Interview: Simone Origio
Luca Curci talks with Simone Origio during VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2021 – 14TH EDITION, at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space and Misericordia Archives.

Simone Origio was born in Venice on 21/04/1972. He lives and works in Venice as a Naturopath at Il Fiore d’Oro Studio. Doctor of Letters with an archaeological focus at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, from an early age he cultivated his research on man, in an anthropological, philosophical, religious, and spiritual sense. He is an individual consultant and trainer: he has organized conferences and courses to disseminate holistic culture throughout the national territory since 2001.

Luca Curci – What’s your background and the experience that has influenced your work the most? Which subject are you working on?
Simone Origio – I begin by saying that this is my first experience in the Video Art sector, both as a creator and as a producer. For a long time I have been interested in the phenomenon of the initiatory ritual journey and the myths of rebirth: the experimental short film In the inner labyrinth, which participates in the 14th edition of the Venice International Art Fair, was born from a study that focuses on this complex symbolism. After getting to know Hermann Kern’s work on the labyrinth (which led to the In Labirinto exhibition at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan in 1981), I wanted to deepen the specific value of its unicursal form (one-way, where therefore it is impossible to get lost), protagonist of an iconographic tradition widely spread over 4,500 years, from the Neolithic to the Renaissance. In the first months of 2022, I will publish an essay on the subject, where I have set out my conclusions. The inner labyrinth responds to my need to communicate what I have grasped also through the image, with a more intuitive and symbolic language.

LC – Which is the role the artist plays in society? And contemporary art?
SO – I believe that the artist has the main task of communicating, of stimulating emotions and reflections, leading the user of the work of art to reflect himself, to contact aspects of himself. Contemporary art, by extension, must aim at the expression of what characterizes the human being in the current context, to grasp their discomforts, needs, and resources.

LC – How is your creative process? Are your artworks focused on a specific theme?
SO – In the process that led to the creation of In the inner labyrinth different stimuli converge. Psychology today presents us as men unconscious to themselves, capable of knowing themselves only through the face of others. Carl Jung summarized this human dimension in the concept of Shadow, understood as the representation of what the individual does not recognize, represses, or rejects because it is incompatible with the consciously chosen life form. On the collective level, the Shadow gave life to monsters, created by man to give a body to fears, desires, anxieties, and fantasies: as Jeffrey Cohen (Monster’s theory – 1996) argues, the etymology of their name (monstrum, from verb monere = to show) declares his vocation, that is to reveal what is hidden and thus lead man back to himself. From this perspective, therefore, the dynamics of the relationship can be assimilated to an initiatory path of rebirth, a loss to find oneself, during which you can drop the masks and open up to an authentic, creative encounter. The model from which I drew inspiration is the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an allegorical novel printed in Venice by Aldus Manutius in 1499: the narrative device of the “battle of love in a dream”, it allows the two protagonists, Polifilo and Polia, to learn to love each other in a path of profound inner transformation. These suggestions are found in the symbolism of the labyrinth. Kern had already recognized it as a place of meeting and dissolution of projections when he stated “You don’t get lost in the labyrinth, you find yourself in the labyrinth. In the labyrinth you don’t meet the Minotaur, in the labyrinth you meet yourself “. My research further reaffirms its relational and regenerative character, also confirmed by the experience gained over several years of workshops where I facilitated people to have a direct relationship with the symbol: for this purpose, I used a floor labyrinth inspired by the famous example kept in the cathedral of Notre-Dame of Chartres. In the near future, I would like to make an installation or a performance on this basis.

LC – We were attracted by your last artistic production, has the artwork presented been created for the exhibition or as a part of preexisting works?
SO – The short film was shot in 2016 and finalized in the spring of 2021, so it is unrelated to your show: its conception, therefore, precedes the desire to participate in your exhibition. As a neophyte, I was interested in understanding how my ideas in the field of cinema would be received and the feedback was very positive: so far it has been selected by various national and international independent film festivals, also receiving a merit award for the genre and the original soundtrack at The Indie Fest Film Awards, in America.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
SO – The theme of the exhibition is the analysis of the hidden parts of our identities, to stimulate an immersive experience within the fascinating universe of the complex labyrinths of our consciousness: in light of what we have said, I find that my work has found its natural habitat in this edition of the Venice International Art Fair.

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us? What are your suggestions about our services?
SO – The collaboration with you has been extremely stimulating and enriching for an emerging artist like me. The only suggestion I would like to give concerns the presentation of artistic videos in the spaces of art galleries, where I find it useful to provide the visitor with essential information on the work and a brief synopsis before being able to experience it. As a Venetian citizen, I am honored to have been selected for this event and extremely grateful to your entire organization. Thank you very much, from my heart.