Erica Rompani in Co(ro)n(a)versation with Hernan Pitto Bellocchio
Hernan and I met many years ago at the Triennale di Milano. He was working and I was a young intern. He was a great mentor to me and gave me some of the most useful tips I have ever received. We became good friends and we have since shared ideas and projects.
Hernan Pitto Bellocchio trained in both Architecture and Art. His work explores different environments using different media such as photography, painting, drawing and installations. Often charged with socially critical themes, it remains imaginative and playful. His works are an interpretation of industrial and urban development. They draw parallels between the realities of the peripheries and urban centres in Europe and South America.
His work began as fantasy landscapes. Recalling past experiences, Hernan created spontaneous site-specific installations accessible to the public. Through the use of the natural process of breathing, the visitors were invited to participate and reflect on the future of our environment.
In the past year, he developed new works which bridged the emotional experiences of the previous installations and scientific research. The latter is explored in such a way that it adds an additional layer of complexity and themes that open new topics of discussions for the viewer.
Hernan Pitto Bellocchio, Margen, Digital collage, 2020, 142 x 106 cm, San Pedro de Atacama
ER: How has Coronavirus impacted your work? Can you find positive aspects of this slowdown of our life-pace?
HPB: The current situation awakes a need for us to connect to each other.
Simultaneously, though, I think you need time to create, real time.
I believe we are all feeling the need to be connected and to stay informed with what is happening. But if you find a way to loosen up these needs – there is actually a lot of time to be used. It’s a little bit like driving down a highway – only that everything is in slow-motion, there is actually more time to analyse what’s around you and your work. For example, I begin to see the process that lies behind each work. I see the different layers of content. Sometimes though, I just want to go on, move further, experiment.
I like to imagine beauty as a collective social-media status: Caos... Silencio... Memoria... Ojos abiertos.
Imagine, A World without WIFI.
ER: Now wouldn’t that be interesting! Well Hernan, last time we spoke on the phone you told me about one of the ways you keep yourself stimulated in these lockdown days: you told me that often you work on multiple projects at the same time. Could you explain to me why you think this works so well for you? Why it might also work for others?
HPB: Maybe it’s because I’m very dispersed. When we talked about me working on different projects at the same time I didn’t mean simultaneously - although I wish I could be an octopus, like in the movie “ The Lobster”. Anyway, now days and nights blend together and infinite possibilities are unveiled. So it is important to not exclusively focus on works and projects but also read books, watch movies, and listen to music. Find ways to be disconnected in the domestic environment. Free time is the only certain thing we have right now – so everything becomes about how you use it.
Last week I turned off my phone. I disobeyed my digital responsibilities. This made me think, especially about the idea of a world without WIFI. Would it be a superficial catastrophe or a disaster? Would a lack of internet have the power to affect the life people in a significant way? How would it affect the future elections and global decisions?
ER: Have you already started integrating some these reflections into your works? Or do you think you will in the future?
HPB: Well Erica, as you know, for the past few years my work has aimed to highlight similarities between the connections created by trees and those created by people, between nature and the human created environments. Maybe what this crisis is telling us is that many of the much discussed social and environmental problems need a DO IT NOW mentality. So to answer your question, in a way, some of the aspects that this pandemic has me reflecting on were already a part of my work and will continue to be explored in the future.
Hernan Pitto Bellocchio, Intuición N 1, Cut on paper, 2020, Detail, 50 x 75 cm, Santiago, Chile
ER: Last question Hernan. These lockdown-days, as you said, also give us more time to read, listen to music and watch movies. Would you be so kind as to give to our readers a suggestion for each of these categories?
HPB: Absolutely, here is a brief list.
Documentaries:
Magic Highway U.S.A. Walt Disney
Style Wars
Hypernormalization By Adam Curtis
GEGO a film By Nathalie David
Movies:
The Man without a Past
Woman at War
Books and Catalogues:
The Hidden life of Trees
Charles Simonds
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Mitos y Leyendas Chilenos
Roadside Picnic
La Salvación de los Bello by Byung- Chul Han
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Music:
INFINITE MADO - Franco
SOUL GRABBER - Willis Jackon
DRUMS AND NATURE - Walter De Maria
THEME FOR A MAJOR HEAT - Dennis Oppenheim
IKO IKO - Dixie Cups
MALENA - Susana Rinaldi
DEVOTCHKA
THE SINKING OF THE TITANIC - Gavin Bryers
Hernan Pitto Bellocchio, El Final Embalsamado ( Milan and the atomic Bond), Digital collage, 2020, 142 x 106 cm, Keropetrol Automobile Club, Milano, Italia
Hernán Pitto Bellocchio was born in Santiago de Chile in 1984, he lives and works in Milan. Architect and artist, he trained at Finisterrae University in Santiago de Chile, and at the studio of the sculptor Javier Stitchkin. In Italy, he began his professional career at La Triennale di Milano, while he was getting his Master’s Degree at the Politecnico di Milano.
His artistic practice explores a variety of media, such as installation, drawing and sculpture. He prefers the creation of site-specific installations accessible to the public, aesthetic visions of the infinite invisible tensions regulating reality. Selected exhibitions: Books and Foods, La Triennale di Milano 2015; When landscape becomes a memory, SPAZIO 22, Milan 2016; 2/ TWO, VR Project Room, collateral event of Manifesta 12, Palermo 2018; Trespass, Castello di Lajone 2018; Moved, Montrasio Arte, Monza 2018; Filling the Absence, Pinksummer gallery, Genova 2019; Breathing Panorama, Montrasio Arte, Milano 2019; Nesting Stations, A’nica Art Gallery, Milano 2019; Host Specific, Fondazione Merz, Torino 2019; Breathing Panorama N.2, Art Dusseldorf, Germany 2019.
Hernanpittob@gmail.com / www.pittobellocchio.com / @_hernanvicente
Hernan Pitto Bellocchio, Universos Escondidos, Ink on paper, 2020, Detail, 112 x 76cm, Santiago, Chile
Thank you Hernan.
Erica Rompani,
Head of Reviews, MADE IN BED