Luciano Maciotta

What am I? People who know me and my works say “you are a scientist lent to Art”. Frankly speaking I believe that is ok. Scientists and Artists have many common characters. Since ancient times both want to find out how the world is made. Scientists use an intuitive model analogous to the artists. It feeds on analogies, metaphors, images and experiments.But they use also an analytical model based on the rigid application of a formal logic, which leaves little room for intuition, which is naturally the engine of artistic creativity. I was very impressed by coincidence with which a young scientist (Einstein) and a young artist (Picasso) at the same age of 26 years had caught, together, almost in unison, the "spirit of the times", breaking the barriers of physics and painting respectively in the same time without knowing each other and without knowing the work of the other. Today the Communication of Science cannot disregard Art. Now relevant decisions in Science are taken in partnership between scientists and a series of public of non-experts.We have moved from a world in which Science and Society were substantially separated, to a world in which Science and Society are strongly interpenetrated. The Science communication is no longer only the communication between scientists and must involve the audience of non experts. We all, in one way or another, are called to make important decisions on scientific topics, the most varied: from stem cells and cloning, to the changing climate and to the control of new weapons of mass destruction, to energy , to waste, to electromagnetic pollution, etc.).In summary, a fully democratic society today is a society that has great awareness of the scientific issues and of the communication processes that concern them. Art is one of the main tools chosen by man to interpret reality and to communicate and must become one of the main channels through which "scientific speculations" spread. When I moved to South Carolina (USA) in the early 90s, it helped a lot to learn that in Cambridge, near Boston, nearby the MIT (Massachusets Institute of Technology) the “American Academy of Science and Art” was founded at the end of 18th century, with the declared goal of "cultivating every Art and Science that could tend to increase interest, the honor, dignity and happiness of free, independent and virtuous people”.After returning to Italy in Monza in the mid-90s, where I still live, two new deep transmutations in the way of making artificial light and the use of fabrics gave me great support for the development of my art.LEDs research made possible technically and economically to realize my dream of painting with artificial light, the one conceived, designed and created by the artist and not just the natural one created by the sun that illuminates us. Furthermore Fashion also introduced more and more sophisticated stretch fabrics capable to shape the shapes. In addition to being more and more sophisticated in the colors, smooth or wavy surface, metallic or velvety, opaque or glossy, their transparency can be graded according to their stretching. The elasticized fabrics became ideal to be the "skin" of the painting instead of the rough artist's canvas. I used more than 50 different fabrics in this period (cotton, linen, silk, lycra, viscose with more or wider, spotted or not .) and various colors. I built craft machines to characterize the combined behavior of the fabric and LED system. I tried them one by one before spreading them with vinavil immersion on a wooden board. The light rays emitted by the LEDs interact with the fabric which acts as a filter and the resulting color will account for the two effects. The painting is composed of three superimposed layers, the LEDs, the stretched fabric and the acrylic drawing made of thin-striped lines forming geometric figures. A switch give the user the ability to change its view. Small consumer batteries or rechargeable batteries without removing the painting from the wall.

Born under the bombings of the 2nd World War, which destroyed my family's house in Milan (Italy). At the end of the High Schools my father died and I gave up dedicating myself to my innate vocation for creativity and art, music and drawing particularly. I graduated at 24 years in Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Milan. I spent ten years in a large Research Laboratory on the electrical conductors and dielectrics of an important multinational, dealing with high voltage electrical discharges, arcs and moving energy, light and electrical phenomena and therefore I had to acquire a vision of energy and matter less superficial and approximate than other artists. An evocative photograph, published on a monograph of the time, shows one of the experiments conducted in this laboratory.It is a snapshot, a blunder and, literally, a shock. You can see it in the photograph of the cover of my FB private account. And it is from here that the artist started out, as Walter De Maria had done in the extraordinary work of Lightning Field in 1977.
In this period I came across and experimented with LEDs, which after 25 years became the “key” that opened the door of art to me having sensed, among the first, that it could become a new medium of expression to be experienced.The LEDs exploit the optical properties of some semiconductor materials to produce photons, therefore light. Someone says that my name Luciano derives from the Latin Lucius that originates from the word lux (light), frankly I do not know if it is true or not. I like to think that this is so.
The LEDs can do it with a “cold”light meaning that they do not damage the surface and color of painting thanks to their limited heat dissipation.
Martina Corgnati, Professor of Art Hystory at Accademia di Brera Milan in 2010 writes… “ he is one of not many credible candidates for the development of perspectives that embrace the two territories (i.e. Art and Science), together, as co-protagonists. Because there are always new means that the technique makes available to artists: but to apply them slavishly is not enough, it is not enough to fall in love to really master them and reach a new "form".We need to know them thoroughly, dominate them, force them beyond their banality of use and function….(he) asked new questions about his materials and tools; and has obtained new answers, today presented in a refined and meaningful formal synthesis. In fact, the mere application of a technical resource does not yet constitute an artistic experience. Maciotta, cleverly, has not replaced the oil or acrylic tube with colored LED, but has thought about how to integrate traditional form and technique with that space and that additional value constituted precisely by the light not represented but "true": so , after having appropriately positioned its semiconductors on the back of a carefully cut wooden board so as to obtain an adequate play of lines or points and spaces, it intervenes by applying a "skin" to it, that is, a coating of colored fabric of various colors, thickness and nature. The fabric, gauze or silk, synthetic or natural fiber, or jute or velvet, offers completely different colors and contrasts: they veil but, at the same time, must offer support to a further layer, although not material, which is that of drawing. Maciotta, in fact, does not deny the traditional role of the pictorial surface, as he does not want to give up or, worse, replace painting: he wants to complete it, deepen it, enrich it with new senses and new possibilities.”I spent half of my life travelling all over the world, from East to the West, knowing many cultures and peoples: an unforgettable experience. Twenty years ago I left my job after a long activity in the field of electrical energy and civil and military telecommunications and having completed my field of interests as a consultant in the waste sector (air, water and urban) and in photovoltaic applications. This helped to develop my projects and installations in the Free Energy sector that started in 2013

2010 Roundtable Interdisciplinary initiative promoted by the Municipality of Bergamo with the Faculty of Architecture of Paris-Malaquais. As a member of the Master San Vigilio Organizing Committee "Light Verticals in the world", Castle of San Vigilio, Bergamo
2010 Presentation of the project "LED International Light Festival" in Piazza Duomo, Milan, Municipality of Milan
2012 Workshop "Art and Design" at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Lissone (MB) with Michelangelo Pistoletto
2012 "Methods Barcamp-Making Together" Conference organized by Love Difference of
Michelangelo Pistoletto, a side event of the Milan Salone del Mobile, presentation of the project "Traces of light on the windows ... to go further"
2013 Roundtable "Art and Energy" with Daniele Basso and Francesco Bernabei, moderator Senator Gianluca Susta, Pria Foundation, Biella
2015 Competition for ideas "Art and Energy for the Navigli", with Daniele Basso, for the Region Lombardia
2017 Roundtable "Free Energy Projects" with Antonino Bove and Francesco Bernabei, Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Viareggio (LU)

More than 120 Exhibitions, 88 excluding private spaces not Art specific:

Exhibitions-Art Fairs (# 4-10 works) MIART, Milan Art Fair, 2009 & 2010; Verona Art Fair, 200 8 & 2009;Bergamo Art Fair, 2009, 2010 &2012; Padova Art Fair, 2007, 2011 & 2012;Affordable Art Fair, Milan, 2013, 2014 & 2015; Art Genova,Genova, 2013. With 5 Galleries(Cavenaghi Arte, Scoglio di Quarto, Arte Gioia 107, Aretusa & S.Stefano)

Solo Exhibitions-Museums & Institutions 2006 “Al di la’ dello spazio, della luce e del colore”, City Hall,Villasanta;2007 “Dipingere con la luce”, Chapel of Palazzo Mediceo Seravezza-Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of San Dona’ di Piave;2008 “Luci senza tempo” Bell Tower of the Cathedral of San Martino,Pietrasanta; 2010 University Bocconi,Milan-“Dipingere con la luce”, Foundation Toniolo,Verona-Villa Serbelloni, Bellaggio,Como-“Tracce di luce alle finestre…per andare oltre”, Rotonda di via Besana,Milan;2012 “Luce e immagine”, City Hall,Cremona;2013 “The Amazing Art of Energy”, Biennale Pria 2013, Spazio Pria,Biella-“Turn on the light” organized by Authority of 5 Terre National Park,Manarola;2015 “Arte & Energia per i Navigli”, Darsena of Milan for Expo 2015

Solo Exhibitions-private Galleries 2016 Gallery Gestalt,Pietrasanta-”Estroflessioni”, Gallery Morotti,Varese;2013-2014 Gallery Aretusa,Pietrasanta;2012 “TV Artist presentation”, Gallery Nazionale d’Arte,Milan-“In due”, Gallery Scoglio di Quarto,Milan;2009-2011 Gallery Tempio Arte,Pietrasanta;2009 Atelier Zampredi, Gallery Colossi Arte Contemporanea,Bergamo-“Luciano Maciotta: i Led”, Gallery Arte Gioia 107,Milan-Gallery Arte-Elite, Lesmo-“TV Artist resentation”, ARTE TV, Marcon,Venice;2008 “Disegno, Pittura e Punteggiatura di luce”, Gallery Cavenaghi Arte,Milan-Gallery Tempio Arte,Pietrasanta;2006 Felicitalia, Tallin, Estonia;2005 Gallery “Arte & Arte”,Pietrasanta;2000 Gallery “Arte & Arte”,Pietrasanta

Group Exhibitions-Museums & Institutions 2018 ”BAU 15: OUT”, Triennale di Milano,Milan-“Citrea electrica et Punica Granata electrica”,Villa Tirloni,Covo;2017 “BAU 14: GPS”, Museum Sehsaal,Vien-“BAU 14: GPS”- Biblioteca Braidense,Milan-“BAU 14:GPS”, Galleria di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea,Viareggio;2016 “L’uomo, la terra ed i pianeti”, Casa Museo Tadini,Milan;2015 “Saleterrarum”, Villa Litta Borromeo, Lainate,Expo 2015;2014 “Artisti per Forte 100”,Forte dei Marmi-“Un quadro per studiare” n°84-University Bocconi,Milan-“Save my dream”,Municipalities of Lampedusa and Linosa;2013 “Save my dream”, Casa Museo Tadini,Milan;2011 54th Biennale of Venice- Pavillon Italia,Torino;2009 "V Biennale Internazionale Magna Grecia", Monastero S.Adriano, San Demetrio Corone-“Presenze del Contemporaneo. Artisti in Brianza”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Lissone;2008 “I segreti del mestiere”, Baptistry of the Cathedral of Pietrasanta
Group Exhibitions-private Galleries 2018 “BAU 15:OUT” Biblioteca Panizzi,Reggio Emilia-“BAU 15:OUT” Gallery Paola Raffo Arte Contemporanea,Pietrasanta-“BAU 15: OUT” Gallery Marek Kralewski, Friburg;2017 “BAU 14: GPS”,Studio Gennai,Pisa-”BAU 14:GPS Gallery Paola Raffo Arte Contemporanea,Pietrasanta;2016 “Outsiders”, Gallery Gestalt, Pietrasanta;2015”Interactive (Home Theatre), Sponge Arte Contemporanea,Pergola;2013“Save my Dream” Spazio Tadini,Milan-“Inganni di luce”, Gallery Arte Gioia 107,Milan-Gallery Aretusa,Pietrasanta-“In rete.Meno funzione, piu’ emozione”,Gruppo Sintesi spa;2012 “Venti veggenti-phiL-Tra la Luce”Il Fabbricone”,Vigevano;“Luce e colori”, Gallery Arte Gioia 107,Milan-“In rete 2”, Villaggio delle idee, Gruppo Sintesi,Spilinbergo-“In rete”, Gallery Trasparente,Milan;2011“Auguri Italia-150 anni di Unita’ ” Gallery Scoglio di Quarto,Milan-“Studi Aperti”, Arts Festival, Ameno-“Among the seriuos and playful things”, Onishi Gallery, New York;2010 Gallery Proposte d’Arte,Pietrasanta-Gallery TempioArte,Pietrasanta;2009 "Dialogue Paris/Venice- Dialogo Venezia/Parigi", Gallery Le Cheval de Sable, Paris-Gallery TempioArte,Pietrasanta;2008 “17 artisti”, Gallery Cavenaghi Arte,Milan