Norman Mine

Norman Mine, an Italian artist based in London, explores the psychological impact of everyday life through performance art, focusing on how we construct personas shaped by a sense of belonging.

 

His continual shift between personas is a critical reflection on the multifaceted roles artists today must embrace, navigating between creation, self-promotion, and social engagement.

 

Born as Francesco Benenato in Naples, Mine operates through two fictional personas: Norman Mine, the visual artist, and Dino Desica, the ambitious actor. These personas allow him to explore self-reinvention, highlighting how inclusion and exclusion shape our evolving identities.

 

Mine’s DIY approach rejects perfection, offering a playful alternative to the polished, commercialized art world. By embracing imperfection, he critiques social structures, fostering creative practices that defy conventional norms.

 

Inspired by Italian Neorealism, his work turns the mundane into the extraordinary, blending reality with imagination to reflect human relationships, trauma, and ambition.

 

Through Norman Mine’s collaborative projects and Dino Desica’s self-obsession, Mine examines societal pressures and the quest for connection, asking: “How can we embrace external diversity if we don’t first embrace the contradictions within ourselves?”