STEFANO PASTORE

There by the roadside, a young man nervously smoking a cigarette; he has just come out of the gallery where his sculptures are exhibited.
He is probably waiting to meet someone who has read about his exhibition, and would like further information.
I had already read what he had written about himself, and to be honest, I was not looking forward to this meeting.
An artist is analyzed through his works. Our sensations in front of a sculpture or painting are purely personal, and through our sensibility we may re-create the universe of the artist.
Entering the gallery, on the left, a marble 'foetus', infinitively smooth, draped on a handkerchief of transparent 'plexiglass', as if suspended, offered itself to the visitor's eyes.and all that I had previously read vanished.
In my opinion, his words, his concepts, are less sincere than his works of art. When I met Stefano Pastore I had the sensation of meeting an artist that transmits much more through his creations rather than his words.
After a long conversation with the artist, I think that his forceful sensibility gathers strength from an adolescence not yet abandoned; only time will tell if this characteristic will accompany him all his life or if it is simply a phase in his existence.

His background is evident in his work, a rebellious son and child. An anarchist, as he defines himself, who returns through his works of art to an infant and adolescent world.
His fears of not being 'good enough', of shattering the desires and wishes of those who love him, transpire with the desire to 'leave his mark'. Smoothing marble, for him, is a way of purification. This is instantly perceivable in his sculptures, just as his fear of existing or not existing or not comes through.
In this 'denial', he has found a way of living and of trying to to live and to express it -- as he does in his guitar sculpture, entitled, 'Intentions'. Here he leaves his fingerprints as testimony of his passage.
He says "it's a guitar that recalls the possibility of use, obviously not its physical use, as much as the idea of its possibility ... stopping the equilibrium of decision."
A delicate suffered passage, young and maybe a little immature. There are those who choose never to grow up, and remain forever in their protective limbo.
Stefano Pastore tries, through his work as a sculptor, to silently shout about an illness that will, maybe, accompany him throughout his life. Our emotions, our fears, our insecurities, make us unique, alone, but when an artist is able to reach our emotions and involve us in his expressive universe, I believe he is able to unite us with the world of others. This is a quality that belongs to Stefano Pastore.