Interwiew with Manydee artist Beatrice Catanzaro

Beatrice Catanzaro’s work consists of a contextual approach that declines into temporary installation dealing with the narrative layers of the public space. Moreover, she has initiate and engaged into extensive participatory processes. In 2002 she attended a Master in Public Art at the Bauhaus University, Weimar (Germany) and studied Social Sculpture at the Oxford Brookes University (UK). Since 2004 she has collaborated with the Pistoletto Foundation (Italy) as tutor and project developer.
See also: Bocciami project (with Michele Fontana, 2006)

What’s your personal meaning of “public art”?
«There are various kind of approaches which are labelled under the umbrella of Public Art: community based art, public sculptures, participatory art projects, urban design etc. approaches that do implies different methods and intentions. Public Art, in fact, is a vague term and can mean a number of activities, often even in contradiction one with the other. I guess the definition, contextual art, is closer to my practice: the word CONTEXT refers to a wider spectrum of elements, while PUBLIC seams to me too much related with the political and economical aspects of the public domain.
«Personally I do not see Public Art as an art genre per se and my interest in exploring and working within the public realm relates with the possibility of shortened the distance between art practice and the collectivity. I guess is an attitude, rather then I choice of genre, driven mainly by the urgency of confrontation with the fast changing condition of our contemporarety».

What are the main problems an artist has to face in his/her inter-action with the public space?
«When working within the public space I guess an artist have to be open to reconsider his/her practice following the process and the public response. The control is limited and that maybe is the challenge.
«Listening carefully to the context is an important training.
«Sometimes your intention overtakes the situation and you do not allow the process to change direction.
«Another fundamental aspect, is the ability and possibility of negotiation: when having to deal with public administrations, communities, politicians etc. you need to be able to negotiate your ideas and communicate your work (and I guess this is also part of the art process).
«Moreover, projects which require a large participation and are based on the construction of relations, develop often through a long period of time. This durational aspect, in the frame of an increasing event based art system, appears almost non-sustainable, both in terms of economical means as well as for the personal agenda of the artist, especially considering the mobility of artists today».

Is it possible to monitor the results of a public art intervention? What are the traces that a public artistic action leaves on the field?
«I understand art interventions in the public sphere as a possible shifting of perspective without necessarily having to bring enduring changing in society. We are seeing a wave of community/social based project today, quasi that an art project can substitute itself to a serious social projects … I do not know if this phenomenon is related with the obsolete idea of the artist as sort of prodigious human being, or if it cheaper for the administrations to invite an artist for a short period of time instead of engaging in a long term social project.
«Talking about results, might imply a judgment followed by a conclusion. In other words you might decide that the project succeeded or failed. Success and failure do not represent to me parameters on which we can ground our analysis. In this duality I am afraid you can not frame the relational and experiential (the Life) aspects of the art process.
«Traces? We constantly leave traces and we always generate consequences … an art project have the potential, as I was saying earlier, to shift the view point, to trig the imaginative process towards other possibilities and other perspective».

Beatrice listening UNIDEE residents’ questions

Another moment of the meeting between Beatrice and the residents