Interview Directory 

IN FOCUS/ART

Name: Davide Dormino

Occupation: Artist, sculptor

Residence: Rome

November 2014, Ecuadorian embassy London ©Davide Dormino

"Julian Assange is an intellectual with a steely ethic, a heretic, a dissident who has shown us how our imagination can undermine reality."

Mr. Dormino, why did you become a sculptor? 

Being an artist is a natural attitude for me. I simply listened to my body, indulging an inner need that led me to sculpture, an almost anachronistic practice today. Sculpture is physical practice, subtraction of weight, it challenges the static of our interiority and is a perfect fusion of man and nature.

Your sculptures are mostly exhibited in public spaces. What drives you artistically and what are your inspirations? 

I believe that to be an artist means to be listening to the world and sculpture is born to be outside and in all my work I have always sought an idea of monumentality, hence my deep interest in public art and environmental sculpture, which has the possibility of reaching a large number of people and relating to places. What drives me is to believe that every choice we make in life is political, so everything can be political. Art cannot escape this choice.

All artistic practices give us the opportunity to get in touch with ourselves, to understand our needs, while also showing us the contradictions of the world we live in. In my vision, Art, in the broadest sense of the term, is such when it makes us question our existence, showing us a new possible direction, sometimes reaching where politics fails.

As an artist, through my imagery, I have a duty to gather the spirit of the times and make it visible to the world. By investigating even those phenomena that would risk remaining hidden, this inspires me, the idea that I can correct reality. Certainly art will not save the world but the gaze of the beholder, perhaps it will.

"Journalism is the thermometer of democracy."

What was your inspiration to portray the whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning on chairs? 

It was 2013, I was talking to a friend, American writer and journalist, Charles Glass about the events of WikiLeaks. About the risks that journalists take when dealing with uncomfortable topics. Then, we inevitably ended up talking about freedom of thought and expression. A subject that concerns us all. I began to wonder why, this universally important topic was ignored by most people. Our freedoms were at stake because if no one can 'control' the controllers, then what kind of democracy is it? Journalism is the thermometer of democracy.

"I like to think, that, historically, people who move streams of thought, never sit down. On the contrary: they stand, they expose themselves, they take a position."

I had been deeply affected by the story of Wikileaks and thus of Julian Assange, its founder, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who were willing to pay a very high price for revealing hidden truths to the world. So I felt the need to celebrate their courage, trying to make a work that would shed light on this affair and somehow awaken the conscience of those who do not know or do not have the courage to want to know. 

I like to think, that, historically, people who move streams of thought, never sit down. On the contrary: they stand, they expose themselves, they take a position. The idea of representing Assange, Manning and Snowden standing on three chairs, and placing a fourth chair next to them, empty for us, is because in my work as an artist I try to actively involve the public, since art should not just be an untouchable museum piece, but something to hold, to use, to interact with, that also poses a question, triggers a doubt, in this case, to take a position, to change a point of view, to expose oneself or not. Standing up where the masses sit down.

Inauguration Place Klèber Strasbourg 17 novembre 2015-14 ©Davide Dormino

"Anything To Say?" in Berlin ©Davide Dormino

"Proud to have made a small contribution to this extraordinary resistance struggle to which I have dedicated every day of my life for 11 years."

Do you actually know Julian Assange personally?

Yes, I had that privilege, it was the end of November 2014. I went to see him inside the Ecuadorian embassy London where he had been imprisoned since 10 June 2012. It was an encounter that affected me deeply, I had the feeling of being in front of Prometheus, the one who had stolen fire (truth) from the Gods (powerful of the earth) to give it to men.

Julian Assange is an intellectual with a steely ethic, a heretic, a dissident who has shown us how our imagination can undermine reality. That is why, thanks also to the mobilisation of public opinion, he is free today.

How did you come to be part of the 'Artists for Assange' group? 

I was among the first to be part of it as the first public release of Anything to say? was in 2015. I was contacted by its creator who got me involved. He then started suggesting all the artists who had developed a project on Assange that he knew of.

Your sculpture toured from 2015 to 2024. Can you tell us about some of the encounters you had during this time? 

The Opera travelled for 9 years touching most of Europe plus two stops in Australia for a total of 26 cities, including London, Paris, Sydney, Brussels, Strasbourg, Geneva, Rome, Naples etc. etc. The chair has been 'used and performed' by thousands of ordinary people, activists, intellectuals, artists, (musicians, writers, actors) journalists, politicians. I met extraordinary people who returned my gratitude for what the work had been able to activate within each of them. I remember one person in particular who called Anything to say?,The true statue of liberty.

Are there any new exhibition dates? 

I think a break is necessary for the time being. Then perhaps, in a little while, this work will find a definitive location, in a world square, or it will resume its journey. For now, we must rejoice but continue to defend this extraordinary achievement, there are so many daily battles to take sides in: the horrible wars going on, for example.

Your sculpture has emotionalised people and also contributed to the release of Julian Assange. How do you feel about this? 

Proud to have made a small contribution to this extraordinary resistance struggle to which I have dedicated every day of my life for 11 years.

For our editorial team, Julian Assange is a hero, just like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. But his behaviour is controversial. Have you also been attacked for your commitment? 

Assange's behaviour is not at all controversial. They have tried to vilify him in every way because he has embarrassed the world's most powerful governments, reviewing them, war crimes and all that we know. More than being attacked, what hurt me most was the indifference. Everything we do in life, taking sides, means that we will always have half the world against, but also the other half for.

You also teach. What is the most important thing you want to pass on to your students? 

Teaching means listening to the other. Kids today, they have other references and what I try to convey is that art is a form of resistance. It involves making you think with your hands that the world tries to make us atrophy.

What is it like to live and work as an artist in Rome? 

I chose the city of Rome because my DNA is linked to the artistic history of Italy.

Rome is an extraordinary city full of contradictions and it is in those contradictions, which are part of everything human, that I decided to have my home-studio and build wings at my feet.

It is a city from which to take flight and then, after wandering, to land again.

"Anything To Say" sculpture, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning ©Davide Dormino