Interview by Jimon

1-Where do you reside and create?  At the moment Athens, Greece.

2-How would you describe Luca de Salvia?  A visual artist.

3-Did you study animation and if so which school did you attend?  I studied Graphic design and Product design in Italy, typography at School of the art Institute of Chicago. I also took courses on film making at the London Film School. And I took a post graduate Diploma in Motion Graphics at The Chelsea School of Art and Design in London.

4-In your beautiful short film for Gucci “Sinfonia Digitale” what is the inspiration behind the film?  Glad you liked it! At the time I had been working for many years as a fashion Art Director for commercial clients. Which is actually a formulaic, sterile job with very little room for new ideas. Alessandro Michele (The CD of Gucci had just taken over, it was an explosion of creativity, boys wearing girls clothes and vice versa, because of him everything seemed possible again in fashion. Sinfonia Digitale was my personal tribute to him, as he helped me to get out of a work depression. After that experience I understood that I wanted to be a Visual Artist.

5-In “Sinfonia Digitale” you use jello and bubble gum as fashionable items, why?  I never think of anything as being fashionable, I have a love/hate relationship with fashion, I love the fantasy of it, and I love its power to transport people to another dimension, I hate the compulsive/capitalist/wasteful side of it, and what gets to me the most is how it is ultimately a conformist industry where two people have ideas while the rest follow. Going back to your question, I like the ugliness of chewing gums and the shiny texture of jello. I am a very tactile person I love to put my hand in and squeeze things.

6-What does Luca dream about?  To live a life of peace and health, nothing more.

7-If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table?  Federico Fellini, Artemisia Gentileschi, Andy Warhol.

8-What are your guilty pleasures?  I can’t say, it’s indecent.

9-What artist working today you most admire?  Why just one? Ok, I will go with Bill Viola.

10-What is the last great movie you watched?  “Finally Sunday” by Truffaut.

11-If you had access to a working time machine what period would you choose to live in?  I love History, I have the TV channel “Rai Storia” on 24/7. Again hard to choose, but let’s go with the 1700s so I get to wear a wig.

12-In your professional carrier, what is the longest you have gone without creating?  I don’t know I work all the time, I am compulsive that way, I even prefer working rather than going on holidays, when I do go on holidays I am miserable because I am not working.

13-Do you have an assistant and if so what does he or she do?  I don’t, I only hire freelancers for bigger animation projects.

14-You are inspired by 1980’s themes, what is the attraction?  I had a difficult upbringing (in the 80’s) I am nostalgic of a time of innocence that never really was.

15-If you hosted a TV talk show, we will call it, The de Salvia Hour, who would be your first guest?  Federico Fellini, I am so sad that I never got to meet him.

16-What is the most extravagant thing you have done in the past year?  I have had a disgusting year, I have lost my younger sister to cancer and then Corona virus appeared. Mostly I have been trying to stay sane.

17-Considering you are involved in fashion, it would be proper to ask, how many pairs of shoes do you own?  Oh it’s embarrassing, especially considering that I only wear the same two pairs all the time.

18-Are you an optimist, pessimist or realist?  These days a realist, with moments of optimism. We have to believe that things will get better in order to navigate this crazy, random, beautiful world.

19-What scares you the most?  Illness.

20-What emotion do you expect to be on people’s faces when they look at your art?  One of satisfaction I hope. I make art to share thoughts and emotions with people.

21-What is art?  It is what defines us as humans, it’s a legacy of existence.

22-What question would you ask if you were the interviewer?  Why do you do what you do? A deep necessity to create images, it’s almost compulsive, I don’t know where it comes from.

23-How would someone find you on the internet?  Instagram: lucadesalvia

24-Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art=Freedom

Food=Pleasure

Sports=Pain

Politics=False

Poor=Taste

God=Everything

Rich=Overrated

Luxury=Not what you think

Sex=Escapism

Picasso=Genius

Religion=Make your own