Prof Bad Trip, A Saucerful of Colours, Gianluca Lerici

["VB: Is there some kind of connection between your painting and you experiences as a techno DJ? PBT: I still have a soft spot for the underground music, in many of its forms. When it is technically possible I like to create personally the soundtrack of my exhibitions, not only to stress the importance of music among my inspiring sources or to communicate my knowledge of music to other people, but also to fill that silence which is typical of a gallery specialised on painting and to give a touch of multimedia to the mix. I am a fanatic fetishist of vinyl. Sometimes, just for fun, I organise public some performances as a retro-dj, to socialise my latest findings at a low price, in odd vintage shops and fairs. I am particularly professional, because I am not very informed about the latest trends: I buy very few new CDs because they are too expensive and I always hated their typical packaging (very poor, given the small size, compared to the old vinyl LP). Whenever I can, I ask friends to record new bands I cannot do without for my events; I hope that, with the advent of Mp3, CDs will soon become obsolete and forgotten. Back to my favourite genres, I smuggle, put on and listen to historical rock and roll (\u201950\/\u201960), rock (\u201960\/\u201970), experimental and new wave (\u201970\/\u201980), every kind of punk, industrial and techno (\u201980\/\u201990). VB: Your first works draw from your comics imagination but does it happen the opposite now that you make mainly paintings, that is: does the paintings inspire you while you paint those stories you would like to tell (maybe through multimedia installations, sculptures, etc...)? PBT: I never considered my comics as real comics. Sometime stories were just a device to be able to represent finished psychic characters and landscapes. I believe I have an attitude\/ ability to the composition of self-conclusive images which, in the past, used to become a limit, when it came to producing comics. I tried to repress this attitude for a while and to develop it now through painting. Sometime it happens to me, maybe on request or because I am short of new ideas, to pick up from my past printing production and to use these old plates as a kind of preparatory sketch for new colour paintings. Probably, each of my paintings can inspire many little stories, not only to me who I made them, but also to those who see them; if the observer knows my comics, it could even happen that the depicted character reminds him of the psycho-story from which it was taken. VB: What is your opinion on the international phenomenon, which has been labeled in many different ways (outsider art, psychedelic art, rock art, Surreal Pop, etc...), in which we find a revaluation of the artist\u2019s \u201cmanual\u201d technical abilities and of \u201cpopular\u201d themes taken from the subcultures, including the comics? Do you find it an eminently commercial phenomenon or a movement that fits into this century history of the art quite rightly? PBT: Among the many professional self-empowerment techniques there is not only the ability to be talked about in the news or knowing how to wink at the politicians or gallery owners on duty. Many artists prefer the old-fashioned way of getting better and better through manic and continuous work. After years of unknown and precarious work, though expressing \u201chard\u201d contents (rebellion, sense of injustice, deviance, etc...) against the cultural establishment, some authors got so \u201cbetter\u201d in a traditional professional sense, they could no longer be ignored by the official cultural institutions and thus by the great market of the art. Although, while the quotations of some among them, for instance Robert Williams, are quite high, they are always underestimated if compared to the leading artists of the international market and all the post-modern fluff which fills the jet-set galleries.","VB: In Italia, secondo te, esistono ancora preconcetti nei confronti di artisti che utilizzano immagini di derivazione fumettistica? PBT: La critica colta e rampante, che influenza le grandi istituzioni pubbliche e private, \u00e8 piuttosto attenta all\u2019evoluzione del ruolo dell\u2019artista e dell\u2019arte nella societ\u00e0, e disposta, pi\u00f9 che in passato, ad accettare nuovi medium e meticciati culturali vari, portata, com\u2019\u00e8, a considerare positivo per il mercato qualsiasi tipo di novit\u00e0. Il grosso del mercato dell\u2019arte rimane invece sostenuto da collezionisti alla vecchia maniera, che magari comprano solo quadri ad olio con corniciona dorata, o fanno raccolte tematiche, solo paesaggi, pezzi di un determinato periodo storico o movimento o solo artisti della propria citt\u00e0 o zona geografica. Per venire incontro a questo tipo di clientela i galleristi e critici fanno il loro lavoro, a mio parere senza particolari accanimenti contro l\u2019arte, come la chiami tu, di derivazione fumettistica. Personalmente in passato ho potuto invece riscontrate pi\u00f9 volte il contrario e cio\u00e8 una certa ostilit\u00e0 del mondo ufficiale dell\u2019editoria a fumetti verso chi prova ad uscire dagli schemi della produzione ortodossa e verso gli artisti in genere. VB: Ci sono soggetti che non dipingeresti mai? Qual \u00e8 il lavoro pi\u00f9 strano che tu abbia mai dipinto? PBT: Non dipingerei mai, almeno volontariamente, soggetti che istighino al razzismo, al sessismo, alla guerra, alla pena di morte, alla schiavit\u00f9 fisica o morale. Ho dipinto su: porte, finestre, cancelli, vasi, tavoli, sedie, frigoriferi, televisioni, apparecchi radiofonici, moto, motorini, caschi, mobili di abitazioni e di negozi di dischi e libri, muri di case, di centri sociali e di attivit\u00e0 commerciali, interni ed esterni, sculture, bassorilievi e altorilievi, miei, di altri, e trovati nella spazzatura, cartelle, valigie, giubbotti, t-shirt e pantaloni. MK: Mi dai la ricetta per ottenere un buon \u201ccattivo viaggio\u201d? PBT: Si soffriggono due spicchi di orwell, un bakunin sbucciato e qualche foglia dada, tritati finemente, per cinque minuti. Si aggiunge un barattolo di espressionismo a pezzettini e si fa cuocere il tutto per quarantacinque minuti a fuoco lento in un tegame precolombiano. A parte si prepara la sfoglia del subgenius: occorre un chilo di ballard zero zero, mezzo litro di dick e un pizzico di Burroughs impastati insieme con mastra e mattarello patafisico. In un altro piatto punk a parte si tritano due etti di mozzarella di carpenter. Imburrata la teglia con margarina jodorowsky, si dispongono i tre preparati, nell\u2019ordine che ti ho detto, in vari strati fino a riempirla. Prima di metterla in forno occorre una spruzzata finale di bu\u00f1uel reggiano grattugiato. Si cuoce tutto per quaranta minuti a centocinquanta gradi huxley. Consiglio di mangiarlo accompagnato da birra cronenberg in boccale cybertribale.","VB: Do you think that in Italy there are still preconceptions about the artists who use images drawn from comics? PBT: The cultivated and ambitious critics, who influence the great institutions, both public and private, are quite attentive to the evolution of the role of artist in society, and are willing, more than in the past, to accept the new media and the various cultural crossovers, led, as they are, to welcome any novelty in the market. Most of the art\u2019s market, instead, is supported by old- fashioned collectors, the kind who buys only oil paintings with a huge gold frame, or gathers thematic collections (such as: only landscapes, only pieces of a certain historical age or movement or only artists of their own town or geographical area). Galleries\u2019 owners and critics, to please this kind of customer, do their job, without any particular persecution of the art taken from comics, as you called it. Instead, in the past, I found it was the other way round on many occasions, namely a certain hostility of the comics\u2019 official publishing industry towards those who try to get out of the box of orthodox production and towards the artists in general. VB: Are there any subjects you would never paint? Which is the weirdest work you had ever painted? PBT: I would never paint, not willingly at least, subjects that incite racism, sexism, war, death penalty, physical and moral slavery. I painted on: doors, windows, gates, vases, tables, chairs, refrigerators, televisions, radios, motorbikes, scooters, helmets, house\u2019s furniture, music and book shops\u2019 furniture, walls of houses, community centers and commercial activities, indoor and outdoor, sculptures, high-reliefs and bas- reliefs, my own, of others, and found in garbage, briefcases, suitcases, jackets, t-shirts and trousers. MK: Can you give me the recipe to get a good \u201cbad trip\u201d? PBT: You fry two slices of orwell, a peeled bakunin and some dada leaves, chopped, for five minutes. Then you add a can of expressionism cut into little pieces and you slow-cook the whole thing for 45 minutes in a pre-columbian pot. On the side you prepare the subgenius crust: you need one kilo of ballard, half a liter of dick and a pinch of Burroughs, well kneaded with breadboard and pataphysic rolling pin. On another punk plate you chop an ounce of carpenter\u2019s mozzarella cheese. Once you have buttered the pan with jodorowsky margarine, you arrange the three preparations, in the order I said, in various layers until you fill it. Before putting it in the oven it needs a final sprinkle of grated bu\u00f1uel reggiano cheese. You cook it for forty minutes at 150 huxley degrees. I suggest to have it with cronenberg beer in a cybertribal mug.","","THE GERMS - MANIMAL Testo e Musica \/ Lyrics and Music by: Darby Crash, Pat Smear Tratto dall\u2019Album \/ From the Album: (GI), Slash Records 1979 I came into this world Sono venuto al mondo As a puzzled panther come una pantera confusa waiting to be caged in attesa di essere ingabbiata but something stood in the way ma qualcosa si \u00e8 messo in mezzo I was never quite tamed Non sono mai stato domato del tutto crossed paths of right and wrong ho attraversato i sentieri del bene e del male saw them take their toll e li ho visti pagare il prezzo I saw the armies march Ho visto gli eserciti marciare and like animals they crawled e strisciavano come animali Evolution is a process L\u2019evoluzione \u00e8 un processo too slow to save my soul troppo lento per salvare la mia anima I\u2019ve got this creature on my back Ho questa creatura sulla mia schiena it just won\u2019t let go semplicemente non si lascia andare Ha ha ha Ha ha ha If I am only an animal Se sono solo un animale then I can do no wrong non posso peccare But they say something better Ma loro dicono qualcosa di meglio so I\u2019ve got to hang on e cos\u00ec devo aspettare","INDICE INDEX Lo Strano caso del Dottor Lerici e del Professor Bad Trip 5 The Strange Case of Doctor Lerici and Professor Bad Trip 9 13 Matteo Guarnaccia 113 126 Grazie Prof. 129 Thanks Prof. Marco Cirillo Pedri Opere Works Gianluca Lerici Profilo Biografico Biographical Profile Vittore Baroni, Stefano Dazzi Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Jena Marie Filaccio Pubblicazioni Selezionate e Discografia Selected Publications and Discography Vittore Baroni Intervista Apocalittica Apocalyptic Interview - (the Director\u2019s Cut) Vittore Baroni","","RINGRAZIAMENTI THANKS Michela Bettuzzi Arturo Amitrano A.L.T. Carlotta Gasperi Alessandro e Nicolas Bignozzi Associazione Culturale Artisti del Borgo Giulia Negrello Marco Casolino Circolo Michelangelo Aurora Maria Pambianchi \u00d8vrelid Riccardo Coppola FAC - Fronte Acciaio Cromato Silvia \u201cFluidarea\u201d Scaringella Andrea Dalle Ave Fall Out Daria Tansini Ricky Duchi Gruppo Germinal Domenico Gemelli Nove James Harris Officina d\u2019Arte Studio Ponte di Ferro Florian Haymann RadioZero Raffaella Ignorante The Wicker Men feat.Tingis Marco Philopat Terenzuola Peter Punk Tor Art Paolo \u201cPito\u201d Terenzoni Tosco Ligure Lab Un Grazie a tutti gli Amici di Gianluca che ci hanno sostenuto e aiutato. Organizzazione e Progetto Grafico: Juan Carlos Allende, Stefano Dazzi Dvo\u0159\u00e1k, Marco Cirillo Pedri CoWorking: Jenamarie Filaccio, Vittore Baroni, Matteo Guarnaccia, Tabularasa, 56 fili Responsabile della Comunicazione: Alessandra Ioal\u00e8 Fotografia: Studio 47","","","",""]