Interview: Pengpeng Wang
Luca Curci talks with Pengpeng Wang during CONTEMPORARY VENICE 2019 at THE ROOM Contemporary Art Space.

Pengpeng Wang was born in 1991 in Heilongjiang, China. He trained in his country in Public Art Design at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, in Graphics, Design and Art Market at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology and at Taiwan National Cheng Kung University. After that, he moved to Italy where he studied Visual Arts and New Expressive Languages ​​at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and Italian Language and Culture at the Dante Alighieri Society in Florence. In september 2020 he graduated in Designing Culture.Art, Design, Cultural Enterprises Master’s degree at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan. He boasts numerous experiences in the world of contemporary art, such as personal and collective exhibitions, participation in competitions and training courses.

LUCA CURCI – What is art for you?
PENGPENG WANG – For me, art is a language, and we call it an art language in an angle. This language can help artists to communicate with the world in an artistic way, to express the artist’s own emotions, or to reflect on the status quo of the society. And through this art language and art audience to achieve a kind of communication, so that the art audience and art works have a relationship and emotional bonds.

LC – What are you currently working on?
PW – I am currently continuing to create and study my artwork. I graduated from the Graduate School of Visual Arts in Florence Academy of Fine Arts in 2019 and am currently studying my second master’s degree at Politecnico di Milano and Sacred Heart Catholic University of Milan. And I am actively participating in international exhibitions and art exchange activities. I hope to continuously improve my visibility and influence in these exhibitions. For example, my works are currently at the Modern Management University in Beijing, China, and Dahua Art in Xi’an, China Gallery, the Museum of the Virgin Mary in Siena, Italy, KEZUO Gallery in Venice, CUBO space in Prato and other galleries are all my exhibitions. In 2019, I held 31 individual and collective exhibitions. This is a new beginning, and I will have more exhibitions around the world, and meet with audiences and art collectors.

LC – Which art themes do you pursue? What is your preferred subject, if there is any?
PW – In fact, I have a main line of artistic themes on homosexuality. I can see some of my works on homosexuality on my personal website. But in addition to the creation of gay themes, I also involve the creation of some commercial themes, such as my Moon series, which has been favored by many museums, galleries and private collectors. For artists, I think that the theme is a part of the artist’s creation. The artist should not be constrained by the creation of personal themes, but he must not lack works of personal themes. Therefore, there is a subtle relationship between the two, which requires artists Clearly grasp the personal creative direction and theme.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
PW – Most of my personal creative inspiration comes from my own personal experience. This experience is often an artist’s unique experience, and I combine my creative inspiration into my personal emotional experience, whether it is my homosexual works or me. Some of the commercial works on the subject matter, and the content of the works all reveal my personal emotions, or I am telling my story and my experience to the audience of my art works through my art works, or another Perspective is an expression of artistic language in my cultural context.

LC – What is your creative process like?
PW – I generally divide the creative process into two main stages. The first stage is to conceive my work, which means that my work needs a theme and meaning to support my work. This process is often throughout the entire process. It takes a long time in the creative process, because it takes a long time to create a complete work from a zero point to a complete work. For me, the production environment of the work will not take me too much time, mainly the idea At the stage of the work, when I have a relatively mature idea and thinking, the work can be completed naturally and quickly.

LC – What do you think about the concept of this festival? In which way did it inspire you?
PW – The theme of “festivals” is actually a very broad concept to explain from a certain angle, and festivals often have a lot to do with the times we live in, the stories we experience, and our own culture. Just like I am from China, I have my own Chinese culture and Chinese philosophical ideas to support me. When I think about the theme of “festival”, I will naturally integrate the culture I have experienced with the society and environment I am in now. The backgrounds are interconnected. Therefore, “festival” is actually a very broad subject for me, and every artist can interpret it differently.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the festival’s theme?
PW – There is a festival in China called the Mid-Autumn Festival. In this festival, family members of Chinese families will have dinner together and admire the moon at night. The moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival is recorded in traditional Chinese articles that the moon is the brightest in the year. And the roundest night, in addition, whenever there is no way for a family member to return home and be reunited with the family, we will look at the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, your family was also looking at the moon, and the moon became a family relationship. A kind of emotional spiritual bond among them makes each of us more cherish everything we have at present. This work also evokes memories and thoughts of my family in China, because I have studied and lived in Italy for 4 years, and I have little time and opportunity to return to China to reunite with my family. In my opinion, the moon is my family The spiritual sustenance of a miss.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
PW – I think ITSLIQUID is a very good art platform, it provides a good platform for artists, especially young artists to show themselves, and ITSLIQUID is located in the city of art-Venice, not only provides a good exhibition opportunity, And make a lot of art audiences can recognize the artist’s work through the Internet and realistic exhibition space.

LC – Would you suggest a collaboration with us? What do you think about our services?
PW – I like the cooperation with ITSLIQUID, and hope to have more cooperation opportunities in the future, and establish a framework model for long-term development and cooperation. Not only does the exhibition organizer provide artists with help and resources, but also artists will bring more artworks to ITSLIQUID.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
PW – Of course, I think that it will bring a lot of opportunities for artistic development for artists. With the rise of the sharing economy, more and more artists and art participants will pay attention to contemporary art and the development of youth art. This is in line with the development trend of the contemporary art market.