Had he been born in 16th century Italy, we would call Aidan Amore a Renaissance Man. However, the Paris-based artist belongs to the last Millenials born in Switzerland before 2000. So one must combine hashtags to try and pin down a proteiform #ActorPerformer, #ArtistCreator and #SingerSongwriter, whose name has started emerging in popular cultural press like Les Inrockuptibles. In reality Amore revels in challenging clear-cut labels by calling himself a cre a c t o r, on a mission to infiltrate mainstream media culture in an attempt to further share an interest taken into the vulgarisation of the most recent scientific data questioning the “modernity” of a world in the face of a global climate emergency. Have we seemingly reached a limit, or an end maybe… ? If it is true in fact that modernity could have ever existed (see: Bruno Latour).
Whilst it seems that seeking otherworldly experiences such as in the newly expanding metaverse or out in space represent the pinacle of Humanity’s modern preoccupation, Amore’s latest award-winning projects appear to be very much preoccupied with the complete opposite gravitational force. Winner of the ASVOFF15 People’s Choice award delivered by Diane Pernet in partnership with the FNL Network after competing in the Official Selection of the 15th edition of A SHADED VIEW ON FASHION FILM presided by Jay-Jay Johanson, Amore’s project Life on Mars : Are We for Real ? has attempted to bring up the discussion of how can culture set a focus on raising awareness about the importance of educating ourselves on how to land at last on “the critical zone”, namely: “Earth’s permeable near-surface layer, from the tops of the trees to the bottom of the groundwater. It is a living, breathing, constantly evolving boundary layer where rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms interact. These complex interactions regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources, including our food production and water quality.” (see: US National Science Foundation)
It is now in close partnership with the independent producer Redgun and experimental creation label Kaitsauka® that Amore pursues transdisciplinary endeavours around this theme with the current project FOOLvsWORLD, joined in his enterprise by music producers, fashion designers, 3D animators, web developers, makeup artists, visual artists and graphic designers, now all working towards the release of another original multimedia piece putting into music Marina Abramovic‘s manifesto for Unconditional Love. The piece set to premier at the 16th edition of A SHADED VIEW ON FASHION FILM presided by Michèle Lamy shall be weaving elements of film, music & art touching on the question of the importance of effective change towards new functioning systems which won’t fail the Youth of today and tomorrow.
Amore’s punk-tempered eclecticism tinged with iconoclasm traces back to a middle-class upbringing by an Italian mother and a Swiss German father, in the rather conservative Protestant country of French Switzerland. Though it could be easy never to leave the comfort of a privileged situation, Amore remains true to the desire of becoming a citizen of the world like his paternal grandfather Damaro was, as a painter and sculptor who travelled across the globe to share the same circles as some of his eminent contemporaries such as Zao Wou Ki, Zoran Mušič, as well as Alberto Giacometti, only to name a few.
Therefore, the arts become Amore’s favoured disciplines where to escape a dreary experience of thirteen years inside the Swiss public schooling system, although it actively contributes to building the strong character allowing him to follow a journey off beaten tracks. So he mostly draws and plays the piano until taking a serious interest in theatre from the beginning of his teenage years.
In 2007, he integrates a drama school in Lausanne originally known as, École de Théâtre Diggelmann, still directed then by its founder Gérard Diggelmann who nurtures Amore’s drive for drama. Upon graduating from the public art high school Gymnase Auguste-Piccard in 2013, Amore follows his love of risk and voluntarily deviates from the all-laid-out path towards traditional academic studies by deciding to continue his education as a self-taught honing his craft through hands-on experience.
Blessed with luck, he lands his first professional acting jobs on stage and on screen both in 2014. He stars as ‘Joe’ the rebellious teenage son of popular actress, Claude-Inga Barbey, and respected actor, Pierre Banderet, in the first European production of the play Fury, written by Australian playwright Joanna Murray Smith. He then appears on screen next to Harry Potter saga’s actor, Sean Biggerstaff, in the award-winning sci-fi short, Enora.
Amore then resolves to deepen his self-taught education behind the camera by challenging himself through the production of his first professional short film, The Birth of Venus (password: trinitas), which he goes on co-directing with Georgian artist, Melano Sokhadze, to whom he proposes to star as the main character of a visual poem nurtured by feminist writings, such as The Will to Change by Bell Hooks.
The following year marks Amore’s proud drop-out from New School University’s prestigious drama program, despite being granted a merit-scholarship to support him throughout a four-year bachelor of fine arts in New York City. Judging the training dissatisfactory, he is fast at leaving academic prestige behind to come back to perfecting his craft through substantial hands-on experience.
Fast at making up for his delusion, Amore undertakes to audition in Paris in 2016 to integrate the professional acting workshops of New-York expatriate, life-time member of the Actors Studio, and method acting master, Jack Waltzer, who is one of the last direct descendent in the lineage of illustrious pioneers who have contributed to the transmission of the Stanislavski system, counting amongst them: Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Robert Lewis, Uta Hagen, as well as Elia Kazan, all with whom Waltzer trained, or personally assisted for years. In 2017, Amore therefore decides to settle in the French capital to follow Jack Waltzer’s teachings full-time, due to the master’s honourably advanced age. He eventually becomes a regular French and English interpreter-translator in Waltzer’s workshops, where he meets and befriends the songstress, Anne Issermann, before sharing a romance.
Though their close friendship still lasts to this day, it’s during their two year love story that the French lady occupies a significant role as Amore’s benefactor, by introducing him to some influential figures of Paris’s artistic scene. She notably introduces him to her aunt, the fashion photographer Dominique Issermann, who in turn recommends him personally to the eccentric stage director, Yves-Noël Genod.
Begins then a prolific collaboration of three years between Genod and Amore, which propels him as the lead of three critically praised interdisciplinary pieces to hit the underground scene, namely: La Beauté Contemporaine, created for the Festival Étrange Cargo at La Ménagerie de Verre, Fabrique de Star presented at the Arsenic Lausanne, and most importantly a two-hour and a half post-modernist soliloquy based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet presented for the 20th anniversary of the Parisian festival, Artdanthé, in which Amore embodies not only ‘Hamlet’ but all the other characters of the eponymous play. Filmmakers Isabelle Ingold and Vivianne Perelmuter capture a one-hour cinematic reduction of Amore’s performance named, Hamlet Poem Unlimited, that the French cultural press unanimously praise.
Following this success, talent agent, Maëlle Venin, offers Amore the opportunity of international representation through, Venin Agency, with whom he now garners regular top rank auditions for a variety of projects encompassing blockbuster movies and series, produced and distributed by companies such as Netflix, Disney+, or Warner Bros. as well as esteemed indies and arthouse productions.
(text written by Anam Emprunte, 2024)
