The artist Dimitri Milesi opens his atelier to the public, located in Telgate, a large meeting and learning space, where you can admire his works, discovering his poetics, artistic thought and the phases of creative elaboration that lead to the work of finished art.
In this bright space, different functional environments coincide: the one dedicated to the display of works of art, the one suitable for study and research, and that of the actual artistic process. A space that multiplies its strength, simultaneously becoming three spaces, to which the relational space is added. The atelier is not only an architectural, multipurpose place, but also a human place, a place of comparison and dialogue , made up of the artist and the people who live and host it.
Entering the atelier, you immediately grasp the importance that color acquires in Dimitri Milesi's art. It is a bright, emotional, intense, introspective color , which places strong emphasis on the variety of works present and on a style that incorporates different artistic currents.
If the floor of the atelier stands out for the blue color of the resin, on the walls you can observe pictorial works of different sizes, arranged on white shelves, which create an interesting visual puzzle, over which the visitor's eye continues to slide, curious and seduced by the bright colors and particular shapes.
The artist from Bergamo experiments with different artistic techniques , ranging from acrylic on canvas, to clay, to wood, to charcoal, to reused materials, creating works that highlight an art that does not tell how reality is, but how it is conceived by the artist's mind, who sifts through details and information that in his opinion deserve more attention.
His works are characterized by what the artist calls a defined style and an indefinite one as now they have black and exact contour lines, which fix the profiles, now on the canvases the shapes disintegrate, fall apart, losing their limits, changing into imprecise and less delineated spots. Thus visible are the two styles , which are used by Dimitri Milesi to create bold and original compositions, which look both to Expressionism for its strong, contemptuous and intimate taste, and to Pop Art for the choice of colors and subjects.
The work "The Friends" reproduces the painting by the painter Gustav Klimt of the Vienna Secession which was destroyed in 1945, but the subject is reinterpreted, filtered by the introspective spirit of the artist who prefers to highlight the importance of the line, of the contours that refine the bodies of the two women and the strange presences in the background. It is a praise to women and the theme of eros with a more naïve and childish taste, which allows the idea of the subject to emerge rather than wanting to faithfully represent the work as it is.
In "Gang War" from 2020 you can see how the monochromatic face of the former English prime minister has undergone a graphic transformation, the result of Banksy's provocative art, which accentuates his characteristics, inevitably stereotyping him. Winston Churchill wears his usual clothing, smart and well starched, but his hair is aggressive and paradoxical. A green, shaved, brilliant crest appears victorious on his head, a clear symbol of a punk era now in decline, but which casually and casually demands its presence here and now.
To underline the interest that Dimitri Milesi has for Underground art and Pop Art, here is the installation "Legame" from 2014, where you can observe giant knitting needles, divided into groups of three, which create three-dimensional structures , light and empty, on which a long 30 meter green thread winds. This installation, which denotes clear analogies with the art of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, celebrates the passion for yarn and manual work, which here is magnified and transformed into a space in which one can enter, move with precaution and, with a poorly concealed touch of irony, playing. In this immersive and concrete work we can feel the artist's desire to create art that can help to trace overall elements, to define new spaces and weave new connections between people and places.
In the four sculptures entitled "Totem", a new modus operandi on the part of Dimitri Milesi begins to emerge, which approaches an archaic and primitive tribal world. Bright, primary colors adorn these wooden sculptures with a harmony of stylized shapes and clear engravings, conveying artistic expression to an ecstatic-shamanic meaning. The artist attributes to simple objects, which are manipulated by his creativity, another higher and superior meaning, they become tangible magical-ritual connections with the spiritual energies that inhabit the world and every human being. This immaterial and meditative meaning is found in his works in the recurring presence of the circular figure. A figure that encloses, outlines, embraces, welcomes and defines. It is the symbol par excellence of the spirit, of the strength that animates every living being.
In the 2019 work "Graffiti" we can see how the primitive style begins to take its natural upper hand. Small black signs deriving from rock art stand out against a blue background, which begin to come to life and transform into images of a new language, created by the artist to be able to communicate freely with everyone. A universal and childish language that draws on the art of Paul Klee, but which requires its own sign codification, free interpretation, careful communicative research.
This interest in signs and in particular in what makes up language can be observed in the series of ideograms created in 2011 “Heart”, “Man”, “Breath”, “Idea”, “Hobby”, “Will”, “Hope ” and “Time”, in which he focuses on the meditative activity that involves writing these ideograms with the color black. Precisely this desire to give importance to the ability to communicate and to writing understood as a set of signs emerges in "Contemporary Graffiti" and in "Piede d'oca" where, having abandoned the realistic figure, a symbol is invented which, having become part of of this new semantics, takes on an authentic, full and authoritative meaning, to be reiterated endlessly on the canvas. A symbol with which to create a place of meeting and expression.
All these themes dear to the artist flow into the 2020 work "Eclisse" , in which we observe how the color is delicately spread on the canvas, the shapes are defined, but require close analysis. Fish, circles, open mouths, white teeth, heartbreaking screams and blurry faces are slowly revealed, forcing the user to question these shapes and the reason for these screams. Once again the observer is left free to interpret, to search for meaning, not forgetting that when the artist works, he starts from philosophical-literary impressions, but also finds generative strength from the self, from his experience.
Dimitri Milesi's art arises from experience with the senses, from the sensorial perception that is established with the world. Certainly the senses that are used most are sight which is the dominant sense and touch which allows closer and slower knowledge.
Simply observing a falling leaf, which moves in a thousand somersaults in the wind and then on the concrete is a fundamental moment from which the idea that will give birth to a work can arise. This sincere attention to sensoriality is intertwined with everyday life, everyday life which must be lived and politely analysed. Each gesture thus hides memory and spontaneous creativity, which are stimulated by an innate curiosity and a propensity to know everything that is still unknown.
Dimitri Milesi is a complex artist who needs to be observed and listened to with great care. He manages with a casual hand to highlight the moment experienced, the emotion that arises from it, ranging in the use of different artistic techniques, and to create a style well anchored to his inner world and to the spiritual forces that are found in it, researching, even among bright colors and meaningful shapes, a new language that really knows how to create connections.
Chiara Medolago -
Art historian and critic