MANIFESTO

I was born and raised under the stern gaze of Michelangelo’s David, symbol of a proud republic against the empire. Many years ago the political message of the biblical hero pierced me with the force of a religious conversion. And now I’m more convinced than ever. In this age there is no space and time for a weak art. Art must rediscover its political vocation. It must resume marching under the banners of justice, too often denied. Today a new David would face a different Goliath, always powerful, but difficult to identify. Because it is true that there are one or more Goliaths who still present themselves on the theaters of war with the arrogance of invincible weapons. But it is equally true that Goliath was able to transform himself into a ghost, to dominate peoples with images, fears and lies. This latest transformation makes him more powerful and pervasive, because the sling can do nothing against a ghost. This is why art must return to the David’s gaze. It is in the gaze that the real battle of contemporaneity is fought, the resistance to lies, to false idols. This is the real battleground. And art cannot pull back if it wants to go beyond the fence of beauty and reach the fullness of a mission for the world and its peoples.