ART
Andrea Cislaghi
Andrea Cislaghi
the sculptor laborer in search of the iron soul
W
interview by Roberto Sironi e reach Andrea Cislaghi in his laboratory, an old chicken coop transformed into a warehouse where he welds and folds his artifacts. He comes to meet us welcoming with enthusiasm, we recognize in him a quiet man in harmony with his surroundings.
Who is Andrea Cislaghi? I was born 50 years ago in Boffalora, a small town in the western province of Milan along the banks of the Ticino. I am very attached to my land and my origins, to my family, to my grandmother’s snack, to the fireplace in the kitchen, to the table in the evening sitting around the set table, to simple games, to the huts built in the woods. I had a simple and happy childhood. It all comes from here: a fertile ground to express my innate artistic vein. Is it right to call yourself a sculptor laborer? In my job as a laborer I discovered iron, in all its forms and peculiarities, an immense world. Thanks to the manual labor of a worker, I am artistically completed; so yes, that’s right. I am a sculptor laborer Are you self-taught? Yes, my training derives from experimentation in the field, from my work but above all from my curiosity towards materials and shapes. What is the relationship between you and iron? A relationship of love and ecstasy, an intimate search for myself. Briefly tell us about the creation of your work. A continuous research in the scraps and in the ferrous wrecks, rusty materials, cut and badly bent, discarded to be melted, and then a curious shape happens that attracts me, the work, the fold, the balance, I give it love and passion, all the my manual ability and my experience, so the scrap iron relives. How do you choose the material you work and how do you work it? I choose it based on my instincts, on what I feel at that moment. Maybe the previous day I don’t even see him and the next day he calls me, he wants to relive in a new form.
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I’M ITALIAN - SPRING - 2022
