“Do not ask someone who knows your path for directions: you might miss the chance to get lost”
— Nachman of Breslov; 1772–1810
Published in Ticino7, an insert of laRegione
Fabiano Bevilacqua: The Transformative Power of Art
Born in Locarno in 1957, Fabiano Bevilacqua pursued commercial studies in Bellinzona before receiving artistic training in Florence and Paris. He worked as an educator in cantonal institutions, organizing manual and artistic workshops, and from 1984 to 1987, managed an alternative rehabilitation center for young former drug addicts in Apulia. From 1982 to 1997, he created large-scale sculptures for Régine Heim’s atelier in Zurich and co-founded the art printing house “L’Impressione” in Locarno with Franco Lafranca. Bevilacqua has conducted sculpture workshops in Locarno, Zurich, and Verscio and has held numerous solo and group exhibitions across Switzerland and abroad since 1979. Since 2010, he has lived in Biarritz, France, where he works as a sculptor and painter.
The Transformative Power of Art
“You enjoy a work of art when it speaks to you—better yet, when it speaks about you. When you see yourself in it. When it helps you understand yourself better.” Nearly 40 years ago, while working at a rehabilitation community, Bevilacqua met a young man who refused to be touched. Fabiano, both an artist and an educator, encouraged the youth to work on a large plaster sculpture. To shape it, the young man had no choice but to embrace it. This led to an artistic intimacy and sensory connection that perhaps helped the young man confront his trauma—or at least allowed him to create a work of art with a therapeutic, almost corporeal quality. Bevilacqua recalls the experience as a pivotal moment in a life shaped across Locarno, Apulia, Zurich, Florence, Paris, and now Biarritz, a magical place where the ocean, quite literally, breathes.
If we belong, in some way, to the places we inhabit, then Bevilacqua, by settling in Biarritz, has embraced the vastness of the Atlantic, with its dramatic tidal shifts that transform the landscape within hours. He has been drawn to the submarine canyon that carves perfect waves sought by surfers, whose fleeting rides sketch ephemeral paths in the foaming surf.
On the Basques
Far from ephemeral is the journey of this artist, who, at over 50 years old, chose the French Basque Country after three five-week vacations and a sabbatical year. “At one point, I realized I had to stay. Many things suggested it, including the fact that here, I can still find the Ticino of the 1960s.” The daily market on the “des Halles” esplanade is a bustling mix of smells, tastes, and experiences—a meeting place in a context “far less stressful than what I feel when I think of Switzerland. Here, people take their time. Spain is nearby and omnipresent; we regularly go to San Sebastian. When I bring friends from Ticino, they ask me what celebration is happening. I tell them, ‘No celebration—this vibrancy is the norm.’”
Language shapes us, as do the ones we listen to. Basque, Europe’s oldest language, dates back over 8,000 years to the Neolithic. In the three French Basque provinces, about a quarter of the population still speaks it, while in the four Spanish provinces, half of the people do. “With its many dialects, Basque varies greatly between the coastal seafaring communities and the rugged inland. Here, tradition and modernity coexist seamlessly. Many bookstores and even schools prioritize Basque to keep it and its culture alive,” Bevilacqua notes.
The Science of Change
For Bevilacqua, abstract art is the true thread that unites feeling and material. His apartment on Avenue de la République, doubling as his atelier, showcases paintings and sculptures that narrate an evolution—a mutable translation of a way of being in constant flux. “Past, present, and future are like interchangeable pieces of a mosaic assembled outside the timeline.”
In his sculpture, Bevilacqua works with wax, plaster, and bronze. “At the art foundry in Irun, Spain, I spent the first day explaining who I am, what I want, and how I want to collaborate. I never simply drop off a model and return to pick it up. I oversee the details, the processes, retouching the wax and plaster, making molds, and refining the chiseling.”
As for inspiration, he says, “It comes more from within than from the place I’m in. The most beautiful journey you can take is in your mind, filled with the surprise of continuous change. Everything we see and feel is transformed by our sensitivity. The place I’m in puts me in a certain psychological state, but it doesn’t inspire me directly; it meets who I am at that moment based on my experience. We carry everything with us. What matters most is an awareness of change—of ideas, of beliefs once thought unshakeable. I’ve always avoided ‘isms,’ ideologies that become dogma.”
Bevilacqua’s approach to art is grounded in change, paradox, and irony: “Paradox deconstructs, and irony is the foundation for self-awareness.”
“We Are Made of Everything. And We Carry It With Us Always.”
In his apartment, hanging on the wall, is an old sign: Colorificio Beretta, Locarno. “It was opened in 1899 by my great-grandfather Osvaldo. The devil depicted on it is an ‘homage’ to Gli Anticlericali, a group he founded in 1903. In the workshop, paints were mixed by hand using handwritten recipes. Pigments and oils were blended with leather belt-driven pulleys. Fascinated, I watched. Then I helped pour the paint by hand into tin containers of various sizes, weighing them on an old scale with lead weights, sealing them with a small hammer, and labeling them. The quality was exceptional. They also made wax using large cauldrons.”
Contact
fabianobevilacqua@gmail.com +33 6 31 33 19 66
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