A philologist and art historian by training, he is a curator, artistic director, and playwright. He has collaborated with some of the most prestigious institutions: the Sorbonne University, Bocconi University, Sciences Po Paris, the French Academy in Rome, the National Roman Museum, the Greek Theatre of Syracuse, Hermès Italy and International. “I’ve lived many lives”: in his current one, he serves as President of the Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala Foundation in Siena and sits on the artistic committee of the Nuovi Mecenati Foundation as an expert for Performing Arts and Theater.
REMIDA meets CRISTIANO LEONE
… and the frieze behind him.
Dear readers, you should know that Cristiano has possibly the best video-call background one could hope for: it’s a Mithraeum – he explains – with the Sun, the Moon, and animals leading Mithras toward the bull, whose sacrifice gave birth to the cosmogony.
L: The most beautiful background I’ve ever seen on a call. And even more so now that you’ve described it. Let’s start from there. Today, we’ll talk about art, and how we communicate it. Where did your journey into this world begin?
C: It began with a desire to research, to explore and share elements of a culture that is sometimes forgotten. From my work in academia to writing my latest book, Atlas of Performing Culture, that has always been the goal. Throughout my career, there’s always been this blend: the theoretical and the practical. A kind of “performative constraint” that allowed me to imagine – and apply – a new model of relationship: between the audience, the artwork, and the context in which it exists.
L: We’re fascinated. What do you mean when you say “culture is performative”?
C: Let’s begin with my book, which explores the connection between performance art and live performance. Especially today, in the age of hic et nunc, where all it takes is opening Instagram or TikTok to see Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” fully realized... Today, the whole world is a stage – a global, virtual, and digital stage. Take, for example, the project “Lo Specchio d’Acqua alle Terme di Caracalla” (“The Water Mirror at the Baths of Caracalla”): water, as a primordial stage, mirrors the monument, doubling its image, and thus the performance itself that unfolds in this theater. Performance always draws a thread between heritage – be it historical, archaeological, or cultural – and the people who engage with it. The power of performativity lies in creating a community, held together by the unique and unrepeatable moment it experiences. What makes this moment so powerful is its ephemerality: it’s rooted in the context, in the spectators, in the emotions that circulate between them and the performers. That’s what leaves a mark on the spirit of the world.
And that’s exactly what I love to explore: the persistence of the ephemeral.
L: What is beauty to you?
C: It is the exploration of balance – or imbalance – between content and form. It’s not a fixed standard, but a product that carries a message. And that message is always changing, which is why our sense of beauty evolves over time. As exploration, beauty is also the attempt to capture what is present, and to interpret the time we’re living in. But from a personal, and human perspective, to me beauty is the search for humanity. What’s undeniably beautiful is the human relationship.
L: I’ll go one step further: if beauty creates connection between people... is that the purpose of art?
C: I’d actually say it’s the role of culture. If culture isn’t performative – if it doesn’t build relationships – then it’s not really culture. And likewise, if an artistic experience doesn’t offer a way to interpret it, it’s only halfway there. There’s no hierarchy among art forms: classical ballet holds the same value as street performance. There’s “good” art and “bad” art, sure, but not “high” and “low” art.
L: Let me flip that: can art exist without performativity?
C: I don’t think so. Take literature: is it performative? Absolutely. If a writer creates a book and no one reads it, it’s almost as if it doesn’t exist. Even literature is performative. How many times have you read a novel years later and found it changed? Or how often does the same thing feel completely different depending on your state of mind?
Art is about relationships: never an end in itself, but moved by the desire to convey a message to someone else.
Communication is essential to art. Which is why art becomes language: one of the tools humans use to explore the world, share what they discover, and connect with others.
L: Which brings us to the importance of the container: a symbol is a container. Language is a container: it creates the space for dialogue and exchange. Medea is a symbol. Medea is a container that holds certain things. Just as Orpheus holds others…
C: That’s exactly what performance art does: it’s a live act, happening in a specific context, in a particular space and time. It’s rooted in the past, speaks to the present, and looks toward the future. It’s a spatial temporality where something unfolds. An artistic project created for a particular place and a specific mission. That’s when space stops being just a “location”, and becomes a container, a stage, a form.
L: So it’s about choice. It’s not that De Chirico didn’t know how to draw forms. He chose to represent them that way. That’s what Linguistic Direction® does: not choosing beautiful words, but the right ones – and with intention.
C: “Words matter”, as Nanni Moretti said. One thing I’ve been reflecting on recently is the use of artificial intelligence in written language. There are now programs designed to trigger specific emotional responses in the reader.
So the machine’s stylistic work is paired with emotional calibration.
L: Aren’t you worried that the tool will overtake the purpose? That the machine might start making art, and replace human creativity? That we might lose what defines us as humans: our ability to create art?
C: I’m not convinced that artistic creation is only human. Let’s not forget: art is a craft. Some do it well. Some don’t. It’s an intellectual skill, not a divine one. An artist is not a superhero or a demigod. Art is a path, a skill, where ideas are born from neural connections.
S: So what’s the relationship between nature and culture? Between Nature and Artifice? Where does art sit between the two?
C: Our very body is nature. In performance art, when we work with the body, there’s no separating it from nature. On the contrary, we’re putting nature on stage. We exist in the world through our bodies. Ideas are born from chemical processes. Nature and its physical elements shape our being – in space and in time. And they also shape the “immaterial” part of us that has always existed within our bodies.
Some people call it the soul.
Thanks to Cristiano for the beautiful connection. And thanks to you, dear readers: if your curiosity is sparked, write to us at supernova@remidastudio.com.
