Chiara Camoni and Davide Mancini Zanchi debate beauty in art

In a conversation moderated by Vincenzo Merola for Artribune's Versus series, artists Chiara Camoni and Davide Mancini Zanchi explore the nature of beauty and ugliness in contemporary art. Camoni, who uses everyday materials like terracotta, argues that beauty is not about harmony but about meaning, even citing Medusa's severed head as potentially beautiful. Mancini Zanchi, known for his series 'Studi per il quadro più brutto del mondo' (Studies for the Ugliest Painting in the World), questions aestheticism and sees beauty as a trap, preferring essence over appearance. He references Marcel Duchamp's urinal as an example of something not beautiful in its natural context. Both artists emphasize the primacy of content over form, with Camoni asserting that an artwork must express itself through an inseparable blend of form and content, needing no excessive explanation. Mancini Zanchi highlights the role of intention and context, comparing the value of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo play versus the marketing of CR7. The dialogue touches on the grotesque, kitsch, and camp as effective declinations of ugliness, with Camoni warning against the hyper-duplication of reality through screens. The Versus series features past dialogues including Christian Caliandro vs Ivan Quaroni, Sergio Lombardo vs Pablo Echaurren, and others.