figurative presence to break up the seriality of the paintings.

YB: Can you tell me a bit more about the use of the light in your work? Especially in the work I-D, 2010.
PW: When I use lights, or any other object or material, it’s because the piece needs it. When I am working, I’m just trying to react to what’s in front of me. If the work is thirsty I give it something to drink.

YB: Going back to the objects. When objects are misplaced they lose their meaning and the viewer can lose contact with reality and feel disoriented by the de-contextualisation of them. Objects, and I am referring to Baudrillard here, define who we are. They create the illusion to define the individuality among collectivity, especially in the consumerist society we live in. They define society and the self in time and space. Is it happening in your work? Do you want to criticise, do you want to tell a story of yourself, or of the objects, or is it more related to a stylistic and formal choice?
PW: I never want to criticise or tell stories. Found objects have a soul and depth that cannot be fabricated or reproduced, and if used wisely can give a work personality and character.

YB: Right now you are working on a show to be held at UNTITLED in September. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
PW: Lots of colour.

Phil Wagner was born in East Moline, IL in 1974. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
He has received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (1998).
Selected exhibitions include The Moon over Miami, UNTITLED at Art Positions, Art Basel Miami Beach (2010); Henry Taylor | Phil Wagner, Rental Gallery, NY (2010).

Let’s start with a vision. An incredibly beautiful woman, with the slight silhouette of a sculpture, who is standing in front of you on a plain black background. Rain is flowing over her shiny smooth body, wrapped in a simple skin-like sheath dress, shoulders naked. Nothing more. She starts singing an intense ballad with her unmistakable voice, different from any other, a miracle of delicacy and animal force. She makes you shiver. She is magnetic and you are conquered.
Definitely, this is what only a true artist can do. This is what Skin is: an icon of contemporary beauty. If you haven’t seen her yet we strongly suggest you go on YouTube and watch Purple video, a gem in her solo singing career (from her album Fake Chemical State, 2006). After that you’ll certainly know something more about Deborah Anne Dyer from Brixton, South London, one of the most powerful and inspiring personalities on the artistic scene.
She has had groundbreaking presence since her appearance in the early ‘90s with Skunk Anansie and she cleverly imposed her own approach and identity by setting herself apart from the stereotypes. She is still one of the few artists who have managed to avoid labelling both on and off stage; after all, she is the one who coined the expression “clit-rock” after refusing the “brit-rock” label that critics wanted to give to Skunk Anansie’s fresh resonance.
Next to music – her first love – design and fashion have a very special place in her life. Before devoting herself to music she was an interior designer and got involved in many different projects from design installation to fashion shows. Being blessed with an amazing body, Skin also modelled for top fashion designers like Alexander McQueen and Gianfranco Ferré.
Now that she’s back on tour with Skunk Anansie and a brand new album, Skin is once again ready to show the world what she is made of. During the little conversation we have had with her, she told us what she thinks about trends, fashion and a special friend in Italy…
Fashion is a global industry. You travel a lot for your work. Do you think there are still sensible differences in the way people interpret fashion in different countries?
I think so. Fashion is culturally different all over the world. I love fashion in Africa. There’s such a lot of colour. I’ve been to South Africa where everything is so colourful. They don’t have a lot of money, but they know how to wear colours. In New York, it’s kind of anti-fashion, it goes out of reach, out of control, it goes crazy and becomes cool. There are huge differences in fashion depending where you are.
You modelled for top fashion designers wearing amazing creations and you are a muse for many great photographers. What have you learned working with these brilliant artists?
I think that the main thing I’ve learned with them is to be comfortable in my own skin. Fashion is something very serious, but if you take it too seriously then you lose your way. You have to be self confident.
Skin and Italy. You have a special feeling with this country and here you have a very close friend: Liborio Capizzi, a very talented couture designer who loves creative challenges. A bit like you…
It’s true. Liborio is a visionary and he takes fashion into different directions. He loves recycling classic fashion pieces and he’s great at transforming and reconstructing. For example, he made a beautiful shirt from a scarf and the last time I saw him he made me wear one of his grandfather’s shirts, I loved it and that shirt has a 50 year old story to tell! I like to wear classic and contemporary things, but not too fashionable.
Music, design, fashion: different worlds that you manage to let co-exist within you as only a true, genuine artist can do. What does this creative mix mean to you?
I love it, the idea that I can pick something from all these worlds. It’s an exciting feeling to be inspired by such an eclectic and heterogeneous universe! This happens even when I work with my electronic music.
You once said you’re not a “seasonal dresser”. Is it a way to defend/assert your personality? What about following trends?
I don’t care about the “season”, I don’t want to follow trends. I spend a lot of money on clothes and I want them to last for a long time. If your style is too seasonal then you’re just like everyone else, you don’t distinguish yourself from the crowd. I don’t want to follow a trendsetter, even if I want to be my own leader. I like playing with classic pieces. Take a jacket. It’s a classic piece, it can last for 50 years, you can wear it with jeans, with anything and it doesn’t change that much over the years. The thing is, one minute nobody is wearing a piece of clothing and the next minute everybody is wearing it, and so you don’t want to wear it anymore.
Thinking about your on-stage persona, how did your style change over the years?
My style has changed. Getting older I have become more elegant. Fifteen years ago I was crazy grunge and anti-fashion. Now I’m more me and cool, contemporary and a little wild. I like different things now, more interesting things, like a jumper.
Concert ended. You’re at home, you open your closet and you find…
The first thing that I wear at home is a Missoni robe, it’s a kind of Japanese robe. It’s definitely my favourite thing.
Tell us about Black Traffic and about Skunk Anansie’s second life. What are your feelings about it?
It’s a “right in your face” album, very different from what we have done. It’s sexy, energetic, a deep album. I think you probably have to listen to it several times to understand it. It’s hard core. For me it’s the best album we have ever done.