Hackatao

Hackatao, is an artistic duo formed by Sergio Scalet (1973 Transacqua, TN) and Nadia Squarci (1977 Udine). As a skilled borderliner, Hackatao blends the cultured quotes of the past with courageous and ultra-contemporary forms, standing out as an innovative exponent of the current artistic scenario. The duo was formed in Milan in 2007 working together with the creation of Podmork, sculptures with soft and totemic shapes, which are placed at the center of their imaginative research. Their original technique is a harmonious aesthetic summary of an intricate flow of consciousness expressed with graphite, delimited by super-flat acrylic backgrounds.

The subjects of their works are inspired, while maintaining absolute originality, to ancient pagan forms, to alchemy, to the magic of childhood and to contemporary becoming. Hackatao: from the term “hacker” in its purest sense: “a person who engages in facing intellectual challenges to circumvent or creatively overcome the limitations imposed on him, in all aspects of his life” and the concept of the “Tao ”Which indicates the Group’s field of action, intended as a Living All in continuous transformation.

The first years of their artistic activity (2007 – 2011) are spent in the intricate Milan where they actively participate in the emergence of new artistic currents. Their inner and artistic research pushes them to change their life scenario, a lightning that pushes them to Oltris, a small medieval village nestled in the Carnic Alps.

By placing themselves “out of the world” they perform a radical artistic act that allows them to detach themselves from the Flow, but at the same time actively participating in it in a more conscious and immune way to its too fast flow. From here their art flows onto new, more natural materials, wood and ceramic, reviving them contaminated by their imagination. From 2011 to 2016 they were prolific years marked by various personal and projects in Italy and worldwide. Cosimo Panini chooses their art for the cover of a special edition of the successful Comix agenda for 2016-2017.

Their invention lies in the development of a language that steals from the new media the speed and the synthesis of the trait, the two-dimensionality of information that does not like the lunge by nature, the mechanical flatness of the color spread in zones, but which manages to become an instrument that also knows how to highlight the historical intolerance of a world that marks the step with regard to coexistence and respect for differences. Gianluca Ranzi

A dense visual texture that immediately captures the aesthetic sensitivity of the beholder and expresses the two complementary components of this successful artistic alliance. Julie Kogler

In 2019 the Zanini Arte gallery dedicated a personal exhibition to the duo Hackatao entitled “The Truth is” The inexplicable will be revealed by Francesca Baboni and Stefano Taddei. The exhibition ended in 2020 with a dedicated catalog. There are also numerous the fairs during which the Zanini Arte gallery presented these artists: GrandArt Milan, ArteGenova, Bergamo Arte and only one exihibition at BOOMing Contemporary Art Show in Bologna.