Conversation with OLIVIER ANTOINE
Founder of ART: CONCEPT

It wasn't a work of art that made me fall in love with it, but I was fascinated from an early age by the ability of human beings to invent forms and develop ideas through them. Art shows us the space that separates us, connects us, irritates us. It's a kind of accomplice in my life, art is really everywhere, it allows me to broaden what we call reality.

A Conversation with GRIFF WILLIAMS · Founder of GALLERY 16 · San Francisco · CA

A great thing about living in San Francisco is that, until very recently, it was an incredible city for artists because it was a vibrant community of artists living outside the pressures of the market. It has been home to an incredible list of contemporary artists. San Francisco was always an anomaly among American cities. It doesn’t want to be NY or LA. That’s exactly what made it great. I made an award-winning documentary film about the Bay Area art community titled Tell Them We Were Here. The film chronicles artists living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area and how they extend the historical legacy of Bay Area activism. In an age of hypercapitalism, these artists represent an empowering alternative worldview, one that emphasizes creativity and community over capital. 

A Conversation with Melanie Prapopulos
Founder · Director · Curator of The Contemporary Art Modern Project

I strongly feel that artists stand in the unique position of being - what the Romantics termed - our present day prophets. Not that they necessarily forge messages of doom - but more they reflect where we are. Some artists do consciously respond to their environment, others unconsciously - that is what interests me. I consciously look for art that floats in and out of the artist's awareness and that of the viewer. For me, and all the CAMPers, the interdisciplinary aspect of how we all curate is key. Art is so much more than matching in a home - it is the reinforcement of what we want. I will explain - if artists are responding to the world around them - regardless of their topic, for the collector, it is how that work resonates with them. I think our first reaction to art is how or what draws us in: the color, the medium, the shape - then it is the story or stories from both the artist and the curator that 'hits' a chord that then invites the viewer in. Once a viewer can find something in art that comforts or even alarms, that is what really matters. I do think it is important, though, to cater not to just one audience - art needs to be free to enter as many conversations as possible. That does not mean one focuses on neutral art, but more that there is not a limitation.

A Conversation with Curator DIANA DI NUZZO

Art is a glue, something where we leave the tiring world of words, and we let ourselves meander through dreams and all kinds of trips. The main characteristic of a good curator is being open to the others and trying not getting spoiled by the mainstream perception of reality. I have recently curated a show in La Specola (a great university museum in Florence), with the work by painter Giovanni Lopez, earlier I have curated painters such as Giulia Huober, Chiara Crescioli, Luigi Lanotte, earlier than that the show "A+A" with photos by Aldo Fallai of Antonio Brizzolari...managing a collection is something that can be quite easy if the people around you are aware of what they are dealing with, but it can be also quite complicated if there is not enough understanding of the narratives in play. Personal issues are always tricky when it comes to dealing with artists' families, and time hides so many details that may be quite useful if taken into consideration.

Conversation with Curator · Writer NISHA MERIT
Founder of the MERIT ART COLLECTIVE

I continuously fall in and out of love with art. It’s a hot lover that burns you if you stay too long, but also, you just can’t get enough. Clearly, a lack of healthy boundaries… 
The one constant is my curiosity for it. That’s the thing that drives me. The fact that I will never fully understand it, yet have the most pleasure trying to figure it out. But maybe I am just a recidivist in sabotaging myself. 
It's our reflection. It’s the material we negotiate our understanding of the world, a product of its time and place, it is the way we review our past. It is the one form (visual and musical) that lets you experience the subtle, the transcendental, the magical.

A Conversation with Artist BÉRÉNICE GAÇA COURTIN

I want people to feel like they have a real impact on the work they are observing and they become part of the work themselves. I really enjoy the interaction with a public in my arts. In this previous exhibition, I was inviting people to think about a symbol of resistance inspired by my own story and my work where I invent an alphabet of resistance. I gathered the symbols and wove them live for the finer. I gave the weaving to the museum of here afterwards as well as a typography for the inhabitants. I am trying to talk about a social fabric within my works and that’s why the contact with people is important always mysterious as well as open and enriching.