Who is Adam? - Interview with Sir Taki, visual artist and filmmaker
Born in Fribourg and raised in Lugano, Sir Taki is a visual artist and filmmaker residing between the UK and Switzerland. After studying advertising in Milan, he obtained a Master's degree in Directing and Cinematography in London. As part of Arte Urbana Lugano, he created an art intervention in June 2019 on the wall behind the red container temporarily set up by the Lugano Bella collective. Entitled "Elly Santoro," it was later modified in collaboration with Kevin Carrozzo as a demonstration of the friendship born between the two artists on the Rivetta Belvedere lawn. In July 2022, Sir Taki created an ephemeral work on the wall of the Salvage Society establishment near the Foce with the collaboration of minor asylum seekers, a work titled "Adam."
You are a visual artist, but also a filmmaker. How do the two art forms interact in your works?
I like stories experienced by characters who scramble to achieve something in life. Kind of like Adam. I like to hear them orally and tell them in images, both still and moving. Between film and collage I think there is a great connection. While the language of film proposes a narrative in motion tout court, the juxtaposition of still images internalizes this dynamic action and re-proposes it implicitly through the mixing of meanings contained in the work. Isn't cinema then a large collage composed of thousands of frames?
Your works are not just images, but reflect on the image as such. We live today in a world of rapid-consumption image overproduction and overexposure of ourselves. What do you think has caused this state of affairs?
You have to ask a historian. I have often wondered whether I should stop working with images, thus interrupting my contribution to the visual pollution that feeds a saturated and anesthetizing system. I certainly invoke the silence, which also applies to images, proposed by Benigni in the finale of Fellini's "The Voice of the Moon": "Yet I believe that if there were a little more silence... If we all did a little silence, perhaps something could be understood."
What will the intervention you will be making in Lugano be about?
"Adam" is the result of an encounter, first and foremost a human one, between myself and 35 underage boys who arrived in Switzerland after months of grueling flight from their home country. It is a collective project that, through the use of collage and urban art, allows these boys seeking asylum in Switzerland to shout out what they have inside to the people of our country.
What impact has working with unaccompanied minors had on the making of the work?
I have grown as a person and in my work. I always want to be in control of every single aspect of creation. Thanks to the children, I learned to let go of the reins, discovering that unforeseen events often open up unprecedented scenarios. In any case, it was the only way to allow them to express themselves freely: "Adam," as mentioned, is a collective project and I am also here as a megaphone for their mouths and hearts.
What are your next projects?
The mural work for the Urban Art Festival in LongLake is an important first step. The work started with "Adam" is to continue in German and French-speaking Switzerland.
Sir Taki will be at work on the wall of the Lifesaving Society's plant near the Mouth from July 25-27. The work will be on view until September. The artist will meet the public at the Ciani Park Dock on Saturday, July 30 at 11 a.m.
