Six questions for
Marco Sgarbossa

How do you describe your own art practice?

I think of my work as a punchline, as the critical element that catches you unprepared, disregarding the expectations for a linear narrative.
I arrange materials in unexpected dispositions, giving form to fresh, precarious and fragile configurations.

Which question or theme is central in your work?

Though often playful, my works address problematic matters such as expectations, desires and disappointments.
I often try to fuck something up in order to watch what happens after, in the difficult intent to make sense of things in precarious state and constant change.

What was your first experience with art?

I have traveled by motorhome for many years as a child.
I remember seeing “The way things go” by Peter Fischli and David Weiss in an art foundation somewhere in the Netherlands and being struck by it. I was maybe 10.

What is your greatest source of inspiration?

When I stub my pinky toe.

What do you need in order to create your work?

Misunderstandings. I would say that everything starts with the accumulation of objects, images and declarative sentences.
If you watch them long enough, you start to group things together by misunderstanding one thing with another.

This sense of disorientation and fragility that stems from weird coexistences is simply beautiful.

What work or artist has most recently surprised you?

I felt reassured when I came across Katie Manning’s poem called “What to expect”. Proceeding alphabetically, she stretches the word “expect” into dozens of different formulations, exploring the wonder and terror of new motherhood.
She makes an overwhelming sequence of expectations held in unexpected and poetical juxtapositions.