FEDERICO PEPE

AND THE DISCIPLINE

OF IDEAS

PAOLO FERRARINI

Professor and Journalist

“Once upon a time, there was a Roman emperor who lived on a

huge splinter in space, a spaceship of multi-coloured marble, where

techno music played incessantly. That day he left his spaceship to go

to dinner at the Sun King’s home, riding his sinuous golden dragon with

blood-red eyes.”

If there were a book with these opening words, Federico Pepe would

have designed its cover. And if the book were made into a film, he would

definitely be its writer and director. Federico is not an author, director or

screenwriter, but this does not prevent him from drawing on his natural

ability to create stories through flashes of imagination.

Federico Pepe’s career started in advertising, a family tradition,

which he gradually transformed and built into many other things, in a

constant, inevitable investigation of creativity in all its possible forms.

He very soon understood that commission work was not enough for him,

and he began to explore further afield. The first of these other fields

was art, but the consolidated mechanisms on which galleries and gallery

owners operate soon became a new limit from which he had to break

free: this apparently expanding horizon turned out to be a restrictive

cage, more a defining label than an infinite learning opportunity.

And definitions are one of the things which least describe Federico:

anyone trying to distil his work into two words would find its essence

disappearing before their own eyes. He has occupied many roles and

engaged in many professions to give shape to his ideas, and in all of them

he has excelled, created and led teams, and won awards. Adman, creative

director, graphic designer, printer, gallery owner, publisher, curator,

performer, painter, designer, director: Pepe does, rather than is, all these.

He works, builds and makes things happen because he is not led

by instinct alone and does not succumb to idle whim; he does not rush

aimlessly around and does not simply await the inspiration or idea of the

century. Quite the opposite. His work comes about and produces results

only thanks to strict self-discipline, a design method made up of constant

verification, the precise sharing of tasks and roles, the compulsive

exploration of unknown contexts, daily physical exercise, the carefully

measured use of social media, and occasional spells of isolation in the

mountains he loves. It is no coincidence that he created Le Dictateur,

ARALDICA

Araldica: note sulla collezione | Araldica: notes on the collection

58 | 59