Stefano Ronci. Living on the border, making the invisible visible

The border as a device, not as a theme

In Stefano Ronci's research, the border never coincides with a clear line. It is rather an unstable zone, a territory of shifting where things do not fully coincide: between matter and image, between control and unpredictability, between presence and disappearance. Ronci works exactly there, in that space that we normally try to clarify, order, close. His gesture goes in the opposite direction: making permeable what delimits, transforming the border into an active field of perceptual possibilities.

The horizon as the original matrix

Having grown up in a context deeply connected to the Adriatic Sea, Ronci identifies the horizon as one of the foundational images of his poetic. A mobile, unstable, impossible to fix line, the horizon is by definition a boundary that retreats, a limit that eludes. This condition fuels a constant tension towards the beyond, towards a space that never allows itself to be fully possessed. From here arises a practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, and light, rejecting any disciplinary hierarchy and constructing works that exist only in relation to those who experience them.

Unstable surfaces between image and reflection

In flat landscapes, glossy resin acts as a critical device: the surface reflects the observer, superimposing their body onto the painted landscape. The boundary between representation and reality becomes ambiguous, fragile, and continuously negotiable. In soft landscapes, on the other hand, painting loses rigidity and becomes a sensitive, almost organic material, placing itself in a tension zone between painting and sculpture. In both cases, the artwork is never closed: it is an open system that is only completed through direct experience.

Light, vapor, presence: the boundary as experience

This reflection is radicalized in works such as Losanghe, where the geometric order is destabilized by the light and transparency of colored gelatins, producing a visual overflow beyond the limits of form. In the cycle Condense, the boundary becomes even thinner: vapor clouds reflective surfaces and welcomes ephemeral signs traced with fingers. The artwork becomes a passage, a temporary archive of presences where it is no longer possible to distinguish with certainty the artist's gesture from that of the visitor. Here the boundary does not separate, but connects, making the invisible visible and restoring centrality to the body, space, and time as shared experiences.

#1 answer
The border is a recurring theme in your work. Is it more a place of tension or a space of possibility for you?

It is a place of tension loaded with possibilities. Over time, the concept of the Border has taken on a more mature dimension, in the sense that it is more deeply anchored in my life experiences... I think, for example, of the sea.

#2 answer
The sea and the horizon seem to act as visual and conceptual archetypes. How much do your origins and the physical experience of the marine landscape continue to influence your way of thinking about form and matter?

Here, in responding to the first question, I had not read the second one, and so I find myself telling you that the relationship with the sea as an idea of a land of borders is central. I was born and raised in a borderland: on one side the water, on the other the sea. I sailed at sea immersed in border landscapes: the horizon line, sky-water. More than influencing the material, I would say that my relationship with the sea influences the form.

#3 answer
In reflective works and in pieces like Condense, the viewer becomes an active part of the artwork.
What kind of relationship are you interested in triggering between the artistic work and the audience?

I am interested in an open dialogue with the surrounding environment, not just with the audience. It connects the works to movement. It makes them kinetic. In this sense, I also incorporate the part of my work related to videos, it is an interest that is linked to the idea of variation or variability of the work depending on the context. Certainly, interaction with the audience is also an aspect that I cultivate but always in reference to the idea of mutability.

#4 answer
The concept of diaphanous runs through many of your recent works. Are you more interested in it as a material quality or as a perceptual and symbolic condition?

Diaphanous... I would say I am interested in the spiritual aspect of the term... the idea of a threshold.

#5 answer
For the exhibition in Bologna at Orea Malià, what interests you most that the audience grasps about your work: a conceptual aspect, a sensory experience, or a stance on the present?

A sensory experience that can leave a trace of the conceptual. Let's say the idea of being in front of materials and forms whose origins are to be linked to visual and sensory experiences but reworked through the filter of intellect. I wouldn't mind sparking reflections.

#6 answer
We are almost at the end of the interview, in the editorial office we are all passionate about music and it is one of the artistic languages that we privilege, can you tell us three tracks that you are particularly attached to. Thank you.

Fistful of love - Antony and the Johnsons
Akane - Color me blue
Frank Ocean - Self control