Alfredo Meschi
Q. You define yourself as a vegan yet, in another interview you argued that if this society stopped eating animal products, and became vegan all of a sudden, if I may say so, it would still be a society destined for extinction, can you explain better, please?
A. I don't define myself as a vegan, just as I don't define myself as queer, or anarchist, or anti-civ, even though all these worldviews belong to me deeply.
A vegan turbo capitalist society would remain a wrong, unjust, doomed society. But it is not correct to use the term "vegan" in this sense.
Q. Why?
A. Because when we use a word we need to know what meaning it had since its first appearance. And the meaning of the term vegan, from the very beginning, was steeped in a radical and revolutionary vision of the world.
Q. Don't you think it's hypocritical to talk about radical revolution, to question everything and then move between institutional galleries and famous contemporary art museums?
A. Each and every one of us is dripping with contradictions. My art is not a purity contest. The freedom to express myself uncensored, from physical to ideological, is my antidote to hypocrisy.
Q. Is there anything you would never do?
A. Give up this freedom.
Q. For many people your art is too radical, for other people, perhaps militants in direct action groups, it is too little. What do you have to say about it?
A. Little or nothing. A priori criticism is an international sport. I do not think there is anything "too" radical in using my body as a tool to raise awareness, at the same time I believe that my artivism, which is expressed in the form of permanent performance, 24/7, has its own political dignity. But if someone wants me to throw some firebombs, then I'll continue to be disappointing ...
Q. When did your artivism start?
A. Project X in 2016, In the blink of an eye, the following year.
Q. Which of the two projects are you most attached to?
A. Project X was a name for allowing my skin to do its "job". It is just myself and I will continue to be so in a thousand different ways... “In the blink of an eye” is the main result of that "job" and the continuous migration of the Xs from my body to those of hundreds of other people represents the opening to an "us ” perspective. Starting with the “sense of us” shared by Massimo Giovannini and me. I believe that from this “sense of us” depends our survival in this planet, no more, no less.
Q. Indeed?
A. Yes, I believe that our ability to survive on a planet that is now facing collapse depends on a radical awakening of empathy at the level of the human species. And if that's not enough to avoid collapse, at least it would be enough to give a sense to our evolution as primates, primates with little hair ...
