INTERVIEW WITH RUBEN PANG/ROBERTO CAMMARATA - part 3
C: Good afternoon everyone and welcome to MoCa Centre in Brescia, Italy.
Today we're interviewing Singapore artist Ruben Pang, hello Ruben! Ruben is one of the participants in the Mechanics of Wonder show, which is coming up in Brescia in February 2018. But we are also her with another most welcome guest: Mr Roberto Cammarata, hello Roberto! Roberto is the President of Fondazione ASM, basically the foundation that runs MoCa, where we are right now. Could you please tell us exactly what MoCa is and when did this amazing project all start?
Ro: Yes, well first of all thank you very much for this opportunity. MoCa was a project regarded as top priority by the City Administration of Brescia which gathered together a few private and public parties in order to create a hub-like venue, meant as a crossover experiment on Art Culture and Business. MoCa formally opened by this name exactly a year ago and it actually took over the city court house, which had previously been hosted inside these premises. It became a culture and exhibition area in 2015, during Milan's International Expo Show. We nicknamed it Brescia's "Off Milan", as it displayed some of the "excellencies" from our city, province and territory as a way to step into the logic of internationalization.
When Expo was over, we decided to convert this exhibition area - formally known as BREND Brescia Nuove Direzioni (New Directions) - into a location that could host artistic productions and residencies of some of the most significant cultural expressions in our city which eventually found their home here. For example, today we can boast a small repertory theatre hosting avant-garde plays, the Museum of Italian photography Macof and, here and there, a few town hall offices which deal with artistic production and events such as urban shows, as well as areas more dedicated to socializing and getting together.
C: I know MoCa also serves as a kind of incubator...
Ro: Yes, in fact the four Craft Associations in Brescia are partners of MoCa and thanks to a special funding from Brescia Province and the Region of Lombardy, they gave life to a project called "Makers Hub" which looks at new forms of craft design from 2.0 to 4.0, in other words how craftsmanship meets innovation. We actually dedicated a whole wing of this historic building to thirteen groups of young artisans who set up their ateliers and laboratories to produce their handicrafts. Again, always trying to blend new entrepreneurship with culture and artistic and exhibition areas in a logic of innovation.
C: Thank you very much. Now Ruben. talking about young people, you're 27, you're very young but you seem to be so much absorbed and - you know - involved in what you're doing. When do you ever relax and what do you do to chill out, do you go to movies, what do you do, do you go to discos?
R: Yeah, I enjoy movies and music, unfortunately the season about these is long but I end up...
C: But you don't have much time, do you?
R: I think I feel I don't work as much as other people, that motivates me to work long hours in the studio..
C: How many hours do you work?
R: Well not that much because even if you're in the studio for, let's say, ten hours, you're just using your eyes for seven so I feel like I'm not doing much, not much actual painting, it's always looking... so, I mean, I know it is necessary for my process but at the end of the day I feel a lot of people work harder than I do.
C: Well, that's a very interesting point of view. Ok, thank you very much Ruben and thank you Roberto.
Ro: Ciao!
