My "artist name" is Zeno. Zeno is the name of my father, fiercely continuing life in his child.

After studying figure drawing, architecture, and the history of art in high school, I followed my father's path and devoted myself to anthropology for 20 years - from African matriarchal tribes to patriarchal families to contemporary civilization. What finally fascinated me is the creation of a new civilization founded on human demands, a common denominator of a universal politics.

Human demands raise up the entire animal kingdom, but it is in art that man's peculiar position in the universe becomes incarnate. To demonstrate this is the reason for the "portraits by 4 hands".

What are "portraits by 4 hands"? They involve a process where more than one artist works on the same piece at the same time, in this case, the portrait.

For example, making a bust-portrait forces the artists to confront an objective element that they must make to live again in the sculpture realized from clay, a very plastic material; but the "4 hands" is not only for portraits.

The problem is to put together many artists on the same work. Artists, by definition, tend to give a strong personal imprint to their work. Novelty is in making different types come to life together, not only in the artistic sense, without competition or prevarication.

In the "4 hands", one artist helps another to realize his best characteristics. It is an orchestral work that exalts rather than eliminates the soloist.

Artists are saddled with so much passion, passion that pushes out to be translated into images of what they feel - not as the individuals that they are, but as individuals chosen from the masses who ask them to make works of art - because art is one of the most important human requirements. It is a universal good that have this duty to express things for those that are not able to do so themselves.

Using this premise, it is possible to speak of the priestly function of an artist, to be an authoritative interpreter between man and the "nonexistent," between man and the endless, between man and his dreams, between man and reality. If there were no artists, humanity would be as if without air, as if it were forced inside a cage.

But to return to the "4 hands".

I must make a parenthetical comment to understand: I am an Italian artist, and in Italy, the streets and piazzas are very important because that is where the life of the people is. It is in "the streets" that culture is born because in the streets people talk, ideas are gathered and exchanged. The sun and the landscape provide the frame for these meetings.

In the streets are cultured and ignorant persons, rich and poor, those who are more intelligent and those who are less so. Everyone is in the streets, so we can conclude that without streets there could be no populace, without the piazze, no agreements. These meetings social classes, apparently so casual, create progress because they offer the possibility of global advancement.

The Internet is not enough - to go forward, man must meet with other men beyond the realm of ideas or job interests.

In this way the "4 hands" proposes and contains the mission of the artist, the meaning of art, the greatest human need. Understood in this way, art is a natural defense to the rigidity of structures to which man reverst when art is absent.

At the base of the "4 hands" these is a natural strength that through the artist becomes a living image, rich with the tuning of more people.

And I have noticed that working with four people, while more difficult, is also a beautiful way to work because it is just this tuning that brings charm to the portrait and conquers those present in its creation.

In fact, the public in the streets is not extraneous to the work because the joy and desire to see the living work is the same that makes people participate, from the side, in the work, to push the artists to snatch the forms, expression, and character of the subject; the portrait is beautiful exactly because it contains all of this vitality.

It is not that one artist specializes in noses, another in eyes or ears - in these portraits the artist is a connoisseur of human needs, and since the work rises from these,it is in these it has its value.

Therefore, being artists of the "4 hands" means being human above all, men who know how to connect with each other because they know how to more beautiful than nature.

Our presence is everyone's need because our art belongs to nature, in our works everyone is represented, and everyone is "great" in our hands, so to sign the works is like putting a beautiful name on our mountains. Not evryone may go to the top of Everest, but there is someone who can go and tell everyone about it.

We don't have a "name" - we have a big name: yours. This is the signature put on portraits of the "4 hands".

Dear men and women, the world that you have in your hearts and don't know how to conquer, I will conquer it with my friends. You will see, and seeing, you will be able; we will give life to a new language.

Translation by Stephanie Korney, who takes responsibility for any mistakes in tone or language and welcomes instructive corrections. Write Webmaster