Jul 252 min read

ALEX SALA

Communicative Urgency

My name is Alex Sala. Who am I? I leave the possible answers to those around me and whom I surround myself with. I live and work in Lombardy, often moving between its provinces and those of other regions. I feel like a nomad both physically and emotionally.

The theme of here and now brings me back to that sense of impermanence and emptiness, which gives us the possibility to seek sensations and perceptions on a plane different from the physical one. If we forget that we are just passing through, we lose the chance to perceive that subtle beat of eternity that we carry within us.

Creating art in the contemporary world, for me, means exploring. I am more interested in experimentation than in producing a finished product. My artistic research runs parallel to my inner journey. The themes and aesthetic solutions are a mirror of my existence, which naturally changes and evolves constantly. I do not seek fixed points or an aesthetic that represents me; I am more interested in expressing my communicative urgency. After all, for me, art has been and is a means to know myself. It is likely that one day I will abandon this expressive medium if it becomes a restriction and a routine rather than an expansive free space.

I occasionally use paper as a medium in some of my performances. Lately, I have been fascinated by the sounds of everyday objects. Paper is a material that produces sounds during its use: by crumpling it, folding it, tearing it, you can modulate very short sounds with different intensities depending on the force applied. For me, paper is more of an emotional-sonic support than a material one.

My future projects will focus on collaboration with other artists in an attempt to create cross-contaminations between languages.

I have developed my technique by trying to express my ideas and sensations in an immediate and almost primitive way. These attempts and research phases have lasted for about twenty years. In the beginning, I tried to reconnect with my personal history using materials like wood, marble, and iron. Once this curiosity was exhausted, I moved closer to performance art.

The stimuli and motivations that drive me to create in the contemporary world are mostly inner needs. I am still fascinated by the idea that my sensations can take shape and substance in the real world and be perceived and observed by other people. My attention is increasingly focused on the sounds of life, whether they are melodic or deafening; it doesn't matter. I am attracted to everything that is unstable and transient.

My artistic journey has been self-taught, lived without expectations. To young people approaching the world of art, I would advise not to adapt their research to fashions or trends and to follow a path that is as authentic as possible: work primarily on content; aesthetics and form should serve to convey messages and tell stories, in the highest cases, to transmit intense emotions.