Gianni di Fazio · Earth/Humans/Art

This cultural walk will lead us to the world of Gianni di Fazio, a contemporary autodidact artist based in Switzerland.
A walk back to our origins, our inner thoughts and emotions; a walk in the alleys of unconsciousness through art…

In cultures around the world we find Mother Earth as a primordial goddess, a personification of creation, fertility and nature. Gaea for ancient Greeks, Pachamama for Incas, Papa in Maori mythology and so on. Different names for what we all share in common, the Earth. We derive energy from her and we give energy back. It is a constant connection, a relationship that will always exist as long as humans continue to inhabit this planet.

amazonia — **AMAZONIA** | 2014 | Earth (North America from the Death Valley, Switzerland), sand (Lake Geneva)

Gianni di Fazio takes this primordial connection between human and earth and translates it in a unique form of art. It is by this atemporal and eternal relationship that he draws inspiration, having the human being as a core question of his art. As a contemplative artist he is trying to touch and express the origins of our existence, our instincts and our emotions. This unconscious place of mind always primitive in the passage of time.

woman and man — **Woman and man** | 2019 | Earth, sand, acrylic, charcoal on canvas

But what makes his artworks “total works of art” is the fact that he does not remain in the form and the representation, all of equal importance, hence, he gives emphasis on the materials used: actual sand and earth. These raw materials are not only the means of these creations, but they constitute an essential part of them. He does not talk about earth, he is actually using it. He mixes sand and earth from different places. He combines materials and energies that were never supposed to be found together ending up having created a total new space. Faces and figures, men and women, gods and mythological creatures emerge in this new land, the canvas, engaging the viewer to discover them. The materials, the natural colours, the abrupt lines, the volumes, all express in the most dynamic way the artist’s thoughts and concerns. Gianni di Fazio’s artworks share something in common with world mythology; taking a different path of expression they both try to explore the unknown realms of human life and nature.

A mixture of energies, a game between the signifier and the signified, an effort to discover hidden corners of human unconsciousness, meanings like uniqueness and diversity, questions about life and death. Each artwork of Gianni di Fazio reflects a complex of different concepts, with countless channels of interpretation, just like life…