Today’s Walls, Rodolfo Dordoni
When the world stops, the mind flies. Interviewed within the walls of his Milanese apartment, Rodolfo Dordoni talks about work, objects, family, projects, and discoveries.
What’s your relationship with objects?
I have a strange relationship with the objects. I mean, I like the object in itself, it is something that I feel attracted to, regardless of what it is. But I wouldn’t say I stay tied to it for long. I normally don’t get attached to objects, the only – let’s say – “objects” which I can hardly separate from once I have had one, are art pieces and books. They are the only things that I don’t abandon long the way.
You are a fan of freehand drawing
I believe that drawing by hand creates a sort of relationship between the hand and the brain that leads the brain to elaborate a sort of three-dimensional object. When I draw I realize that I am drawing the object in my head first, then I analyze it, I understand it, I study it, and then somehow I visualize it with a sketch rather than with a drawing.
What do you miss most of the outside world?
Italians are people of glances, and I miss those. I miss that idea of being able to look and be looked at, I’m not talking of exhibitionism or vanity here, I simply like it when I meet someone’s eyes because this somehow sets in motion a series of wonderings and thoughts, part of my daily life.
“…my bookcase is actually a visualization of myself. My passions, my habits…”
How do you live within the domestic walls?
I grew up in a family where the sense of hospitality, conviviality, was our everyday life, it was fundamental. We always had friends over, friends of my parents, friends of ours, friends of my sister and mine, we always had friends invited to the table because it was a very important moment for us. My father worked all day so we used to get to see him over dinner or lunch, only. More at dinner than lunch, actually, but those moments have never been exclusive moments of the family, they have always been moments open to those who we somehow considered as part of the family, and this was on the daily basis, and it still with me today. My parents have passed away, but I still see this attitude also in my sister – so it is something we’ve been educated to, it’s part of who we are, let’s say.
Look around you. What element better represents you right now?
The bookcase. My bookcase is actually a visualization of myself. My passions, my habits. It is a sort of surrogate of what I used to do during my daily life when I was not segregated into my house, like visiting museums, galleries, art exhibitions. This bookcase is a collection of art books, museum catalogs, a collection of monographs of artists of various periods and movements, basically, how to say it, the story of my life at it was before, translated now into this segregation.
Have you discovered something new about yourself, during the lockdown?
I have discovered a different part of me which is that of confusion, and this, surprisingly, neither alarms me nor creates insecurity in me. I feel good in it, it is a sort of comfortable chaos.