5 minutes with Emmanuel di Giacomo!
1/ What is your creative path and what was the spark that led you to art and creation?
I started studying architecture in high school, as part of the baccalaureate, as an architect's assistant, and then continued on to university to become an architect. Italy has brought me closer to art and creation, as well as the passion for architecture, design, art and fashion that this beautiful country brings with it. The trigger was the discovery of the world of Dino Buzzati, Jules Verne and the Italian futurists at the age of 14, when I started making my first sketches and drawings.
2/ What is the medium that inspires you the most and why?
The graphics and certain comics, because the power, magic and talent of certain creators are such as to transport you to another dimension, another universe, simply with a few strokes.
3/ What are your influences and inspirations?
My influences are futurism, utopia, Italy and some authors or creators like the Schuyten brothers, Moebius, Leonardo da Vinci. My inspirations are very vast: architecture, nature, the automobile, the Orient, minimalism and all everyday objects and the world around us.
4/ What is your creative process?
I make my soul and mind work. After observing things, a landscape, a film, an idea is born and my mind escapes and imagines a sketch that I quickly transcribe on paper, even with a few forceful lines with the medium and tool that I consider most suitable. Then I delve into sketching late in the evening, starting to build my drawings in a structured way. After the birth of the drawing, a few days, weeks, months of gestation follow to make this creation grow, evolve and change. Sometimes, a few weeks of rest allow me to come back with new energy.
5/ Have you ever had experiences in an art gallery?
Yes, at the Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal, as part of the ephemeral exhibition of my utopian city created in 3D, one of my other most important creations for me and my heart.
6/ Did you already know the reproduction (screen printing, riso printing, pigment printing) and multiple?
Unfortunately not. So it was a great discovery.
7/ Which artwork would you choose to accompany you throughout your life?
This is a beautiful and excellent question. Definitely an original by Moebius from one of his legendary albums. His drawing moves me, fascinates me and brings me serenity, inner peace and admiration for the artist he was.
8/ Which exhibition, artist or work of art moved you the most?
Certainly the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, about twenty years ago, at the Louvre Museum. What a genius and what a talent. Finally, the exhibition on Hayao Miyazaki which was held at the Cité de la Mode et du Design in Paris a few years ago. His utopian and poetic vision of our world also moves me.
9/ A place that inspires you?
My heart hangs in the balance. First of all, I would say Lisbon and its seven hills, and the beauty of its architecture marked by time, the calm of its streets, the light that this city sheds and the incredible panoramas it offers us. In second place, Lake Como, in northern Italy, a magical, bucolic, architectural and natural place of great beauty that the hand of man has been able to sculpt and tame.
10/ What is your favorite colour?
Green without hesitation!
11/ Music that transports you?
Beyond the music, it is the works of Giacomo Puccini, with a particular passion for La Tosca which was the first opera I had the chance to see at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, a magical and unforgettable moment!
12/ An essential book for your library?
Dino Buzzatti's K.
13/ A film that marked you?
The misunderstood by Luigi Comencini, a masterpiece of extraordinary power and beauty that portrays the fragility of childhood in the face of parental love.
14/ A childhood memory?
The first memory of my arrival in Cellino-Attanasio with my parents in Abruzzo and its magnificent landscapes and the first meeting with my family and their neighbors and relatives in a world close to Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900s with wooden combine harvesters, the dust, the cries of joy, the sun and the concern of the elderly for the children. And the journey on the road in an ox cart, images that have marked me forever.
15/ What is your mantra?
"He who goes slowly goes well, and who goes well goes far."
16/ What is your typical day like?
It all depends on the day. The traditional day is one where I start my digital work at my desk and dive into emails, appointments and video conferencing.
The one that suits me best is the one where I get up, immerse myself in Italy with an espresso and a panettone, then I start creating a drawing and detach myself from reality.
17/ What is the role of Garance & Marion in the evolution of your career as an artist?
It was fundamental and I thank them enormously, as well as Annalisa de Maestri, because she trusted me by discovering and then agreeing to exhibit my drawings on two occasions in this mythical place that is Venice.
Journey into the Veneto dream, 65 euros
18/ What are your future projects?
To continue drawing and creating, of course, and why not exhibit again. One of my goals would also be to make a book about my utopian cities, floating and anchored on our land.
Emmanuel di Giacomo on our site
His instagram @emmanueldigiacomo