Claudio's Thesis - printing page

Foreword

I wrote this thesis as an attempt to track and annotate the unfolding of my work over the course of the second year of this program.

It is intended to be a complement to "making". A direct, on-going reflection on/of it. A device to think through, to delve in, to dissect and clarify the reasons and stakes of the practice I am establishing and the stances I am taking as a visual artist.

It is therefore hardly an academic writing. Its mode of address tends to be that of a diary, a reasoned compilation of notes. I decided to keep the date of the day I wrote each part, as a way to follow the progression of my practice over time. I chose to minimally re-edit older pieces of writing, as I am interested in accounting for the way my work shifts and changes, witnessing its movements and contradictions, rather than retrospectively trying to make it look like a straightforward process.

A critical engagement with theory and other artists' work is a substantial part of my practice, yet I decided not to directly address those in my writing and leave them in the background, only to compile them as a reference list at the end. I claim an unruly approach to theory, whatever it may be: hand-picking bits and pieces from different sources where I come across resonances with my own intentions and interests, making for a loose constellation of references, without the overwhelming weight of having to fully master and know the whole of it.

While editing this thesis, I acknowledged and decided to embrace some distinctive traits of my writing, which seemed to recall some features recurring in my work: repetitions, pairs of opposites, fragmented form, feedbacks. An intertwining between writing and making seems to appear also in the use of such formal devices.