Valerio Capoccia is one of the most successful contemporary Italian sculptors – his works are owned by private collectors in Italy, USA, Australia, Belgium. Critics define him as an 'elegant mystic' whose sculptures unite the enigmatic images of the past to our present-day understanding of the world and immerse you into a world of purity and tranquility.

Valerio Capoccia landed in Bulgaria at the end of last week for his first ever exhibition in the country. Novinite.com caught up with the maestro for a little chat on art, life and the importance of stone chiselling.

Se?or Capoccia how did you discover your vocation?

It all started when I was five years old. An elderly woman whom all children in the neighborhood called 'grandma' handed me a big rusty hammer and a used-up file that I couldn't even hold properly and told me to start digging into the stone – she wanted me to make her a vessel for watering the hens. I loved that woman and wanted to please her. 'Grandma' was very encouraging, she praised my work so I did make her a stone trough and even chiselled out some other things.

Yet, after this initial urge to work with the chisel, as an adult you abandoned sculpting and decided to pursue a university degree in engineering. Why was that?

I was born into a poor peasant family. I believed I had to secure a well-paid job in order to have a home of my own, a wife and kids... So I had to sacrifice the stone carving.  Yet, as time passed by, my nostalgia for shaping the stone increased and I got back to chiselling it. This turned out to be an addiction that I couldn't overcome.

Your sculptures are like living matter. How do you manage to instill life in them?

Actually, I never have a clear idea of what I am going to create. I simply close my eyes and start chiselling, hoping that the end result will be pleasing to the eye and the mind. The stone talks to me, its veins appeal to me. It is as if some exterior power controls my hand – I close my eyes and feel the 'softness' of the stone; it breathes and pulsates.

At first it was all a play to me. I chiselled out some stone heads and arranged them in the garden of my house. After a while, people in Rome started talking about this 'Statue garden' that I had in the suburbs of the city, then the media picked up the story and my works were kind of brought into the light. I mustered enough courage to take some of my sculptures to the renowned Italian sculptor Prof. Salvatore Meli. Of course, he was mercilessly critical of my work. Yet I was not disheartened by his comments. On the contrary, they kept working, making one attempt at perfection after another. Finally I managed to get an 'approving nod' from Prof. Meli.

Have you ever come across a stone that wouldn't let you make it into a sculpture?

Yes, I have. Sculpting is not always easy – not only must you find the right stone but you also need to pick the right moment if you want to create something worthy of attention.  Once I tried to sculpt the bust of a dead man. I hammered and chiselled away, yet to no avail. The sculpture did not want to come into being – my soul, my hands did not want to bring it into existence. In the end I got so angry that I brought down the hammer with such strength that the stone broke into pieces – and the result of that fracture was far more impressive than my initial intention.

Your themes are more or less philosophical. Is there a message to your works?

I'd like to believe that my sculptures give you a sense of purity and harmony. If you take a look at my jaguar – an animal known for its predatory instincts – you will notice that there is no aggression in its eyes, it is not going to 'tear you into pieces'. There is one other statue that I made – 'Howl' or 'Grido' in Italian – yet this is a shout of happiness rather than a howl of pain or desperation. I consider myself to be a calm and positive individual and I think that I instil some of those qualities in my works. I let my soul speak and my sculptures do look harmonious and appeasing.

Who is Valerio Capoccia and where is he heading to?

Verbosity is not one of my strengths. I'll simply say that in translation from Italian, 'capoccia' means 'hard' – hard as stone. This, to an extent, explains who I am. As to where I'm heading to – only the future will tell.