Daniele Sigalot centers repetition at the core of his works. The artist departs from the impossibility of identical production in artistic production and in the line of crafting and gets the inspiration of discrepancy of these repetitions. He augments the objects that resemble and analogic to each other, by reinforcing his production through piling them side by side or one on other. He turns the progression of the old ideas replaced by the better ones and the creative writing process into a physical entity and by stacking metal crumpled looking papers on top of another which appears as a totem. In his works the paper finds a new dimension within metal meanwhile it exposes his critical and playful attitude. Sigalot conveys his criticism with a conceptual and humorous tone through an open letter written to art. The works of Daniele Sigalot, who adopts language, repetition, craftsmanship, play and creativity as his foreground, will meet his viewers at Gallery Siyah Beyaz between 01.12.-27.12.2017 with the ‘Brand New Repetition’ exhibition.
MELİS GOLAR : ‘A Brand New Repetition’ is your first exhibition in Ankara bringing your major artworks together. Can you please mention your approach and artistic statement on behalf of this exhibition and in a broader scope?
DANIELE SIGALOT : If I have to look at the body of work, I usually end up crafting. I must admit that contrast is what interests me more. I always seek a strong difference between how an artwork looks, and how it is actually done, how people initially perceive it and how far it is from the idea that inspired it originally. I guess the title itself, being an oxymoron, pretty much sums it up quite well, as it describes properly my production, which is mostly done with multitudes of repetitions, which somehow manage to look every time completely different.
M.G.: How did your adventure with Turkey and Gallery Siyah Beyaz begin? How has your art progressed in the meantime and up until this exhibition?
D.S.: The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this exhibition, is that life sometimes is simply a wonderful series of coincidences. Cause I met Sera and her mother during the fair in Basel, where their booth was literally in front of the booth of the Italian gallery I was with. And if we hadn’t been neighbors at the time, I wouldn’t be answering this question now. But apart from how life untangles itself, I guess this first solo show in Turkey is very important for me for many reasons. First of all it allows me to explore the use of a new material I am starting to become familiar with: stainless steel. Throughout the years I have mostly worked with aluminium shaped as the paper planes; they came out to be my signature and enabled me to travel all over the world. In the massive exhibition at the Royal Palace of Caserta in June 2017, I’ve introduced my first use of steel. And in Ankara I am taking some steps further on this road given I am exploring new sides of it, especially with the golden stainless steel self-portrait I’ll be presenting. I believe this work is the most complete one, I have done so far.
M.G.: Repetition refers to imitating one act similar to another, yet it could not enable to copy identically. Does your implication seek to copy your idea repetitively and identically or does it appear more as a practice in methodology, a meditative work that requires a great dedication and patience? How would you describe repetition in your point of view?
D.S.: I guess I really like multitudes of objects. I find it overwhelming when they are all displayed together. The majority of my work is usually done by multitude of objects that resemble each other. A fleet of paper planes, a series of columns made of crumpled papers, thousands and thousands of colorful capsules. While as you mention it, the act of crafting, mere repetition does lead to a state of absent minded concentration (again in contrast…) that has something meditative.
M.G.: The repetition also evokes the autonomy and imitation matters and artists’ position over it. What is your opinion about autonomy in art?
D.S.: We live in an era in which there are more artists than trees, imitation becomes inevitable. We are all connected. We are all copying each other. Whether consciously or unconsciously, we must simply live with it.
M.G.: In the exhibition there is a self-portrait of yours which enables the visitors to see themselves. It is self-referential. At this point what do you think about the ego of the artist’s and its relation among other artists?
D.S.: The self-portrait entitled ‘If you show me your empathy I’ll show you mine’ is actually born from a reflection from art itself. I find it fascinating when people find an artwork touching or strong, it is usually because they see themselves in it. Therefore they actually see themselves in a stranger’s work. So I just wanted to literally translate this mechanism and thought the easiest way was to make them look at themselves through my own image. Concerning how ego driven is the art world and the artist, that’s undeniable. Yet in times of social media exposure everyone is overfeeding their own ego. At least artists usually do it using some undeniable skills (most of the times)
M.G.: In this exhibition you have the series of three open letters written to art, destiny and future with a very complaining, a little hopeless and negative tone. What do you expect from each?
D.S.: I don’t see them so negative. I’d rather say they make fun of art, destiny and future. I like not to take any of these seriously, especially art; which is always treated with too much respect, not to mention artists, who is a category that apart from a few exceptions, is honestly made by a lot of overrated, barely talented people who are more full of themselves than Russian matryoshkas. Also the letter with which I actually wrote to destiny is almost a motivational letter. I am basically just saying that everything is in our hands, that we do not need faith, and we shouldn’t rely on any sort of divine fortune to achieve whatever we want to achieve. We should always simply rely on our own forces. Then of course, chaos rules the universe, so apart from trying to build our own destiny, being lucky helps, but mostly what matters is not to be unlucky.
For more information; https://galerisiyahbeyaz.com/tr/gecmis/galeri-siyah-beyaz/2017-2018/yepyeni-bir-tekrar