Translated from French.
Read original article here.
PAOLO COLOMBO RETURNS TO GENEVA AS AN ARTIST
The Italian poet and painter is featured at Olivier Varenne with Chiharu Shiota. Ethereal confidences.
Director of the Centre d'art contemporain in Geneva between 1989 and 2000, and curator of the Iraqi Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, Paolo Colombo is a man of the arts and an artist who reveals his talent with as much finesse as modesty. His watercolors, or rather visual poems, are on show at Olivier Varenne, rue des Bains, until March 7, 2024. He welcomes us while his works are being hung and he prepares a discussion on the work of Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, also exhibited at Varenne. Paolo Colombo talks about his relationship with time, having decided to resume his life as an artist in 2007 from Athens, where he lives. His philosophy of life: economy of means. His mediums: pencil, watercolor and Arches paper only. His visual poetry consists of a finely painted weave, echoing his earlier use of collage in his work.
How do you feel about coming back to Geneva to present your work as a painter?
It gives me immense pleasure. I had already done an exhibition in 1978 at the Centre d'art contemporain, long before I became its director. In Geneva, I have friends, I have a history, I have a life. My mother used to live here and my son did part of his studies here.
How did you choose the pieces you present at Olivier Varenne?
Olivier was particularly fond of works with text, so we focused on those. There are also videos with texts, which are plays I've made with stones, called "Stone Theater". Texts are central to my work. Poetry is based on words and time, because everything depends on the reading time devoted to this poetry, to these words. It also corresponds perhaps to the blank sheet of paper, to the way the words are arranged.
What do you wish the viewer to remember about your work?
I imagine that the reader or viewer develops a relationship with what they read. I don't ask for anything, they receive what they want. When you publish collections of poetry, as I did in Greece and Turkey, if 200 copies are bought once they've been translated, that's fantastic. The privilege of being a poet is that the dictatorship of the public doesn't exist (laughs...). For me, poetry is made up of songs and images, whereas painting is image and, hopefully, song.
Why weaving?
The first contact we have with a sheet of paper is a point. And if you extend it, it becomes a line. Weaving recalls the simplest of arts: embroidery, folk art. It is of course linked to the question of time. Time, in turn, is linked to painting and poetry. To write a few words of poetry might take 30 seconds, but to create a painting, I need a month. The notion of time to represent a fabric is an integral part of the meditative dimension of my work. To give you an idea, there are 500 lines on this board. So I'm repeating the same action 2,000 times, even though it probably only takes a few seconds to read. Weaving is the weaving of time and words.
Weaving, like time, links you to the work of Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, also exhibited at Varenne. Please tell us about it.
Of course, the link is very obvious, and I've been invited to discuss this dimension with Georges Manginis. Our discussions will focus on four themes: the idea of the dot, the line, time, speech and, finally, theater. In particular, my work on "Stone Theater", which is also a time for speaking. Once again, it's all about expressing yourself with the minimum of means.
What are the sources of your inspiration?
The modern Greek poets, Cavafis and Seferis. The written word. Traditional Nisiotika music. And Rebetika lyrics. But I also draw a lot from folk crafts, like embroidery, costumes or walking sticks, for example.
