Cecilia di PaoloAIR 2020

Cecilia di Paolo

Q. What do you think the role of the arts is in society? Painting, sculpture, music, photography, literature and many more affect the viewers by opening their minds to new opinions of specific topics and themselves. Artists share their views and translate their minds into pieces of work, that describe themselves or their view on society. It isn’t only about the making of the beautiful, aesthetically pleasing piece of work, that creates a sense of beauty. It is a way of conversing and instilling values, while generating strong emotional reactions and discussions. Q. Why do you want to be an artist? It is all about communication. I deeply research and get involved in a specific topic or area of society and the only way to share my findings is through photography. I enjoy being part of the creative industry, being surrounded by people that, in the best way, do not think and see the world in the normal, usual way. Q. What would be your ideal life? I do feel I do not have a final answer to this question, however I would love to spend my days on different creative projects: challenging commercial work and fine art work. Focusing on how to best recreate my visions and telling stories. Q. What’s the best show you’ve visited this year and why? With no doubt ‘The Future Starts Here (100 projects shaping the world of tomorrow)’ at the V&A. This specific show really showed me how advanced Humanity is, and what the future holds. 100 objects, 100 stories of what those objects will do for us. It really fed my creativity and my will to make more work to make those stories into images. The title of the second part of my current work came from that show visit: ‘The Anthropocene’. Q. Who and / or what is your greatest inspiration? My main inspiration is everything that is around me, people and events. I am interested in the odd, the weird and the different in humans. I create work from their stories, habits and what people love. Q. Why, when and where are you most productive? New spaces always keep up the inspiration and the excitement of creating new work. Specifically for photography, any new location holds new stories and new images. Q. Do you have faith in humanity and why? I have faith in the people that surround me. Instead of loosing faith in humanity and doing nothing about it, I fell about starting yourself to make a different, small actions that will build hope.