Iron Artist
"I don't think while I work, indeed I don't work, and I don't think. I am not there, I am just a channel of a dream that becomes reality."
- Fabio Pilato
Biography
Fabio Pilato (1964), after studying economics, approaches the art of iron in a completely unconscious way, without ever going to anyone’s shop. Author of works exhibited in Italy and abroad, he lives and works in Messina.
As part of the “Christmas of the Angels” event, he oversees the creation of the sculpture entitled The Angel’s Passage designed by Filippo De Mariano, commissioned by the Municipality of Messina.
He creates the furnishings for the pedestrian area in Via dei Mille on the theme “Christmas in Vienna style” (45 large-format chandeliers and 96 stylized iron amphorae for the Mille Vetrine association). The international of blacksmiths in San Marco d’Alunzio wins with the work the Flamingo.
He participates in the world championship in Stia (Province of Arezzo) by creating ex-tempore the work From the opposite finger to the bionic hand, receiving critical appreciation and being published in the prestigious international specialized magazine “Hephaistos”.
As part of the “Night of Culture” event in Messina, he organized, as communications officer of the “Blacksmiths of Art” Association, a forging performance with top-level master smiths.
From the involvement in a conference at the University of Messina, the idea for Lucida follia was born, a work that represents the torment of migrants, already exhibited at the Palacultura di Messina on the occasion of the “a mare si play” event with special guests Tony Canto and Nino Frassica (Arturo Morano).
At the castle of Milazzo he created installation 366, a work that raises awareness of the drama of the migrants who land on our shores every day (“three hundred and sixty-six fish swimming free without colliding with barriers or walls”, in memory of the dead at sea on 04.10.2013 off the coast of Lampedusa).
Philosophy
Your work and the game:
There is very little at stake, if not the backward journey I take in the creation of works. It is not reasoned, it is not designated, it is like the innocent vision of a child, without prejudice, without pollution of education. Pure consciousness and simplicity. In this sense it could be understood the game of fish, as well as when in Ustica, immersing myself, surrounded by groupers that looked at me, they turned around me, almost wagging their tail, showing the joy of familiarizing themselves with man.
Who are you, as an Artist:
I am a madman, more than an Artist, who believes in dreams so much that he wants to transform them into matter. I experience them firsthand. But there is nothing in the dream world of a real dream, since everything is real, concrete, substance, energy. I touch them, they are there. One who has the courage to be normal. We are works of art, and we do nothing but embrace our nature, our essence. We are special, but we don’t know.
What does exhibiting in Palermo mean for you:
Living in doubts and uncertainties, often making mistakes without being afraid of them, having been chosen to participate in Palermo was an unexpected opportunity, and a confirmation that my doing conveys something. Something simply comes from my experience through my fish.
What BIAS represents for you:
Always being holed up in the studio, not attending galleries and artists, having no knowledge of the commercial world and almost never participating in collective but personal exhibitions, it was a dip in culture, in a new world, and a dip in the past that it has further oriented my knowledge.
