Paolo Cirio
conceptual artist / hacktivist / cultural critic
Italy / US
Amazon. Facebook. Google AdSense and Street View. Instagram. NATO. Sotheby’s. Twitter. His attacks and revelations concerning the mentioned institutions were covered by media worldwide – in particular the spectacular exposition of over 200.000 Cayman Islands offshore firms for the first time. This Italian „combines art and activism, semiotics and capitalism, art and finance, control and subversion“ (lespressedureel.com), not forgetting his engagements regarding climate and the extinction of vulnerable species in nature. Action speaks louder than words would suit perfectly the controversial creative’s motto whose meaningful quote headlines a story about him on forecast-platform.com: “My interest is the advancement of contemporary art through socially meaningful artworks. I always look at how society forms and shifts politically, economically, and technologically.”
Paolo Cirio
conceptual artist / hacktivist / cultural critic
Italy / US
Reveal! Inform! Engage! Three keywords describe Paolo Cirio’s activities on the spot. In the man’s main focus are a lot of important topics that he addresses since the beginning of the 21s century. To name just a few: „the cultural shift and mainstream media attention toward popular perceptions of privacy and ownership of public and personal information“... „raising awareness on voter profiling and polarization in social bubbles that can be targeted for political manipulation“...“investigating offshore financial systems“...“focusing on the economic and legal aspects of images circulating online“...“investigating the legal implications of moderating and regulating subtle advertising by Instagram influencers“...“inspiring values and functions for a global and participatory society“...“banning facial recognition technology in Europe“...“holding major oil, gas and coal companies responsible for their greenhouse gas emissions“...“claiming financial compensation from major fossil fuel companies on behalf of endangered species and everyone in general“ (Wikipedia). Such an ever growing impressive body of work is presented in various forms – either in form of street art happenings, performances for illustrating critical issues, experimental storytelling, exhibitions in public spaces, street art campaigns or exhibitions in international museums and institutions as well as being covered by hundreds of media outlets worldwide.
„Paolo Cirio’s art translates critiques of information systems into artifacts to visually document and illustrate social structures examined by his conceptual work“, writes Nomegallery.com. „Cirio’s installation art combines images, photographs, diagrams, documents, public art, and videos to engage the general audience in experiencing and discovering the subjects, outcomes, and significance of his interventions and concepts.“
Paolo Cirio was born in the countryside of Piedmont (Italy) in 1979. He worked in his parents’ winery during his childhood, received a high school qualification in 1999 in Telecommunications and Electronic Systems and studied at the University of Turin (Italy) graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 2005 in Drama, Art and Music. Already in August 2001, as a 21-year-old anti-militarism activist, he independently founded an international web portal with hundreds of news articles about the expansion of NATO and campaigns against it. All that resulted in organizing global participatory cyber attacks (DDoS) against NATO’s website to protest against the expansion of NATO and wars in the aftermath of 9/11.
Regarding his output Paolo Cirio explains: „I like to work with modern devices for the fabrication of realities like advertising strategies, political spin, entertainment, economic and legal languages, which, I believe, purposely structure information to build specific societal organizations, belief systems and social trends.”
About this creative civil disobedience aka „sculptural performances of the power of information“ (self-description by the artist) that are honoured by prestigious awards theinfluencers.org states: „The clever mechanisms that Paolo puts into work lay out for decoding the operation of control systems in both their technical and social aspects. We might say that his strategy is not focused on frontally attacking those systems, but "recode" them subtly so that the very control machine ends up sabotaging its own operations.
His projects are documented in full detail and beautifully explained, yet his goal is not just showing the results in the museum environment, but managing to create controversy. That’s why his projects really come to life in the moment he throws them into the media maw, in the networks or just hand them to either aware or unaware people. That’s when his interventions show their full potential, exposing those symbolic, political or economical bonds that are usually invisible under the normality of our everyday technological life.“
Paolo Cirio who regularly gives public lectures and workshops at leading art festivals and universities worldwide lives and works in New York (US).
Interview March 2023
Creative civil disobedience translated into artworks: the significance of interventions and public engagement
INTUITION/IMAGINATION
How does intuition present itself to you – in form of a suspicious impression, a spontaneous visualisation or whatever - maybe in dreams?
It’s a feeling, something I feel when something is right and timing.
Will any ideas be written down immediately and archived?
Yes. I write down everything, and I archive everything.
?: How do you come up with good or extraordinary ideas?
It’s a long process of brainstorming, selecting the best issues and ideas, then researching, finding clues, and strategies of presentations. It can take years.
?: Do you feel that new creative ideas come as a whole or do you get like a little seed of inspiration that evolves into something else and has to be realized by endless trials and errors in form of constant developments up until the final result?
Yes, it’s a long process, but I don’t admit mistake in the final execution and presentation.
What if there is a deadline, but no intuition? Does the first fuel the latter maybe?
I can adjust to the deadline but the project won’t be the best one.
INSPIRATION
What inspires you and how do you stimulate this special form of imaginativeness?
Everything inspires me.
?: How do you filter between ideas worthwhile pursuing and bad ones that you just let go of?
Asking feedbacks to myself and to others for long time.
Has it to appeal to you primarily or is its commercial potential an essential factor?
The impact in terms of public engagement is for me the essential factor, beside making my job economically suitable.
Do you revisit old ideas or check what colleagues/competitors are up to at times?
Not old ideas, but I need to be aware of competitors.
CREATIVITY
Which time/place/environment suits your creative work process the best (tranquillity or pressure) and which path do you take from theory/idea to creation?
Tranquillity.
What is better in the realization process: speed and force creativity i.e. grasp the magic of the moment, or a slow, ripening process for implementation/elaboration?
Reprocessing and refining ideas in a slow process.
?: Do you have any specific strategies you use when you are feeling stuck creatively?
I wait and take a break.
How important are self-doubt and criticism (by others) during such a process i.e. is it better to be creative on your own, only trust your own instincts, or in a team?
Self criticism is very important.
Should a creative always remain true to him-/herself including taking risks & going against the flow or must one, for reasons of (commercial) survival, make concessions to the demands of the market, the wishes of clients and the audience’s expectations?
It must be economically sustainable, but not losing integrity.
?: How is innovation still possible if one has established a distinctive style and, just in case, is it good to be ahead of one’s time even one hazards not being understood?
It can be done by maintaining the quality of the work.
When does the time come to end the creative process, to be content and set the final result free - or is it work-in-progress with an endless possibility of improvement?
Only when everything is perfect and ready.
?: In case of failure or - worse - a creativity crisis how do you get out of such a hole?
I don’t care about it.
SUCCESS
Should/can one resist the temptation to recycle a ‘formula’ one’s successful with?
No because it helps to sustain the practice economically.
?: Is it desirable to create the ultimate/timeless work, but doesn’t “top of the ladder” bring up the question of “what’s next?” i.e. isn’t such a personal peak “the end”?
The art world is completely corrupted, hypocritical, superficial, and a very abusive work environment, so it’s not up to the artists or artworks to be successful, but rather it’s about to resist as much as possible against curators, art critics, and journalists. Surviving is the only success.
MY FAVORITE WORK:
'Loophole For All' I think it is ones of the best projects, because it generated reactions worldwide and it helped journalists and investigators to expose financial crimes.
