Interview: Vesna Bursich
Luca Curci talks with Vesna Bursich, one of the winners of ARTIST OF THE MONTH – FEBRUARY 2021.

Born in Turin on 1.11.1974, she graduated in restoration in 1994 and in painting at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin in 1998. I work in painting, drawing, photography, video art, digital processing. I have experience as a potter and taught drawing and painting and ceramics techniques.

Luca Curci – What is art to you?
Vesna Bursich – Art is my existence to me. My whole way of life has always been linked to art, and even my choices have always been dictated by the will to continue to make art.

LC – Are your works focused on a specific theme?
VB – At first, my works spoke of me, of what I felt. The wonderful thing was that the audience, in front of my works, recognized my moods as if they were theirs. Today, I’d like to talk about my surroundings. Think more about what is happening around me, and inside me but as part of a huge community.

LC – What’s it like to be an artist today?
VB – For me, living in Italy, being an artist is difficult, because art is not considered useful, while it is fundamental because, for me, art is mainly used to create changes. Without it all remains still and very dry.

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or instinctive process?
VB – Both. The longest and most complex part of creation takes place before physically doing the work. The necessary mental process is long and complex. It must have a part of reasoning, but also an instinctive and spontaneous part. Personally I try to stimulate my mind with readings, photos, drawings, news and being very attentive to everything that surrounds me. Then what happens is that the instinctive part puts the pieces together and gives me the idea. Sometimes they call it inspiration, but even though it seems to happen suddenly, there are months of unconscious work before it happens.

LC – Do you use art to express something in particular? Is it like your medium of expression?
VB – I would like to be able to express parts of truth, to interpret what surrounds us. I would like to be able to create questions about the present.
My main medium of expression is painting, but I also like to experiment with other media, such as digital ones, video art, engraving etc. I’m very attracted to sculpture, but I always thought it was too hard for me.

LC – What are you currently working on?
VB – Currently I’m still working on the work “white noise – words are the virus” to bring it to an end, and in the meantime, I’m thinking about a new project that is still in the embryonic stage and so I don’t feel like giving it a form and a description.