For a surreptitious exposure : the art of Illustre Feccia

             IllustreFeccia is one of my friends. This is why it is quite difficult to write about his work. We both gravitate around The Minesweeper Collective. Both, I think, we find there what we seek: freedom and open-mindedness, lined with dynamism and essential rigor that usually are never conciled in a collective (and we have to pay tribute to all those amazing people who welcomed us, including Camden McDonald who initiated the project, Niccolo Bruni and Andrew The Terror that support it daily head-on, and obviously Kevin Seven who strives every moment to make it grow).

               We are both quite similar. Illustre Feccia is ambitious as I am; he is voluptuous as I am, he can hardly bear annoyances and refuses absurd constraints. He is sensitive. He is à fleur de peau (on edge). In addition to having a boundless generosity, as Italians often do.

                Much has been written in the few articles devoted to him about his influences and references. It is quite clear that the punk universe, expressionism (Beckmann, Grosz, etc.), H.R. Giger, are figureheads and a base (that on which we rely, but also where we withdraw) for Illustre Feccia. But I want to focus in this small study on the underground movement of his artistic gesture.
               I say gesture and I mean both the body mechanism in action (how? why?), but also, just a little behind, with the french feminine meaning of the word (la geste) which refers to an epic adventure, combat and (con)quest.

                "Undercurrents" (plural form) is the wonderful name given by the Minesweeper crew to the gallery they manage at the Bird's Nest, our favorite pub (the best) in Deptford: The Undercurrents Gallery. It is an ingenious diversion – a step aside – versus "underground", as the Minesweeper is actually a boat... But I like to interpret it – especially – just as a movement under the surface, under the mirror (more than “behind”) under the tectonic plates. And what comes to thrill the bark and the skin...

               The artistic gesture is connected with the surface, of course, but it is below references, culture, "ego" even if it is excessive ("leaving egos at the door ...” we can read on the website).

             It is this underground movement, which appears differently each time on the surface, that is important in what we see – in all that we see.

                 And this movement is fascinating in Illustre Feccia's works.

              This is the line, – compulsive, generous, maniac (the mania is the dionysian madness that possessed bacchants), which just saturates the surface and inoculates it that expressive density. Since it is through this line, this abundance of features, that the movement arises.

              Let's make that clear: this is not a mere way of speaking. It is from the bottom of the surface that the gesture draws the traits that emerge, protrude or spring on that surface.

It comes from the lowlands, the underbelly, from the dregs and the grounds, which are not really hidden, but dense enough that nothing can be distinguished. Oil and tar. That is also why what gushes out is still dark and stained by the expulsion gesture.

Mansuetudine Cristiana

               There is a clear maieutic-of-monstruosity process in Illustre Feccia's works. It is this process itself – the extraction of a hypogeal life – which is highlighted. It's not the result that is shown, the dead foetus in its bath of formalin, the teratologic section of the museum, no, it is the whole operation of extirpation of the swarm, with a gap on the pluck, abundant flows, fluids and tissues, in addition to faces and monsters...

               The faces come from the bottom of the surface – canvas, paper or wall – and they are projected (or they project themselves) to us, to our own faces, with an almost violent suddenness. With a closeness that is not only an effect of pictorial spatiality, but also an inner proximity: like magnets, attracting monsters in our very inside (“Il bambino che c'è in te”, “The Babe that is inside you”). Illustre Feccia draws depths and backs, drags out the forces and energies that move over there.

Il bambino che c'è in te

               Its name, Illustre Feccia, somehow, echoes this. Illustre means light, lighting. Feccia refers to the vile matter, the dirty, the excrement (fex, fecis in latin), and that strikes the face – faeces hitting faces – the body and the intellect. It's clandestine material.

                 Here, of course, we can connect the movement with its shape, the pattern and the theme, topics and references. It is expressionistic and it is punk. Revolt and social criticism of religions, finance, various coercive powers. This criticism works as a general denunciation of a world where many are starving when others stuff themselves, where free thought is if not punished at least limited, where we stop people from coming where we keep what we have stolen from them... This denunciation works as an extirpation and a highlighting of the profound forces, which are, after all, irrational. For it is irrational: the unreasoned energy (unreasonable?) that enables to prove undoubtedly that some socio-economic realities are unfair, everyone (yes, everyone) is aware of it, that many take offense about it, but finally it does not change and will never change anything (when we begin to want to reason about these unreasonable forces, when we try to reason them, we actually do politics; we don't : we are in the city: we are politics). This irrational energy, inhuman energy (in the sense that it comes from the human but exceeds him, such as single bee and swarm function differently, or – if we want to divert a Platonic reference – that a limb can't be compared to the whole body), this energy manifests and figures monsters. And these representations of monsters, (everybody will agree with me on that, at least) are a true treat.

               But before being political, the remarks of Illustre Feccia are wider: the sensitivity is involved, the sensitivity of Being-in-the-world, called – in philosophical and (it must be admitted... sorry...) Heideggerian terms – Dasein.

                This is yet in another way, in a less superficial manner (how boring is this pseudo-political chatter in the deep squats!), that this gesture is political: through what we call "street art".

                Because the street art (in its best manifestations), we know, is the reclaiming of public space. The surface (the area) is large and flexible: it is no longer in his first architectural function (a wall, a door, a window, etc.), but it is diverted, re-appropriated, by humans. Better: it denounces the hypocrisy and cowardice that were used to build them. And so we can say Illustre Feccia pulls the monstruosity out of the walls.

                 Video by Jérémy La DjeyDje :

                 This is the immense work (Grand Œuvre) without lots of means. The artist is no longer limited to the frames, to the canvases, to what it costs (the work is also ephemeral and – more – difficult to recover), to the small surface to which it is constrained by lack of means. He no longer has to canvass the galleries and exhibition spaces, to corrupt himself: he can make the street his own gallery, as did Illustre Feccia under the arches of Deptford, following the Ha'penny Bridge. This may allow him to express himself according to his desire, without recourse to the institutions, without being stamped, retrieved, swallowed, and, in short, denied.

(video by Jérémy La DjeyDje)

                 But it would be simplistic to make Illustre Feccia's art an art of denunciation, an art – only – of protest (even "beautiful" or "well done") and even a "dark" art. Since there is also humor, as in this sarcastic figure of a spaghetti eater, and seen that Illustre Feccia (who has lived in London for many years) is Italian, I am tempted to say a Pasolinian humor, or better yet a Boccacian humor, sarcastic and satirical, that delights, as in the Middle Ages, in the pretty vulgarities and beautiful profanities.

                But I want to finish on one aspect of his work that I like a lot, which is quite rare and which has perhaps not been explored as well as others: delight & voluptous.

            The first work of his I saw was a tribute to Modigliani, which repeated the figure of Luna Czeckowska (1919) that has long been (perhaps still is) my favorite figure by Modigliani (i felt straightaway a strong affinity between us). Her long neck and her blue eyes blurred by swoon...

             It is still movement, not underground but submarine. Undercurrents less violent than in the "political" works – but just as intense. Scrolls and convolutions as they exist in beauty – that is pleasure and love. Here, art aspires to a certain harmony, which seeks to reinvent itself, made of nice quirks and intimate depths that flush, again, here and there, on the surface.

I say surface but the homage to Modigliani was painted in a basement (in Palmerston squat in Deptford), which suited it very well.

                "Spring" (which also belongs to this rich magical vein in Illustre Feccia's works) is the individuation of this eroticism from the depths: a world of roots, a hypogeous world made monad, a planet (an absolute island) but also as a fragile bubble.

               Ariane, in a more classical style, is the Ariane of the Labyrinth, that is to say, the corner, the hidden, the deep away, the Ariane of the "innermost" ("the most intimate, most secret, the deepest – the lower abdomen").

               This highlightment (the exposure, the uncovering, the baring) is completely opposed to the Society of Spectacle analyzed by Debord and the Situationists. The projecting is opposed to the spectacular, the expression of inner experience is opposed to the entertainment as well as the cathartic event. You could say that we are dealing here with a surreptitious exposure, close to the unlawful, the illegal, the underground.

               This is where the art of Illustre Feccia is valuable and worthy of admiration - beyond the friendship that is sufficient in itself...

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Thanks to Emilie Huitric for the correction (& much more...)

Minesweeper Magazine ~ Issue 2 ~ april 15

Poems for "Dédale"

(screenprinted book by Minesweeper Collective, Le Cagibi & Solstices project available here)

Illustrators are : Enrico Cornuda, Vesna, Richard Titikaka, Darkam Arcadia, Claudio Fonnesu, Illustre Feccia.

Same page on personal website

 

At the entrance of the world
there is the skin and
the maze of the veins

on one side madness
on the other the molasses
of your inner streets

no beginning & no end
only your way of poaching
into the labyrinth

*

 

You are into the labyrinth !

web of guts,
net – flesh & bricks
all around us

your father your mother
were there but no one after me

will be.

You are a daedalus

locked up in your own
consciousness,

– locked up angry & hungry.

*

Beasts & beauties
at every corner
whores & murderers
milk & honey
wine, beer & whisky

you like to lick the lymph
on the mermaids'
scales
purple hair and salted skin
along the Thames

bite bricks touthy !

The Minesweeper floats on the river
where we all have to sink

*

 

 the mess of towers
with our tolling bell

Burn ! Burn... London
is a dark bonfire

Canals trace your roaming
un soir de demi-brume

open the veins of the city
cut your wrists let
all gibberish
flow (away)!

palimpsest of the cobblestones
where you vomited more
than once drunk &
mad-lazy

*

 

 i am the beast and i am so sad
i'm starving and no one
is able to feed me

Minos was my father
& Pasiphae my mum

she is beautiful & she
fornicated with a bull

here i am

living in a mess, liking it,
living in a mess and i don't know
why

let me take you there
where every path leads you
nowhere

Besides where
do you want to go ?

every brick is a world,
a nonsense word.

*

Stephen Daedalus walks down the labyrinth
of my mind

there is Molly around
dressed up as a circle
or a window

too fucked up to
know what is
true or false

Abandon, she says, all thoughts
of beginning
& end,
all thoughts of an entrance
or an exit,
all thoughts of truth !

you want to be the side
walk, the o'clock, the
story of London

you want to be the object
that extends yourself
in a fascination
fetichism
totem tattoo taboo

*

 

Il dedalo del tutto

tricks & dices
au bout de l'ongle
et de la langue

a rovescio

acephalous cockroaches
which grouch by colère
noire

shellac nails & vomit
large cunt coins & corners

tu veux un fil
mais tu hais le sens
dead end
dead start
passo carrabile
de la crainte et de l'ennui

abracadabra à deux têtes
le boustrophédon
de ton الكيمياء

*

 

following as
far as deepest
ventricles
           Ariadne
it's at the innermost
where voices are deeper
under the broken
basses
to the set of meta
morphosis
that we divise ourselves

underground streams
of joy & lamentations
come & go along
the thread

radiate
your skin

call us
close
to you

It's like a day 2.

I have slept on two layers of soft mattresses that feel somewhat musty. But the pub was cleaned, it's warm, there is a toilet, hot shower, and beautiful people (bella gente).

N. who, perhaps to help himself holding a sustained rythm of writing, hit at speed and alcohol since – at least – last night when I arrived, and again this morning, dedicated me a nice poem (translated from Lithuanian) :

school friend

her bra on my hairy chest

no one around cares

haven't seen you in ages

you've cut your hair

we stand in the bathroom

mirror we smile

our pupils huge black

you lift up your skirt

see how I look now

and later

you show

what you have learned too

Back to Albany Center.

Today we begin the program outlined yesterday.

Although the attack against Charlie Hebdo left us K.O for a while, and very sad all the day long.

*

Generalities

The Minesweeper is a collective : no boss, everyone is involved when and how he wants.

The Minesweeper is a cooperative, that is to say a company – in English, we say “a buisiness”.

The official (legal) name is The Minesweeper Collective Cooperative Limited.

The main activities are :

- Musical and cultural events (readings, video projections, etc.) ;

- Artists and collectives residencies (as was the case for Cane Morto, Le Cagibi, etc.) ;

- Undercurrent Gallery exhibitions at Bird's Net (bar in Deptford) ;

- Screen-printing workshops ;

- Printing T-shirtss on demand.

We want to diffuse our works and connect people :

- through social networks (in addition to Facebook, Blogspot, Tumblr and MailChimp, we will open a Twitter, Google+ and Instagram account) ;

- and, mostly, through a magazine.

*

The Review

The magazine will be digital ("online" and therefore free and open to everyone), with a monthly issue.
We will cover all the activities of Minesweeper (exhibition at the Bird's Nest, musical and cultural events, services and workshops, publishing...), but also what happens in the neighborhood or nearby (the great South East London : from Lewisham to Brixton).

Finally we will spare a creative space open to all for drawings, photographs, texts, poems, etc.

We will also implement other activities related to screen-printing:

- all that can be printed creatively (vinyl covers, book covers, card games, calendars, etc) ;

- posters on demand in addition to our own poster creations ;

- textile products (including bags) ;

But above all we will make books.

*

Publishing

Le Cagibi, witch is a collective, is our main model and inspiration.

We want to make high quality books, regularly, and to experiment different formal solutions to make original book-objects.

The collaborative books

After “Dédale”, we have launched a call of submission for the book on eroticism (in collaboration with Le Cagibi where the book will be printed, and Littérature, etc.).

Other collaborative and exciting projects will follow.

The book collection of Minesweeper

We will make a book by month, about a word (as a theme for the texts and drawings) related to the ship.

At the end of the year, with the copies we have set aside, we will produce a set box (a chest).

The artists' books

We want also to print casual books that will be the result of individual work (one of the members of the group or guest artist) or an artistic collaboration.

For instance, I'll probably print aboard the Minesweeper (if not at Le Cagibi) some book projects I currently work on :

- "Les idées plus noires que l'encre" with Vincent Tréfex ;

- "The Ipsicide" with Freddy Roccia;

- "The Anarchist Book" with Illustre Feccia.

Books for children

We would like to make books for children. This would allow us to experiment with other graphics, literary and formal solutions, in addition to remember that there are the most bizarre books that have touched us in our childhood.

*

No purpose, except perhaps, in time, to harvest enough money (with croundfunding) to ensure continuity for the Minesweeper boat, and, for us, decent conditions of life without any work and without any public subsidies.

With the Minesweeper Collective

Meeting tonight in a squatted old pub in Deptford (London) to develop an "Art & Craft" section at the Minesweeper Collective.

The Minesweeper is an old wooden boat of the Royal Navy built in 1954, which began to host cultural events in 1998 in Greenwich (London). A fire destroyed the stern in 2008, after which a collective began to rebuild and organize the place in order to welcome artists in residence and set up a screen-printing studio.

It is in this context, and thanks to the members of another screenprinting collective I joined in September, Le Cagibi in Lille, that I spent a few weeks on the Minesweeper boat, invited by Kevin Seven, Camden McDonald, Niccolo Bruni & Andrew Guardens, to make DIY (“do it yourself”) books, that is to say, printed, folded and binded by hand.

In a few days, with Kevin and two Italian artists, Illustre Feccia and Freddy Roccia, we made a small book for Halloween : Sweet Nightmares.

Then we focused on an ambitious book, mixing poems and drawings, which gathered more than twenty artists from different countries and a significant number of people who wanted to support and help us, such as employees of the Bird's Nest(where the Minesweeper gallery – Undercurrent gallery – is located), the artists of the Art Center of Wembley where we printed the book, Clara Moon and Emilie Huitric who reviewed the texts, the crowd of friends, families, or even just curious onlookers...

This book has a title that refers not only to its subject but also to its form : Dédale

.

It was then the excuse or opportunity to carry out a long brooding reflection about the “book” in an article that I'm currently trying to broadcast through a larger media than I usually use.

This London adventure was so fulfilling, the friendships that were formed were so vivid, creating together was so fresh that we soon considered continuing to work together over the long term.

A second project was launched, combining Minesweeper, Le Cagibi and Literature, etc. (association organizing an annual literature festival) on the theme of eroticism, still bringing together texts and drawings.

The common will to live without public subsidies and therefore the most possible with our "manufacturing" (which can be of all kinds...) brings us together on the common principle of a daily life practice : experiments (skills, learning, ideas, etc) and will (naive for sure, but who cares ?) to enroll in an urban settlement (social and economic) beyond words and goodwill.
This is what we wanted with Solstices project, this is what the members of Minesweeper Collective have been achieving for years.

But as a new member of Le Cagibi, obviously I could not avail myself of all of its members, or even be immediately fully aware of the reluctance of many of them on several points, including the commercial aspect (secondary but necessary). For instance, selling the book about eroticism on the website of Les éditions Solstices is excluded. Making money (apart from a few token sales) is excluded.

This intransigence pleases us more than anything, but it will not allow us to live for now...

That's why Kevin, agreeing with me, invited me to join the Minesweeper Collective.

Tonight, Kevin, Illustre Feccia, Freddy Roccia and I, will lay the foundation of this company, which I will explain, from time to time (facts, successes, failures), on this blog.