Art Thinking with Stampone
"Art doesn't require a universal language; it is a language of its own"
Giuseppe stampone
Tirelli & Partners is proud to unveil the outcome of the Art Thinking project accomplished in collaboration with Giuseppe Stampone and Francesco Cascino.
This project has been a great emotional journey throughout the process, but even more so when seeing the final result.
Giuseppe's work managed to breathe new life and depth into each theme we had entrusted to him, as they are the foundation of our being and our way of working. Discovering that through someone else's perspective, it's possible to find something new and profound about a topic you thought you knew thoroughly, from which you believed you had "sucked out all the marrow of life," was truly a gift.
We've all experienced a sense of "incompleteness," something we can and want to work on in order to build better human relationships. If others can be contributors of new meanings to words we hold dear, it should lead to the realization that nothing is ever said in its entirety, and thus in dialogues with others, we can always discover things that enrich us.
MARCO
Tirelli & Partners' Abbecedario.
The 10 core words of our being
and the way we work.
Listening
To shed one's own convictions and create space for the other, to welcome, perceive, and feel them without judgment: this is what true listening means. Nowadays, everyone wants to talk, but only a few truly listen; we are constantly bombarded by distractions, impatience, and the rush to respond and share our own opinions.
Listening, according to Irina
I chose this word to remind myself of the importance and beauty of listening, as a cornerstone of understanding and acceptance. Through active listening, we can bring forth the sensitivity and authenticity of others, opening up new insights, new understandings, and new possibilities. Nothing is ever fully said, so in dialogue, we can always discover enriching insights.
Giuseppe has painted the ideal form of listening, one that we all wish we were capable of. It's the rapt and amazed listening of a child who discovers the sea within a seashell. It's a kind, curious, and carefree listening that we all experienced as children.
This artwork led me to reflect on the necessity of safeguarding the heart, through which we once found the infinite within the finite. If we were capable of it before, we can still be. Or at least, we can attempt it, thus experiencing that in every journey, the destination that created it is already contained within it.
Irina
Benefit
"Ethics before aesthetics." It's everything that the girls by Giuseppe Stampone are gazing at in a sky with no other panorama. A postcard, perhaps from paradise, to remind us of the profound meaning of our role as educators, sketched through letters and numbers that invoke teaching. The centrality of ethics is the reason I chose this letter. Benefit corporations and B Corps merge economic objectives and common good purposes into a synthesis that respects the integrity of the human being.
Benefit
Work and private life cannot be portions of existence managed by opposing moralities.
Since setting a good example is an alternative source of civic consciousness, it is now greatly necessary to create ethical companies that flourish by realizing the potential of those who work there and nurturing society as a whole.
In Giuseppe's representation, I grasp the tension for ethics and aesthetics to coincide, so that "goodness" and "beauty" may flourish again from the same root that birthed them. I perceive the theme of education and unconventional teaching encapsulated in an alphabet whose last letter is X, and I grasp the theme of exclusion that calls on all of us to provide an extra measure of attention and commitment so that no one is deliberately left behind.
Marco E. Tirelli
Caring
I choosed this letter from Giuseppe Stampone's alphabet because I wish for the four depicted words to hold a significant place in my life.I believe that everything starts with the word "caring," in the sense that the other three words largely lose their potency unless they become complements to it. In life, and even more so in work, being kind, transparent, and bearers of lightness holds immense value, especially when what we undertake is "cared for," meaning done well.
Caring
From Giuseppe's artwork, wherein he chose to craft his unique interpretation of a renowned photograph by Elliot Erwitt, I identify numerous connections with my four chosen words.
There's the attention given to the visitors' gazes and Erwitt's gaze, capturing everything through his camera lens – a prerequisite for caring to be effective. There's transparency, as this situation captures the interrelation between the observers' perspectives and the observed scene. Kindness and lightness also feature prominently, displayed with humor and irony that align with the storytelling style of figures like Sordi and Benigni.
Ludovico
Home - Luxury
No doubt that the letter H should be part of our alphabet. Giuseppe chose the image from the cover of an iconic book by Italo Calvino, "Invisible Cities," to tell us about the value and power of imagination and fantasy that generate new possibilities, cities/worlds/ways of living that hadn't been thought of before.
Home - Luxury
Calvino says, "You do not enjoy the seven or seventy-seven wonders of a city, but the answer it gives to a question of yours." The same, in my opinion, applies to our homes. I venture, guided by the passion that drives us: like Marco Polo, we want to narrate to our clients the many opportunities to envision and creatively interpret the "luxury" of a home. Above all, we aim to help them imagine with different eyes what is already theirs or what it can become.
Guery
Failure
I chose this artwork because it looks at failure through very different eyes than those of the "performance-driven society," and it's a perspective that deeply resonates with me. Giuseppe sketches a cluttered space filled with insignificant, useless, and forgotten objects, with a desk and a chalkboard in the foreground, as if to represent the misery of a school that teaches plans for becoming successful individuals. It prepares us for a society built on winning, on pushing ahead of others, when it should instead guide us to grow and become women and men directed towards our own uniqueness and authenticity.
Failure
People are absent from the drawing. In fact, failure doesn't touch them because it's the very idea of success in this context that is false. This is what Giuseppe reminds us of. Failure is ever-present in our journey as women and men. It exists in our work life as well as in our relationships and personal connections – all areas subject to mistakes, falls, and betrayals. We celebrate our "successes" instead of learning to see failures as life experiences.To ensure we don't forget all of this, we've inscribed failure into our vision and entrusted Giuseppe to create the most significant piece for our alphabet.
ilenia
I chose this word for the profound meaning it conveys to me. This word simplifies my life because it makes me think that none of us exists without others; we are all deeply interconnected. Moving from the solitude of "I" to the companionship of "us" is a great consolation for me coming from Senegal. I am accustomed to community life because in Africa, that is the center of life. I am happy to be in Italy, but without "us," my life here would be much more difficult.
Us
Giuseppe's artwork brought me back to a time that recalls the joy of being physically together, as well as the feeling of togetherness. Around the Christmas tree, in our memories, those who are far away are present, and even those who are no longer visible to us because true relationships endure even in distance. Everything we have loved remains with us forever.
Lamin
Observatory
For 20 years, we have been publishing the Observatory on exclusive residences. Our expertise in market dynamics is one of the distinguishing factors that sets us apart, and thus the letter "O" rightfully takes its place in our alphabet. Giuseppe Stampone chose to reference an artwork by Maurizio Cattelan, the artist who brought communication and advertising into art, much like how we aim to bring art into our business.
Observatory
Emerging from the hole is like starting from our origins, possessing a historical memory and an identity to bring into the present. Personally, this image has suggested other interpretations to me:
- We are within the market that we observe like Cattelan from the hole; we dig to have an unconventional viewpoint.
- Cattelan's artwork offers a different and original perspective on things, just as we do with the Observatory and in our overall activity.
- The hole in the floor and Cattelan himself bring forth a new reality in the museum, a new possibility that was already available but hadn't been considered yet. By analogy, I associate this new reality/possibility with us and our research work.
Guery
Relationships and responsibilities
A railway station, a slightly outdated departure and arrival board, just like the somewhat dated clothing of the people in the foreground. With this artwork, Giuseppe Stampone transports us to a bygone era—a time when trains and stations were the primary symbols of travel, serving as gateways to old and new knowledge and relationships.
Relationships and responsibilities
I see a reflection between what is above and what is below in this artwork, much like in those photographs of Mount Fuji and its lake. Above lies the digital realm of information and relationships, while below exists the tangible reality.
I chose this artwork for the strong resonances it evoked within me.
The departure and arrival board led me to draw a parallel with buyers and sellers. The board indicates, informs, and guides towards various destinations, similar to our role as real estate agents who showcase and facilitate the search journey for those who entrust us.
The more complex the journey, the greater the opportunity for us to weave human connections with them, to jointly overcome obstacles toward the destination. In each built relationship, I discover something new about myself, and through this discovery, I acknowledge the invisible bonds that connect us. Taking responsibility for the well-being of others: this is why caring for the people who rely on me is the profound purpose I ascribe to my work.
ilenia
Solidarity
From Giuseppe's artwork, what arises within me is the certainty that when observed with the heart, all division ceases between the observer and the observed. There is only a mutual reflection, a delicate holding of each other's heartstrings. Just like in the red heart painted.
I chose this artwork for the significance that solidarity holds in my life. I feel the joy of doing and giving to others as much as I can, but I am also aware that what I receive in return is so much more.
Solidarity
It's difficult to put into words; it's something that is only discovered through experience. This immense richness that fills us is metaphorically captured and depicted by Giuseppe through the Hanging Heart, one of the world's most expensive sculptures.
However, I also chose this artwork for the theme of sustainability, which, to me, represents solidarity towards the Earth. Just as being in solidarity means taking care of each other, being sustainable means taking care of our shared home. Today, there seems to be a risk and temptation to turn sustainability into an empty package wrapped in precious paper. External shine as the sole purpose of things is a central theme in Jeff Koons' work, of which Giuseppe has portrayed Hanging Heart.
Valentina
Vision
I chose this letter from Giuseppe Stampone's alphabet because, as the founder of Tirelli & Partners, vision and values have been the building blocks upon which I wanted to establish the foundation of this company.
Vision is the perspective we wish to hold on life, and from it depends what we will be able to grasp from reality. The vision of Tirelli & Partners speaks of justice, meaning, people, and collaboration that binds them together and makes them flourish, of responsible and sustainable business, of falling and getting up without losing the North Star that guides and directs action. Having a vision means knowing how to look beyond, into a beyond that is physical and metaphysical at the same time.
Vision
If vision is the gaze, then values are the white pebbles that guide our path along the footsteps left by others before us, so that our steps today leave that path clean and visible for those who will walk it tomorrow.
In this letter of his alphabet, Giuseppe draws a poem. Lucio Fontana, a giant of culture, imagined a way to open new spaces to art beyond the known boundaries up to that point, thanks to his cuts that carve a path in the canvas never before ventured.
With this artwork, Giuseppe reminds everyone that art is a creator of ethical and spiritual values that, by opening new possibilities, are the primary source from which spring forth the only economic goods worthy of human greatness. This is exactly the essence of what Adriano Olivetti stated in his famous speech to the united workforce in 1946: "What will we do, what will we do? Everything boils down to a single thought, a single teaching: we will be guided by spiritual values. These are eternal values, and by following them, material goods will arise on their own without us searching for them."
Marco E. Tirelli
Giuseppe Stampone with Francesco Cascino
for Tirelli & Partners.
Watch the video
Giuseppe Stampone
Artist
Giuseppe Stampone is an international artist who uses his art to explore social issues and convey messages of inclusion, civic engagement, and human connection.
"My journey and artistic experiments have enabled me to transition from the two-dimensional nature of classical art to the multidimensionality of connective and relational art, aiming to provoke a social-political impact within the art world.
Francis Cascino
Curator
Francesco Cascino, Contemporary Art Consultant, Arthinker and curator, is also the founder of the cultural design network Cascino Progetti and a co-author of the political and cultural manifesto on Art Thinking, signed by dozens of artists, curators, entrepreneurs, professionals, and scientists in 2019.
