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Eclectic, frame alchemist, Matteo Campulla Artist “worker” from Sulcis is going to answer us in our Analogic interview. Matteo Campulla, distorts, mix, disintegrates through musical suggestions and composition in Video Art with no borders. We’re glad to present his work ” The rest is barren fetishism that, unfortunately, legitimate our unhappy times by consumers”

N – Let’s start with some pixels about your artistic profile .
My artistic story is necessary related to myself , to my life and my experiences. I’m 33, son of emigrated from Sulcis in Germany. My father the worker and an housewife mother. We came back in Sardinia when I was six years old to start the primary school. At sixteen I started playing guitar (badly) creating also my first projects, after that I started some experiments with painting and writing. Few years later, randomly, I’ve meet the electronics and video. Basicly this happened because the only way we had for recording was connecting a camcorder to the mixer outputs recording on mini-DV.

N- Artists, performer, video artist ?

Artist could be the right word, often this definition doesn’t have any value for me. Actually in my ID you find that printed on it , was born like a provocation about 15 years ago, I think I’ve given up to this condition.The definition comes from the need and not from the medium used. The real medium, in my opinion is the artist himself, is he who conveys the meaning with gestures and acts. “The rest is barren fetishism that, unfortunately, legitimate our unhappy times by consumers”

N – Obscurantism
The first project which I really beleived in, where I used my real name for the first time. In 2009 with Diego Dall’Ara and Davide Ligas we founded the Obscurantism movement, we used fictional names and collective to sign our non-pictorical works. In 5 years of activity we tried to delegitimize all the art scene of Cagliari, beeing close to our “enemies” focusing on make some confusion instead of reaching the point. At the end the real Obscurantism is following the market mood against the settled reality in our environment.

N – Music in your work
Music is the key of my work ,some of them are born from music. Sometimes I do the opposite , I record the video and only after I used to record the music in “live”.Recently I’m composing at first and filming after but a video has no explanation, you can find right locations but if you make a mistake you’ll never find a way out. This is my challenge at the moment.

N – Intercultural Spaces shared in your City
Except for some coworking spaces, some private spaces or some municipal center by an enlightened management, there is not to much in Cagliari. I can say, there is nothing. The only example of truly shared intercultural space remains Sa Domu, located in the historical centre of the city, probably the only truly free space with organized activities, courses and workshops for free. A large space that has regained thanking to the work of a few guys. In a short time they have created something extraordinary, something never seen in Cagliari.

N – How is the communication in Sardinia?
Unfortunately this is a sore subject. Sardinia doesn’t communicate at all, if it happens, it is only in a silent way and through stereotypes. These stereotypes are so ingrained that even the Sardinians use them as a source of pride, like a stereotype our true identity. We have no historical memory and that is what makes our present.

N – Describe the work station you use to produce
Nothing special, a standard PC and some midi controllers. A cheap mixer. An hybrid drum machine, various software, different cameras. This difference comes from the combined use of all of this and the desire to always learn something new every time going a little over the last reached limit.

N – Link us a video that represents you
Each single video represents me in the moment in the time of its creation, like a small piece that together with others, makes the representation of myself. Other Videos reprents me expecially for others than for myself, what I am. An example of this series is “they know it,” a work that many years later has remained in the collective imagination, and that forces me every time to do better.For an artist this is a kind of malediction.

N – The Art of border to the border
In my experience I have always tried to push me over the edge, for me is representation of my own limitations. The risk for many Sardinian artists is to remain trapped in themselves. Confronting with others is the the way out.An escape with no costs but always difficult to do.

N – Freedom ..
…It doesn’t exist. And never will exist so long as a man will rule over another man. We are free to give up in front of power, money or religion. Nothing else. It is ignorance that dominates us and nothing will change if these are the conditions. I found in art a kind of freedom, but it’s not enough.

N – The anger within a sequence of frames
I think I have never dealt with this theme, probably because of my temperament. Maybe in my latest works in datamosh but the destruction of the aesthetic frame by the coding flaw, in my opinion It remains a work of liberation of the video from a linear structure. There is no anger in that.

N – Destroy commonplace
You can’t born Artist, you can just study every day to become one. It’s not a vocation, it is a profession It needs dedication, passion and perseverance.

N – A desert park, an empty bench go ahead …
Too silence. Better go back in the traffic.

N – 5 Artists that opened your mind
Only five are not enough. Certainly I can put all the artists I’ve met and worked with but also those with whom I have always clashed. I don’t want to risk forgetting someone so I prefer to not mention anyone. I can try to give some names, each of these has come in different time and drive me in a true revolution: (in no particular order) Francis Bacon, Nanni Balestrini, Iggy Pop, August Strindberg, Louis-Ferdinand Céline.

N – Present project
These days I started shooting the first scenes for a new project, for now I can’t say more. We need to wait only a month.

N – Where can we find your works?
Most of my video can be found on my channels VIMEO and YOUTUBE

N – commends nootempo.net and sends a message in a bottle
A big thank to Nootempo for this nice chat and a good luck for the new site. The message inside the bottle is directed to myself and for all those people in perpetual inner conflict: ” Do not look back, you are your own worst enemy “

PH Cristiano G. Musa   cristianogmusa.wordpress.com