Landspace chronicles 

Pietro Ruffo, a Rome-based artist, shares his unique perspective on contemporary art and its connection to the beauty of human-touched landscapes of history. Ruffo’s experiences stretch all across the continents — from studying at Columbia University in the US to collaborating with Valentino in Rome and Miami, and Dior in Paris and Venice. As he delves into the concepts of research and paper craftsmanship, Pietro teaches us about the importance of asking questions.

hube: Your work often intertwines with philosophical, social, and ethical considerations. Could you elaborate on how these considerations influence your choice of mediums, such as drawing and carving, as instruments for analysing historical and contemporary dynamics? How do these mediums contribute to the conceptual dimensions of your art?

Pietro Ruffo: My work is mostly based on research. It’s something I have been doing for a very long time in different stages of my life.

In 2010, I had an opportunity to join Columbia University with a research fellowship with the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies. I wanted to study American liberal thinkers like John Rolls and Robert Nozick to understand their perception of the world. I would always watch my friends studying other subjects: math, biology, economics… I would see them with all of their books open on the tables and notes on paper. What were they highlighting with yellow? 

Imagine you are a student taking notes during a lecture or while reading a book. For me, it’s the same, I also take notes. But my notes are graphic. So the things I display in my work are not statements but more like a representation of my desk with all of the research on it: images, photocopies, drawings, etc. When I present a show, it’s like presenting my notes for everyone to see — they can come up with their own ideas of what my work conveys. 

My mediums are paper, pen drawings, watercolours, and cutouts.

h: Your collaborations with such fashion houses as Valentino and Dior involve designing urban-scale installations for high-profile events. How does the transition from creating large-scale art installations for galleries and museums to fashion events impact your creative process, and what challenges or opportunities does this interdisciplinary approach present?

PR: Let’s start with art history. If you think of such eras as the Renaissance or the Baroque, all across Europe artists would mainly work through commissions. Who were the people that could ask an artist for a commission? Big rich families for their gardens, the Pope in Italy for the Vatican City or other churches, and the municipality of a city. In the modern day, it’s becoming more and more difficult to create something for the city, — and I am mainly talking about my country, Italy, here — to be asked for a commission. It is not possible to build anything new in Rome because it’s a historical city — the municipality would not ask an artist to create a new fountain, for example. And you can rarely meet big family patrons nowadays, so commissioning for them is also not always an option.

I think fashion houses are the patrons of today. In the modern world, the relationship between art and fashion is direct and undeniable, and fashion houses can choose to work with artists. It’s a win-win situation for everybody — fashion houses do not impose any limitations on the dream an artist has. Those types of collaborations have given me a huge opportunity to expand my way of thinking.

h: In your engagement with the history of humanity, you’ve worked on projects related to cultural heritage preservation. How does your background in architecture inform your perspective on reconstructing, conserving, and preserving cultural heritage, particularly in urban spaces?

PR: I was born in Rome. For my whole life, I’ve been surrounded by the history and architecture of this beautiful city — it’s full of buildings from different epochs, it’s layered with old symbols and new constructions. 

What I find interesting is that the city kept growing up until the 19-20th century, and then just stopped evolving. Now it’s frozen in time: politicians do not allow artists to create new layers for Rome. They worry about preserving the city too much, and that leads to no mark of the 21st century being left on it. Also, when you create something new, you have to be open to criticism. You can’t get criticised if you don’t do anything, right?

In my opinion, the best way to preserve history is to learn it and build new things on top. Otherwise, how would we live our presence in the urban space? We have to make love with history, we have to eat it, and we have to be passionate about it!

h: The series Anthropocene explores landscapes as consequences of natural events, anthropisation, and individual experiences. Could you share a specific piece from this series that holds a profound personal or cultural significance to you, and how do you believe these works contribute to shaping our collective memory and awareness of the future?  How do you approach the synthesis of scientific data with your artistic vision to convey the complex interplay of natural and anthropogenic elements?

PR: My last body of work, Anthropocene, is very important to me as it researches geological areas influenced by humans. We, humans, have a grand impact on climate. We need to be conscious about it and we need to act.

As humans, we only started focusing on agriculture approximately 9000-12000 years ago. That’s when we began changing the landscape around us. Then recently, speaking in historical terms, the Industrial Revolution happened — we began using fossil fuels; the landscape started changing more rapidly. We marked our presence by leaving traces of atomic explosions in the atmosphere.

This is what I am trying to do with my work. I am exploring the ever-changing landscape through the scope of climate change, and humans continuously contribute to its acceleration. However, we need to understand that our planet also changes by itself: for example, Rome was once under the sea, and then it was a tropical paradise. It will be totally different in the future.

That’s why my work is relative. But I want to discuss the urgency of needing to take action regarding climate change. I feel the need to act — I have a 14-year-old son and I wish he would live in a good world.