1. 您是一位自学的艺术家还是在艺术学院学习过？您的专业特长是什么？
我在米兰的Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Brera 美术学院)学习过绘画。我的老师有艺术家阿尔伯托•加鲁蒂(Alberto Garutti), 艺术批评家兼策划人吉阿琴驮•地•瞥特兰驮呢欧(Giacinto Di Pietrantonio), 艺术批评家兼策划人劳拉•凯鲁碧尼(Laura Cherubini) 和艺术家格拉齐亚•托岱里(Grazia Toderi).
2. 对于在日常生活当中，很普遍的材料，您的强烈兴趣来自哪里?
可能是来自我伸开手，随手抓到的事物。 通过这样的行为过程, 可以把随手得来的东西转化。这样可以创造一种微妙的奇迹，它深深地触摸到日常生活的世界。
3.在您早期的职业中，您的很多作品都以刺绣为基础。您如何从刺绣转换到一个三维上呢?您觉得您还会再去使用刺绣吗?它还会是您的艺术风格中的主要部分吗?
刺绣在我的作品中是不变的一个特征。我的作品由透明保鲜膜制成，这次展览的作品也是，它们的支撑是编织出来的而不是用胶水粘的。自从刺绣是我艺术风格的一部分起，我想每次在材料和作品允许的情况下，我都会使用刺绣。
4. 您使用的材料看上去脆弱得无法触碰, 并且用它去塑造一些公众人物展示更多的人性面。所以无论是从材料还是心理的角度来讲，您的作品描绘的是一种脆弱。可以这样理解吗?
确实，这个是解释这些作品的关键。
5. 从美学和本体论的观点来看，在您的作品中脆弱材料的含义是什么?
从广义上来说，脆弱我们通常认为的“虚弱”来想。当它使人解除了警戒心，也就是说,当逼迫去放下武器时，,脆弱不再是一种虚弱，而是一种强而有力的生命张力。这种脆弱可以打动我。
6. 尽管脆弱，不过您的很多作品看起来有一种明亮、讽刺、几乎是嬉戏的一面。
我一直尝试去得到一些美学上的轻盈感和伴随最低制作成本的创造性。其他的所有（讽刺、嬉戏等等）可能是一种侧面的效果。
7. 在北京展览的不同作品系列的来源是什么?
《救生圈》(Rubber Ring)”表达的是人们对关心和保护的需求; 《纳迪亚•科马内奇》(Nadia Comaneci)——作为一个伟人的负担躺在脆弱的运动员肩膀上; 《人猿泰山》(Tarzan)——痴呆移民局强加在约翰尼•韦斯默勒 (Johnny Weissmuller)上的双重身份; 《开花时节》(Bloom)——概念和情感的秘密通过透明头骨揭示而盛开绽放。
8. 《人猿泰山》和《纳迪亚•科马内奇》系列都是关于来自您的国家的人物。做出如此的选择是什么原因?
我希望每个人知道并且对我描绘的人物比较熟悉。不过纳迪亚•科马内奇脆弱被很多人知道或怀疑。约翰尼• 韦斯默勒的故事真实的不可置信。他们不仅都是罗马尼亚人,而且也都是移民,像我和其他人一样。我的目标是强调在脆弱和力量之间的联系与矛盾。
9. 在作品《开花时节》系列中, 您如何挑选制作骷髅的有花纹的纸张?
我需要花的图案去表达我自己。礼物包装纸特别适合表达这个创造性的想法,作为一个礼物,您不期盼的时候它却来了。
10. 在您的雕塑中，技术方面是怎样的呢？是您自己亲手创作的么？还是有助手帮忙？
我一直自己来制作作品。透明保鲜膜做的雕塑是一层层保鲜膜包裹和缝合在一起，在里面既没有呆板的结构也没有胶水。基本上它就是一张带有棉线的塑料。在作品《开花时节》系列中，我用了铁线为了制作牙齿，但谁都可以看到这个。我不希望对观众有什么秘密。
您能介绍专门为北京展览所创造的作品吗？
为了特定具体的地点而做的作品，它可以说是以前作品的进化。在1999年,它只是一个独立的雕刻的纸卷，题目为《1000 张纸》(A thousand sheets)。它是关于用最小干涉取得最大体积。在这个案例中，图片引起人们回忆起一种开花过程、一种小的爆发。今天，2010，通过抽出纸卷里面的纸，它们看起来像一种植物。这样，竹子藤条从不同尺寸的的纸卷中获得，它们一个放在另一个上面，在一些案例中雕刻。我想这个作品特别的献给中国，因为它是由植物组成的，是这个国家的象征，并且纸是中国人最早发明的。
Interview with the artist: Ten questions to Laura Matei
By Pier Giorgio Giraudo
1. Are you a self-taught artist or did you undergo a formal training? If so, what is your specialization?
I graduated in painting from Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. My teachers were [artist] Alberto Garutti, [critic and curator] Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, [critic and curator] Laura Cherubini and [artist] Grazia Toderi.
2. Where does your fascination for such everyday life, humble materials arise from?
Perhaps it arises from the fact that just by holding out your hands, taking what is within your reach and transforming it simply by a gesture, you can create a sort of miniature wonder, deeply touching everyday life’s universe.
3. In your early career, many of your works were based on embroidery. How did you switch from embroidery to a three-dimensional approach? Do you think you will use embroidery again and is it still an primary part of your artistic ethos?
Embroidery is a constant feature in my works. My works made of transparent film, which will be part of this exhibition in Beijing, hold up because they are sewed rather than glued. Since it plays a primary role in my work, I think I will keep on using embroidery each time a material or a work requires it.
4. The leitmotif of these works is the fragility characterizing the subjects both with regard to the materials employed and from a psychological point of view. Sculptures look almost untouchable due to the fragility of the material they are made of and some of your characters are portrayed as human beings rather than legendary heroes. Is this correct?
Definitely, this could be a major key of interpretation for these works.
5. What is the meaning of material fragility in your works both from an esthetic and ontological point of view?
Broadly speaking, fragility strikes me when it is disarming, that is, when it pushes to lay weapons down by what is usually considered a weakness. I’m interested in fragility when it turns out to be strength.
6. Despite their being fragile, many of your works seem to have a light, ironic, almost playful side. Is this true?
I always try to get some sort of aesthetic lightness and creative immediacy along with the lowest production costs. Everything else (irony, playfulness, etc.) may just be side effects.
7. What’s the origin of the different series featuring in this exhibition in Beijing?
In “Rubber Ring” I stress the need for care and protection people struggle to express. The series “Nadia Comaneci” is about the burden of being a legend lying on the shoulders of a frail baby-athlete. In “Tarzan,” I investigate the double identity imposed on Johnny Weissmuller by the dull immigration bureaucracy of the time. While in the “Bloom” series, I like to emphasize the mystery of the blooming of ideas and emotions, revealed through a transparent skull-cap.
8. The series “Tarzan” and “Nadia Comaneci” are about two celebrities reminding of your country. What’s the reason for such a choice?
I wanted everybody to know and be familiar with my characters. Whereas Nadia Comaneci frailty was known or suspected by many, the story of Johnny Weissmuller is truly incredible. Not only were they both of Romanian origin, they were also immigrants, like me and many others in the last decades. My goal was highlighting the relationship/contradiction between frailty and strength.
9. How did you choose the paper used for the skulls in the “Bloom” series?
I needed floral images to express myself. Gift paper was particularly suitable in that it showed mind creativity as a gift which comes when you don’t expect it.
10. What about the technical aspect in your sculptures? Do you create them by yourself or do you have any assistants?
I’ve always created my works by myself. The sculptures made of transparent film are a pile of film bandages, held together by seams, with neither stiff structures inside nor glue. Just plastic sheets and cotton thread. I only used iron wire for the “Bloom” series, to build the dental arch. However, this is clearly visible, no tricks.
Can you tell us about the work you conceived for the Beijing exhibition?
As for the “site-specific” work, it is the evolution of a former work. In 1999, it was just a single engraved paper roll, entitled “A thousand sheets”. It was about getting the maximum volume with minimum intervention. In this case too, the image recalled a sort of flowering, a small explosion. Today, in 2010, only by putting a few rolls one on the other this work looks like a sort of plant. Thus, the bamboo canes obtained from paper rolls of different diameters are put one on the other and engraved in some cases. I consider this work as being specifically dedicated to China: It is inspired by the plant which is the symbol of this country and made of paper, which was first invented by the Chinese.
【编辑：小红】
