Interview of Contra Magazine with Marcel Terrani
1. Mr. Terrani, could you tell me something about your personal background, where
were you born, brought up, what where your artistic influences ?
I was born in Cologne/ Germany in 1969. After my apprenticeship as media designer, I used
to work for TV as a Graphics Designer and 3D animator. In 1996 I was art director for
Disney. In the year 2000, I began to work as a freelancer for the music industry, e.g. Sony
Records, Universal Records, Columbia Records. I designed cover -albums and developed
sleeve designs. This point in time marked the end of my work for television .
I created designs for British American Tobacco (BAT), for the German campaign “ich liebe
es” by Mc Donald’s and other important companies such as the German shoe designer
Rodenstock.
As a grandchild of a photographer and a grand -grandchild of a painter, my life was dedicated
to arts already early in my life. I began to exhibit at the age of 20.
My work was influenced by Sigmar Polke, Julian Schnabel, Mimmo Rotella, Andy Warhol
and Gustav Klimt.
I exhibited with German top artists like Rosemarie Trockel, Georg Jiri Dokoupil and British
artists like Banksy , D*Face and Rourke van Dal.
2. What kind of materials do you use to create your artwork?
I use a variety of materials but mostly newspapers, transfer paper, magazines, my own
photographies, acrylics, oil, shellac, gold and silver leaves. My pictures are digitally refined
with Photoshop and printed or painted on canvas or other textile fabrics.
3. Your art is very unusual - would you consider it a form of Bricolage or Dadaism ?
Daddaism is very near to me - especially in my earlier works.
4. You say that you “take photos and transform them into pop- art style.”
What does “pop-art style” mean to y ou and how does this “transformation into pop art”
look like?
My works only look like pop art. I use this look to carry my ideas as a Trojan horse to the
public. You might see a kind of Fashion Cover but one has to read the text in these works.
For instance take one of the ELLE covers :
On the surface they look like ordinary beauty magazine covers but the text down below says:
DO NOT READ BEAUTY MAGAZINES - THEY ONLY MAKE YOU FEEL UGLY. My
message is that no real life woman can look like these magazine beauties. They are all
digitally retouched.
Take the collage with Madonna as another example. The text says: “LANCASTER”. Only on
a second glance it reads: does NOT help after a certain age. This line picks up two lies of the
beauty industry. I don’t want to harm Madonna, I think she is fabulous but there is a stupid
idol killer called time.
If I had to define my work, I’d call it something like FOP ART or FAKE POPART but I still
do not have a fix name for it.
5. Logistically walk me through your creation process, from the inception of an idea to
its manifestation on canvas .
The beginning of each process is a collage in the format of 20x30cm. I glue papers in
different layers the one over the other and then I decollage them. Afterwards they are
digitalised – I work with Photoshop elements and put them into my work. Then it will be
projected on canvas - and painted or in a different version the data is printed on canvas and
over-painted afterwards. About 50% of the second version I described is only prin ted - the
rest is paper glued on canvas, acrylic and oil painted.
Then I choose gold or silver leaves and cover them with shellac - a traditional varnish used in
churches as a finish on icons or angels/sculptures. You see, I mix traditional techniques with
most modern ones, like Photoshop , to design my works.
6. You use lots of pictures from women magazines. Can you talk about that?
Nowadays, I shoot celebrities more and more often. For example, the German top actresses
Alexandra Kamp in the work „ROLLERCOASTER " or Eva Habermann in " IF NOTHING
GOES RIGHT-GO LEFT ". I search the internet for such phrases very often; there are a lot
of interesting sentences on facebook today. I use them sometimes as an inspiration.
7. What is the most important thing you know about art making?
The most important thing about art -for an artist- is to understand that an idea alone is not
helpful enough for success. You have to work a lot, keep eyes and ears open, not b eing too
much inspired by others and stand criticism. There was a time when people sa id to me: this is
too decorative...the same people now pay a lot of money for my works. There is a time for
everything - the same work that is not being accepted by the pub lic might be loved a few
years later...TRUST YOUR OWN STYLE!