Since the first sculpture I made.
I understood I was customising my work.
much more than ever before.
When I was young. I thought I would become an architect.
more than a sculptor.
At home there was my brother and my sister.
we had to obtain a high school diploma quickly.
to guarantee our living.
My father died when he was very young.
we had to find a job soon. after having finished our studies.
but we could not think about university studies.
and I wasn't even interested in university too much.
It came naturally.
I was not thinking about art.
art for me was untouchable. I love this term.
it was impossible to touch it. it was like being touched by God.
But little by little. visiting exhibitions.
I felt I could give it a chance.
I tried and then I was discovered by the others.
When I realised that some things were working...
I was 27. 30 years old.
I was working at the civil engineering office.
I stopped studying after having obtained a diploma as a surveyor.
I started working at the civil engineering office
soon after the war.
I worked for 7 years in the public administration.
and that helped me build myself.
restoring private and public property houses
that had been destroyed during the bombings.
I understood that it was not the job for me.
I did not want to become an architect.
Therefore. I became a boy again.
and I started building castles in the air again.
I liked for example the ideas of Sennett.
a great philosopher. and semiologist. too.
He says that if you get closer to childhood.
you will be able to explain more things to yourself.
Some things that I thought as a young man. as a child.
my search for solitude.
they were due to my inability to do what the other children were doing.
I felt as if I had something missing.
I saw their works. their freshness. their beautiful smiles
and I almost felt jealous.
I thought: "Why am I not like that?"
What they were doing was extraordinary to them.
these are my memories.
and for me nothing was extraordinary.
I thought I could do more.
I felt a sort of anguish. even if I was very young.
While growing up...
I think I caused some problems to my family.
not in the sense of falling into a hole.
or having some accident.
some problems because of my silence.
I was questioning myself and I was giving the answers to myself.
When I could not do it any longer I asked questions
and they answered: "Again?"
Education comes from a philosophy that involves religion.
Maybe I was annoyed by the religious aspects.
I wanted and felt a sort of freedom.
but this freedom was limited and I did not find it right.
This condition blocked me. it blocked my dreams and fantasies.
I studied as a surveyor. I immediately looked for job.
but as soon as I found that.
I was working only...
luckily there was just one shift.
and I had the whole afternoon free.
Therefore in the afternoon I daydreamed. in a loft.
and there I was born.
How?
I did not find...
I did not follow the traditional path.
making the first sculpture. making its structure
and then putting clay on it.
It did not happen like that.
I passed by a jewellery shop.
jewellers in Pesaro used to work next to the shop window.
you could watch them working from the street.
and it still works like that.
they continue that tradition. which is very beautiful.
I saw this gentleman. it was almost Summer. the doors open.
That laboratory arose my interest.
I found many burnt cuttlebones there.
I did not understand what their use could be.
He showed me.
he showed me how he melted silver inside them.
inside the cuttlebones. put together as a sandwich.
and I made a seed. it looked like a seed.
I thought one could make many of them and put them together.
I could make a row...
I called these bas-reliefs "horizons".
they were like landscapes.
I realised that I had to exhibit them. I felt that desire.
everybody was telling me they were curious. they were beautiful.
I could not judge myself.
so I let the others judge.
In Pesaro. where I worked. at the civil engineering office.
there was a man who was interested in art and taught art.
he asked me: "Why don't you do an exhibition?"
I had the opportunity of doing an exhibition in Rome.
I found myself in this gallery by chance.
it really was by chance.
And since then my career started.
I realised I wanted to quit the civil engineering office.
they invented a personnel reduction law.
so I sent my request. to reduce their personnel.
And I started living.
Recently I was in New York and I went to the UN.
to visit one of my sculptures. to see its conditions.
I realised that in that street. in New York.
and I realised that at 88. which is how old I am.
I had 3 works. in New York.
How did I do that? I mocked myself.
it is really hard to explain.
but when something is well made. well placed.
and I feel self-confident. I forget about it.
My curiosity sends me there to check if the sculpture is fine.
I mean checking its oxidation. sculptures often oxidize.
especially in a city like New York.
where there are many conditions that favour oxidation.
Fortunately I had left a note explaining how to clean the works.
I like it when the works are clean.
And they respectfully clean them once a year.
either in Spring or Autumn.
in New York I have seen the best conditions...
for my sculptures. They are very respectful.
After all. they do not have as many monuments as we do.
It is not too hard.
I go to the seaside very often. I would love to live by the sea.
and Pesaro is on the coast. Milan is not.
When I am in Milan I travel and look for it.
In a couple of days I am leaving. I am going to Sicily.
The relationship with the sea. with the horizon. is amazing.
It gives me the chance to experience...
to experience our cosmos.
In my research I took the whole Euclidean geometry into account.
I studied the sphere. the cylinder...
the pure shapes of solid geometry.
The sphere has more success because it represents the world.
Our world...
it is a proliferating world.
How can one not be curious about it?
Curious to understand that so many things are born.
When I was teaching in American schools.
there was a very beautiful place. I asked if I could visit it.
where scientists studied.
I was fortunate enough to see such things through magnifying lenses.
and it is an amazing universe. it moves. it is swarming.
it is wonderful. This is what I am interested in.
At middle school I already...
I could not stand mathematics.
It was very hard. but it was necessary.
I realised that without mathematics the world would not move.
Nevertheless. there are many people interested in maths.
and I was interested in the visionary part.
finding yourself in a room that is simple.
but if you put some things in the room. the room will change.
it will become more beautiful. It gives a value to beauty.
a value that has always stayed with me.
Even now. when something is beautiful.
I can stand its negative sides.
When you admire beauty you cannot expect it to be perfect.
even beauty can have its complicated and dark sides.