Antonelli Gianluigi, born in Fermo in 1967, lives and works in Fermo.

When the inner, poetic, sensitive, and invisible world collides with the external world, and simultaneously history and our experiences show us that progress is no longer directed toward humanity but only toward an all-consuming economy that feeds only itself, when there is no society in peace and harmony without justice, when we receive only the macro to the detriment of seeing the details, when time has been taken from us by the trivial at the expense of discovery, and when the best projection of imagination—utopia—is no longer appreciated by a world so fragmented that it loses the red thread of continuity with what has always been in constant mutation, then one feels alone, reflecting on what is constantly lost forever.
(From the text by M.R. Pividori for the exhibition “Allons Enfants de la Patrie”)

Text by Gianluigi Antonelli

1. “Paradox, you say? A paradox, from the Greek parà (against) and doxa (opinion), is a conclusion that seems unacceptable because it challenges a common belief: it is, in fact (according to Mark Sainsbury’s definition), ‘an apparently unacceptable conclusion derived from apparently acceptable premises through an apparently acceptable reasoning process.’”
2. “I created this series of works thinking about the West, myself, and my childhood. I mixed all the images captured throughout my life without a specific logic. In the end, the pieces of my existence fit together.”
3. “The artist is a great rascal. Every time I exhibit, I see myself as an early 20th-century seller of elixirs of long life, a dream seller, ready to run away with the proceeds from selling an improbable dream of eternal youth.”
4. “Perhaps it’s not wise to think too far outside the group, but I’m too selfish. I can’t align myself, and I suffer from an obsessive anxiety about being ‘different.’”
5. “Telling stories through images gives me immense pleasure, a ‘masochistic’ pleasure, not shareable. You deprive yourself, like a hermit searching for absolute knowledge, which can only be Divine. But once the act is completed, it no longer belongs to you, and it’s already time to start again.”
6. “I sought a mark, a single instinctive, immediate, perfect mark. But something is always missing. Every time I pick up the pencil, I expect more, something beyond what I’ve already done.”
7. “Perfection, in the eyes of the creator, is unattainable. I’d like to monitor myself to quantify how many states of anxiety are born in the completion of a work.”
8. “Painting doesn’t always correspond to pleasure, just as love (in its emotional sense) doesn’t necessarily bring happiness and well-being.”
9. “I could compare art to a nightmare—you never find the way out. You toss and turn in your sleep, wake up in a sweat, and can’t connect what you experienced in the dream with reality. You’ve already forgotten parts of the journey, and the logic of continuity is lost. Only meticulous, painstaking, and painful research can provide an answer.”
10. “I wanted this publication only to piece together the stages that have marked my journey, to make sense of the thousands of ‘cut-out figures from newspapers.’ I consider this as my final work, concluding this series.”
11. “I always seek the ironic side of things, even when it’s cruel. Contemporary society should start thinking of art as a bitter syrup: it’s often unpleasant, but it’s good for you.”
12. “I don’t understand why ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ is still considered a science fiction film. I believe Kubrick intended it to represent the ‘concept of absolute divinity.’”
13. “The West, the West! The West is an obsession in my mind.” Sometimes I think I’m going crazy!
14. “There are many artistic realities. I have only one priority: not to blend in with them.”
15. “I’m a hunter of ‘invisible things.’ They slip away quickly, and every time new traps must be set. They aren’t ghosts; they are elements of indifference, children of the superficiality of living.”