Ivi Topp
Artist — It is interesting how a word can lose value even roared by inflation after-tasting mouths.Intro
Beginnings are always exiting — a certain dose of naivety mixed with projections and ideas of how the future will translate to present.
Today i don’t know what the word Artist means anymore. I used to think i would like to become one. What at the time seemed an exiting world full of collaborative people sharing their ideas— making works that can change the vision of how you perceive the world by also having fun doing so, was slowly and painfully replaced by a depressing vision of jealous people fighting with their own ideological excrement's to be on top of each other. Even if this description can very well fit every professional working environment, i will try to focus on the artistic career.
From the outside you might think that the Artist after a lot of research on multidisciplinary fields has reached some kind of enlightenment — that he can then share, make people see the world from his prism. If you dig deep enough, you can reveal a megalomaniac figure that is more confused than you. It is OK to have questions and no answers, but when you propose theories as absolute realities the whole thing slips into a mental masturbatory limbo.
Being an Artist today
If you can be a genuine liar, plant ideas on arid minds and if you can fool yourself into thinking what you are doing can change the world, you are already an artist. Forget technique, Duchamp left that door open when he left, don’t confuse arts with crafts. The easiest way to force yourself in the system is by being provocative and attacking the system of-course. People from the outside will think you are pure and incorruptible, and critics from the inside will appreciate your courage and boldness. Be warned, you will inhabit an everlasting rocky existence — a 24 hours per day job with zero days of vacation. Critics will undermine all your works and people will cripple your sense of purpose in life, but if you are lucky enough you will get paid for what you do.
The art scene is abundant in competition, an ancient survival instinct which ideally pushes us to be more creative and productive but that regularly mutates into auto-destruction.
If your mind is set, you really have to become an artist, don’t make the mistake of considering fine arts university as an entry into the high end art scene. What i found in fine art universities are black holes filled with lost souls wandering between failed wannabe artist guides which will use the pretext of the university's internal hierarchy to spit their acidic personal failures all over your dreams. The only valid reason why you might want to go through all this is to make contacts and create collaborations with fellow aspiring artists.
I left art before becoming a cynical byproduct of it’s own system.
Metamorphose
The incessant creative itching pushed me to find alternatives. The transition from art to film was a gradual slow paced walk out the door. At first i was not sure if it was just boredom or disappointment, but slowly i noticed that what was happening was not accidental. I remarked that what made me follow the tracks of art was the same appetite writers and film directors have, the desire to tell stories. Propelled by my long time passion for movies it became an apparent choice. I was lucky enough on my last year of fine arts I meet Gauthier Freiss, a colleague that shared many of my ideas. After some mutual adjusting time, we created n0 reason and started working on our first short film, Answer?. With no previous experience in film making, we invested all our time in teaching ourselves basic techniques and creative shortcuts in order to achieve what we thought was of acceptable quality.
Today, one and a half years later, my craving is fulfilled by film making. In my experience working on movies, you can obtain a vast exposure to all the fields of art. It truly is an emotional roller-coaster with different speed gears— from slow paced wandering in the unknown when writing the screenplay to super-speed focused directions when shooting to delicate balancing in the editing room. And when you think that you are done, there starts the festival season which awards similar excitement.
The thing I appreciate most in making films, is the direct contact you have with people around you. Granted the critics are always there, but they play a minor role in the grand scheme of things in this particular field. Ultimately it is the people that decide if your work is worthy of their time. Don’t get me wrong film makers are also confused, maybe even more then artists, but they are not afraid to transmit this sentiment through their work directly to the public. There is a valid reason why people working on a film are called crew, they all work in the same direction, realizing that everyone has a very important role on the final outcome. Making a film solo, is simply impossible.
An unending end.
Ultimately I never left art, I don’t believe art has anything to do with career paths or professions. I just choose to explore different paths with disparate people. Today with n0 Reason we are working for our new short film Rare Blue. And we are writing our first feature film. I don’t want to pass as a bitter ex-artist, but rather as optimistic film maker. Nothing changed really, I just switched tags. I choose to share my creative time and energy, and surround myself with collaborative and supporting people that are also passionate by story telling.
These are my personal ideas and experiences, there will always be an exception to the rule, I just felt the need to share my opinions.
Thank you for your time, I hope you will find something of interest in the article.
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