The Studio Visit
To celebrate the launch of the new art category, Artemest invites you to visit three of our artists’ workshops and discover the secrets behind their artworks. Meet the sculptor Emilie Lisi from Atelier Brume, the painter Milena Sgambato and the photographer Santi Caleca.
Atelier Brume
SCULPTOR
Emilie Lisi, founder of Atelier Brume, moves between ceramics, art, design and embroidery with attention to the concreteness of the object and, at the same time, to the relational value beyond form. In this compositional process we find raw and refined lands, pure and variegated in a mixture that leads to the alchemical.
Tell us about your creative journey.
I am self-taught. I studied textile design and now I work as a freelance for several brands. After many years in the fashion industry, with its wild rhythms and frenetic processes, I felt the need for a new material to express myself, to gain some fresh creative inputs. This is how I met the clay, expression of earth: this element has always been essential in my life. This sensory experience in the dimension of memory has turned into a real means of expression and composition. In this material and in its working, I also found a new relationship with time, a reconnection with myself, with an oneiric, invisible dimension.
What does it mean “art” in your expressive category?
My work is very intuitive. Through the clay I try to crystallize a thought, an energy, a flavor. My intention is to give shape to objects that preserve a soul, extending beyond the dimension of aesthetic or utility. My vases are compositions that do not follow a production line, but an intimate path, private and mystical, and therefore, tending towards the universe. This makes each piece unique.
In an era of fast use, like ours, what characteristics must an artwork have to last over time?
A soul, a bond with deep thoughts and an advanced technique.
Milena Sgambato
PAINTER
Tell us about your creative journey.
What does it mean “art” in your expressive category?
Making art is like unveiling something hidden, translating invisible into visible, it is a life story that tells an emotion. For me art refers to an ancestral archetype and makes me feel connected with the origin of the world. Painting is a natural gesture that only takes a little effort, a canvas and colors, while for other forms of art you need more sophisticated technology. Being a painter is like carrying on an ancient message.
In an era of fast use, like ours, what characteristics must an artwork have to last over time?
To last over time, an artwork must guard the seed of eternity, it must be original, a reflection of the artist himself. Art must be born from urgency, from passion and from a strong inner motivation and shake the minds of past and future generations. You should have the feeling that the artwork was done in the moment you look at it, even if it is 500 years old. It must keep the same freshness.
Santi Caleca
PHOTOGRAPHER
Santi Caleca has been involved with photography since 1967. He started reportage photography with Letizia Battaglia for the newspaper L’Ora in Palermo and then he continued in Milan for many dailies and periodicals.
Santi Caleca's Work
Santi Caleca represents photography in the most passionate and intimate sense of the term. He interprets and analyze its internal forms and disciplines: first reportage, then architecture and design. Methodical, reserved and brave at the beginning, when in 1970s, as a reporter for “L’ora”, he documented the mafia crimes and the Sicilian news; then he became a curious interpreter of design and architecture projects.
In the work of Santi Caleca you can read all the visual elements of his life and photographer experience. All of his work is a coherent and recognizable piece of art.
Santi Caleca in his Workshop
