Jago in Taormina: Whoopi Goldberg and David who challenge the myth (and social networks)

To admire David, The last work of Jago At the Antico Theater in Taormina, you have to climb to the top of the stands of the Greek-Roman theater, along it entirely. It is the central piece of the personal exhibition Sculpted gestureswhich can be visited until May 3, 2026, where three marble works are also placed – Animal imprint (2012), Memory (2015) e Prison (2016) – who dialogue with archaeological finds in an intertwining between history and contemporaneity.

The work, in golden bronze and almost two meters high, stands out against the background of the Ionian Sea and Etna as if it had always belonged to that millennial landscape.

Jacopo Cardillo, aka Jagowears an essential total black; On the left wrist, next to the faith, it brings a golden clock with a black strap too. He smiles, then drops a phrase, of those who do not go unnoticed: «I’m sculpting the portrait of Whoopi Goldberg. It will be a very long job, which I believe will take years ».

The interview with Jago

Why exactly her?
«With Whoopi Goldberg we recognized ourselves. We have in common the luck of being surrounded by better people than us. A real dialogue was born with her, which led me to think of a portrait. It will not be a traditional portrait: she interprets herself, but through a mythological story ».

What material will it be?
“Marble. It is a complex work. I still don’t know how to say when it is revealed: we are evaluating the most suitable museums to welcome it. But I will not show it until it is publicly exposed. This time the Making of will not be revealed until the end ».

The museum institutions that refined will be Italian or of other parts of the world?
“Everywhere. The place always participates in the story of the work, it is never just an aseptic container. On the one hand, the courage of those who manage, which becomes an active part of the operation is needed. On the other hand, the characteristic of the institution must be assessed: if it does not suit, or if the work is not suitable for that context, you must have the courage to say that it is not the right choice “.

Was it WHOOPI Goldberg who asked to be represented as a mythological figure? Or was she who proposed it?
“I started his portrait in New York. And what is a portrait? To do it really you have to know the person. Otherwise you risk building only a superficial image, inserting your elements to fill the voids. I had to deepen through conversations, exchanges, friendship, to understand how to translate and synthesize its history into an image. Thus was born an idea, which I shared and that she welcomed enthusiastically. During the portrait phases he said to me: “For the first time I really see myself for what they are”. We are used to seeing our photographic image, reflected. But when you see yourself through the emotional filter of another, your image changes, it becomes something else. You recognize ourselves in a new way. Perhaps, this time, it is not she who plays the character, but the character he plays. We will understand it when the work is revealed, and it will be Whoopi Goldberg herself to talk about it ».

Returning to the exhibition, you brought four different works to Taormina: why did he choose to relate these sculptures?
«This exhibition represents two opposite moments of my life: the beginning and the end, understood as the present which is always a new beginning. There are the stones of the Serra river – fragments of marble that descends from the Carrara quarries at the foot of the Mount Altissima – which I hidden as a boy, now exhibited next to the finds of the theater. This made me remember that memory is precious, it must be kept, it is a heritage. It makes you think of the family, the origins. There is a sense of gratitude that accompanies you. And then there is the Davidan image that wants to be silent, in a context that has much more to say, much older. The operation wanted to be this: to do something that could disappear in the wonder of a context that has a history longer than us. During the layout I noticed that some tourists exchanged it for a restoration. It was a compliment: it means that he merged with the place. I didn’t want to shout “here I am, look at me”, but enter the tip of feet ».

About the censorship for the nudity of his David by Meta: he expected him?
“Today you can expect everything. We live in a world where, while we are here to speak, bombs fall from another side. This should make us reflect on the privilege we have in sharing a peaceful moment. We are in the era of communication: yet we moved away from the truth of direct confrontation. We even entrusted supervision and censorship to artificial intelligence: an algorithm does not distinguish a real nipple from a marble one. So, in its own way, I interpreted it as a compliment: it means that sculpture is realistic.
Then there are other reading plans, of course. But censorship tells a lot about the historical period in which we live and I believe that we must insist on freedom of expression, unbalanced and take a position ».

Before arriving in Taormina, the statue David took around the world on the Amerigo Vespucci school ship of the Navy. How did it go?
«I took an invitation and I absolutely could not give up this opportunity. Imagine a work that travels around the world and is brought everywhere is a unique opportunity. First of all because you participate, even if I could not be present in all stages at relief. But they learn wonderful things, especially if you observe the reactions of people in different places. And what’s more precious than eating, or seeing secretly, reactions to your work? As an author, I never do it, but in that context I wanted to see them ».

You transformed David into a woman. But did we really need yet another naked female body, in a history of art that is already full?
“It was needed to me. And then most of the answer to your question is entrusted to the final result. Maybe they can serve nudes because they allow you to observe and discuss the topic in new ways, with new perspectives. Then the others will judge whether it was needed or not. It’s like wondering: do you need another interview? Do you need another exhibition? Who knows. But surely it serves those who do them. I had a necessity: to satisfy the need to see an image made to which I had given confidence in my head ».

They called it “an incredible consent industry, which rests on technical ability and communication, but which has chosen the path of easy consumption”. What does it answer?
«The first three things seem interesting to me. The value of consent is important, the technique – the Téchne – Etymologically means Art of doing. If we want to go to the root of things, that is a value. As for sharing on social media, well, it is a way I have to talk to people. If you go to the origin, there is a boy who begins by not being able to access the institutional art system. A system in which you had to entrust yourself to the merchant, who did his job and to whom you had to please. I had to find a different way to survive, compared to the possibilities I had. And I found it in social networks ».

The online content is said to remain forever, but marble is also eternal. In your opinion, what will remain more to posterity: your sculptures or their videos that have become viral?
«I hope the marbles. I guess, if tomorrow the world turned off, a hand, a foot, a child, a sculpted mother, would emerge between the rubble. I will no longer be there, but I console me to know that my works will be able to survive me. The communication, on the other hand, is precious immediately: it can break barriers and amplify messages. It depends on the use that makes it. But it can also be a limit: today the system is so enrolled that creating a direct channel to send a good message is complicated ».

Criticism often accuses her of looking for only consent, followers and red rugs and there is a docu-film on her name that is called Jago The Rockstar. Isn’t it that in the end she also plays with this social image, always in the middle of the VIPs?
«On the document of the docu-film I have to clarify: Rockstar The production chose it, not me! It is a game of words on the “rock”. Let’s lie down! When I watch that movie, I see a mirror: a reflection of what I was in a moment of my life. It helps me to understand me better, and it is useful. And the VIPs? I don’t even know what it means. For me the VIPs are Antonio, Giovanni and Francesco, who made the welds to the work. Without them – the real Important person – The work would have fallen with a breath of wind. For me they are the top level. Everything else matters little. The positioning, in my eyes, does not depend on how swallowing the wallet is, but on whom you are as a person ».