| The diversity of techniques and media used in Tiziano Fabris’ works makes its production complex to classify. |  |
Claudia Aguilar
The diversity of techniques and media used in Tiziano Fabris’ works makes its production complex to classify. If you asked him to characterize his work, he would answer without hesitation, “It’s totally useless.” It is precisely the number of symbols not outlined in that description that casts doubts on its banality. Passing along the entire artistic tradition and using any available technique, Fabris redefines himself in each work; in each step he disassembles his preceding point of view, deconstructing his own glance with the seriousness of a child that invents a new game when disarming his best toy. Always between Italy and Argentina, Fabris captures in his pictures the tension between those countries.
In his series Forbiche, back in 2004, he started working with the bonds that link European traditions with American countries. However, in a later exhibition, Extraño (Strange) in 2006, he approached that relationship by introducing a new character: the immigrant. To do so, Fabris worked with clothes that used to belong to some of those immigrants: some of them family, some of them friends. Absolutely independent, doing everything himself, Fabris used the clothes as his canvas. A mixture of intense colors and abstract paintings, they carry the powerful effect caused by the “broken” images: broken but still related, because a small part remained intact. From an outsider’s point of view, as a foreigner that chose to be an Argentine, these images come alive and tell their story.
Tiziano Fabris was born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1964. When he was eighteen years old he returned to Europe, visiting during a year Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Yugoslavia. There he had varied experiences: from the spiritual one, retiring himself in the Franciscan convent of Umbria, to the simple metropolitan survival sharing the illegality of marginal groups. He passed through intellectual research with students of the entire world during his studies of arts in the Scuola Internazionale di Graffica in Venice. Returning to Buenos Aires, he studied advertising. When he shipped again to Europe, he established himself in Italy, working freelance for graphic design agencies in Padua and Vicenza. During these times he began painting seriously. Today, at 44 years old, he studies Art History at the Buenos Aires University and works on building a personal artistic career.
