Franco Scepi

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Child of art, painter mother, poetic father, musician aunt, nourished from birth on the art myth. Versatile inventor, described as such by Gillo Dorfles, or danseur des images, as Serge Silberman, producer of Buñuel’s films, called him, this is the artist who gave ethical dignity back to mass communication.

He has experimented with all types of media and all languages, from the theatre to the cinema, from advertising, to painting and much more.

Set designer at la Scala in Milan (pupil of Nicola Benois) and on television (“L’amico del giaguaro”). Director of art films “Can Cannes” and “Packaging”, shown at the Venice Film Festival in 1980 and 1982, he has made short films, video-performances, musical videos and advertising commercials.

In the early-1960s he felt compelled to dedicate himself to the moving image, he filmed and photographed extraordinary events. Fascinated by fire, by water, by conflict in nature, he followed fire-fighting missions and created visual documents which he called “fire effects”, in anticipation of trends in conceptual art.

With the economic boom came the explosion in Marketing and Advertising. Scepi did not miss out on the chance to try out new languages that could reach large numbers of people with immediate effect. Judging by history it was the right thing to do because the first signs were arriving from the other side of the Atlantic, on the wave of the post-war demographic explosion. Wealth was increasing with industrial and economic development: now it was production that was influencing consumer behaviour and no longer the opposite.

When Andy Warhol exhibited his Campbell Soup can, and the products were considered signs of contemporary art, Franco Scepi decided to be the artist creating those signs. Since then he has worked for important companies and products: Cirio, Arrigoni, Ramazzotti, BIC, Deborah, Ovomaltina, San Pellegrino, Antonini, Castelli, Fiorucci, Autogril, Gaggia, GS, Euromercato.

In 1967, he founded the agency CDS in Milan with Lino Casa and Claudio De Micheli, and in 1975 he co-founded and promoted Mercurio production company with partners and with Andrea De Micheli and Gianni Sias. In the 1980s he founded the agencies Eurocom and Azzurra with a group of partners.

For over 10 years, following on from Fortunato Depero at Campari, he worked on the company’s product image, creating, producing and directing television commercials in person.

Moving in Andy Warhol’s circle, he called his work Over Ad’Art and in 1987 was awarded the Oscar for Advertising in New York. One of Over Ad’Art’s events, “Caffè ad Arte”, was created and produced with Mario Schifano and with the participation of the actress Brooke Shields.

He invented the first artist’s electric car, shown in one of his commercials. He created posters for international directors like Brian De Palma, Werner Fassbinder and in 1980 designed events to develop the image of the City of Milan: an overview of the Venice films, the Ambrosian Carnival, the Festa dei Navigli, Topix: a sculpture video in Piazza Duomo.

In 1999, Mikhail Gorbachev and the Nobel Peace Laureates added their signatures to Scepi’s image Man for Peace, created in 1977 for the poster of the film The Man of Marble by Wajda, inspired by Karol Woitjla and defined as the symbol that foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall. With the support of the MAGI Museum, several copies of the monument have been acquired by towns and art galleries. Show business celebrities who have distinguished themselves in their ethical commitment, including Roberto Benigni and Cat Stevens, have been awarded the Man for Peace symbol.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Alberto Abruzzese – Morando Morandini “Dietro lo spot Franco Scepi gira Campari”, Mazzotta Editore, Milano 1986
  • Gillo Dorfles – Massimo Di Forti Franco Scepi, “Images from Italy” Mazzotta Editore, Milano 1987
  • Marc Le Cannu – Gillo Dorfles “Over ad Art da Depero a Scepi” Editore Electa Milano 1989
  • “Franco Scepi produzione d’immagini” Edizione CDS Milano 1990
  • "Trent'anni e un Secolo di Casa Campari", Guido Vergani, 1990
  • "Franco Scepi Over Ad' Art", Editore Alex Gallery Washington, 1993
  • Franco Scepi “Strategia dell’immaginazione” Edizioni l’Artistica Savigliano 1992
  • AA. VV. , Mikhail Gorbachev: Arte per la pace - oltre ogni muro, l’Uomo della Pace di Scepi Bora edizioni, Bologna 2000
  • "Man for Peace", Tipleco Editore, 2003
  • "Man for Peace", Sambero Editore, 2004 e 2005
  • "Percorso nel Tempo, l'antica Casa di Franco Scepi", Sambero Editore, 2006

[edit] Over Ad’Art

From cause to effect

This synthesizes a later form of expression than Pop Art. The artist no longer uses images created by others, but re-elaborates his own advertising images in a later work recouping the aesthetic signs and making use of original materials already in his possession.

Over Ad’Art symbolizes and proposes the aesthetics of mass communication to elevate the collective image.