interview by MAURIZIO CATTELAN in collaboration with MARTA PAPINI photography by GIASCO BERTOLI Italian artist Gianni Piacentino (b. 1945), under the radar for decades, has led a double life as an artist — he was an early member of Italy’s Arte Povera movement — and as a motorcycle racer. In his home in Turin, he constructed a contemporary vision of Futurism, combining Pop Art, Minimalism, technical precision, and an intuition about speed, art, and design. Thanks to the Fondazione Prada in Milan, we discover this incredible artist. MAURIZIO CATTELAN — How did you start making art? Have your motivations remained the same, or have they changed over time? GIANNI PIACENTINO — I was really good at drawing as a kid. In elementary school and middle school, I was faster and more skilled than my teachers. I loved the display windows of art shops. I read manuals on painting techniques, from…