STARI RIBAR

My name is Massimo Marchiori, born in 1973.

Born in Venice into a family of artists and creatives.

I grew up breathing in the scent of oil paints, cardboard and paper.

My maternal grandfather (born in Silba, a small island in Croatia) taught me to walk barefoot, respecting nature and the sea.

Imprinting waited years to show itself, it needed stimuli and motivation.

My rebirth came at the most difficult moment.

A bad disease has the ability to awaken the courage to live in pursuit of one's dreams.

Thus was born Massimo artist, designer and sculptor.

I reopened the drawers of memories and those smells and materials that had accompanied me during my childhood have become my life.

I started with cardboard: recycled and recyclable.

In a suburban basement I started giving the cardboard a different shape from the supermarket boxes.

Poor, packaging material, good as a mattress for the homeless, in my hands the cartoon came alive and revealed a different and unexpected nature.

Why cardboard?

Because it represents exactly the model of society we have built.

We are many (7 billion in the world ...) and like "cardboard boxes" we are used and abandoned.

The frenzy of everyday life distracts us and we too often forget the uniqueness of our life.

I collected the cardboard and gave it a new shape, transforming it, shaping it, creating sculptures that represent life-size objects.

Bicycles, motorcycles, musical instruments, a WWI plane ...

But it wasn't enough for me to be the "sculptor" of the cartoon.

I wanted to create objects that could become teaching and educational "tools" for those who will be the new adults tomorrow: our Children.

So cardboard became a toy, preserving its naturalness and essentiality, but my creativity has reinvented its use.

They, my toys, published in 2016 on the ADI DESING INDEX (Compasso d'oro) and distributed throughout Europe, exhibited at the Triennale Design Museum (Milan) on the occasion of "Giro Giro Tondo, Design for Children" alongside the " creations ”by my mentor BRUNO MUNARI.

But what seemed like a point of arrival was instead a new restart.

The essence of my rebirth was linked to the memories of my childhood and feelings of sadness born from the vision of a world abused by a global pollution generated by the human being.

It was 2010 and what was initially a “simple” ecological mission, which led me to clean the beaches of plastic, soon found material form thanks to my artistic vein.

The cardboard "fused" to the plastic and my first fish were born.

Unique sculptures that today allow me to remodel my sadness by transforming it into three-dimensional and material still images that contain my love for the sea and nature.
My fish are created like this, using what I find on the shores of my beloved Silba and Venice.

The sea brings back to the surface the dirt generated by the human being and on board my boat I look for the places where there is more plastic and I collect it.
An old plastic bottle becomes the mouth, a comb the fin, a hanger the tail, ropes and plastic nets the back ...

The viewer looks for the various fused elements, recognizes and understands them.

The covering mono-color amalgamates the different elements, the eye that is a light bulb lights up and the sculpture comes to life ...

My art form becomes a tool to sensitize the viewer to the problem of pollution of the seas.

It is for this reason that my "creating" wants and must be accessible to everyone.

Of course, this is my job!

My sustenance!

Fatigue, dedication, attention, research, discipline, study, these are the ingredients to make my art my job!

But that's not enough for me ...

I believe that spreading a thought is not enough, only the active involvement of everyone can create a sounding board capable of changing our way of life in the world.

That's why anyone who wants to can help me, collecting that plastic found along the beaches, I use it for my fish, telling about you.

Today my sculptures can be found for sale in my shop / laboratory in Verona, in various points of sale throughout Italy and online: on my Facebook page, Instagram profile and on the website www.stariribar.it

Stari Ribar

fantastic fish and where to find them.