do ut do 2012

This work by Arlati donated to the Hospice is entitled Blanco (White). It recalls the dazzling white effect created by the thick coats of lime whitewash applied every year to freshen and disinfect cottage walls in the Spanish islands. Layer upon layer of whiteness, cracked and worn by sun and wind, revealing the underlying traces of the past; beneath the surface are other colours, other stories, other landscapes. Lines of shadow and light are created by the sun, remaining fixed in the whiteness, that same whiteness of the walls of Ibiza where the artist has expressed all his energy and poetic passion. A vibrant intense medium, full of strength and radiance, that seems to invite us to slide gently within to become absorbed in the light.

Some of the most characteristic “niche” aspects of Beckley’s work are his watercolours, like this wonderful example donated by Galleria G7. These watercolours are almost like a glimpse of the artist’s work “behind the scenes”: a stolen glimpse of his most personal myths and visions. Certain pieces, like this example, resemble strange rainbows calling us to make a wish to have our dreams come true. We are charged with a subtle form of energy that is strong enough to inspire and excite, but not so strong it will burn. A moment suspended in time – when the artist permits us to take an instant to dwell on our innermost secrets.

First and foremost, the work donated to the Hospice by Bergonzoni introduces a feature that is characteristic of the artist’s complete works. The titles, like theatrical plays, are closely linked with stage representation whether this be scenic or visual. This work is entitled Gli Scissi (Sundered Elements) – a title/artwork which immediately demands that the viewer approach to discover what cannot be seen from a distance: a compact agglomerate of dross, sludge, and industrial dust, authentic finds that are cast in the role of works of art. The matter relates how before it was assembled as an art form, it was first discovered, touched, handled, and finally projected into “another” dimension where questions may be asked but which do not necessarily receive an answer. And here the voyage of Bergonzoni begins: “What happens to all the reject matter discarded from the thoughts or forms that remain? Does it continue to evolve, does it remain, where does it go?”

The work donated by Caccioni to the Hospice is particularly significant: it belongs to the cycle The Lotus Eaters, and so far is composed of more than 160 pieces. The works are inspired by the episode describing the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey, a people who lived on the fruit of lotus plants that provoked loss of memory. This series of works is painted on an unusual base: large theatrical opera backdrops in canvas and paper that the artist has collected for years. This is a material that is already charged with memories, sounds, voices, and gestures; Caccioni uses oil paints (and often pure poppy seed oil) over the old paper, working so that it spreads “naturally” creating a dialogue with the underlying colours which blend and disappear. The resulting images are hypnotic, memories that are blurred in the mists of the mind: flowers, monkeys, formless figures or symbols... images like those in the minds of Homer's Lotus Eaters.

In his work donated to the Hospice, Carboni offers the viewer one of his wonderful shadowed black works: perfect circular shapes – characteristic of the artist’s compositions – intersect with floral elements and other less distinct forms. As always, the main aspect is colour: penetrating, vibrant black that embraces every element in the composition creating perfect harmony, and drawing the viewer’s gaze like flames in a fire. The circle acts as a guide to follow the balance of the composition, almost like a heavenly constellation within our reach... within our view. Well worth seeing was the unusual experimental work set up for MACROwall: Eighties are Back! at the Macro Gallery in Rome (2010), where a Nero ombrato (Shadowed Black, 2004-2008) was placed alongside Carboni’s Prima Prova (First trial), a sculpture he created in 1989, providing a hitherto un-exhibited possibility to compare two works from the artist’s creative history.

The piece donated for the “do ut do” project can best be described in the words of Silvia Evangelisti in an article dedicated to the work of the artist: ... Strong intense colours in vibrant chromatic combinations (...) are the powerful and magnetic core element of Cascella’s work, the source and essence of a life force that bursts forth from the surface to spread through physical space taking on form and volume, surface and depth, and intense dazzling light. Here, yet again, is another vibrant colour to fill the sight and mind, leaping around like an excited child. In fact, in reference to the title of the painting, in this work the artist’s abstractionism takes on a playful note, a cross between Mondrian and Kandinsky, between music and geometry, an element to fill a huge space with the clamour and colour found in a neighbourhood playground.

The work donated by Cecchini and the Galleria Continua is not a photo, or rather, the result is certainly a photo, but in reality the principle is the process within the photo – in other words, the true work of art is what it contains, because it cannot be actually called an object or a sculpture. This model is created in multi-materials later evolving to become a kind of “biological element”. This piece is part of the series Radiances, a term explained by the artist: (Radiances are) “macro photographs of different types of mineral rocks with a particular geometrical, mathematical and chromatic composition, which transform themselves into a kind of liveable space within a physical and poetic sphere. (...) The idea of “radiance” emitted by the mineral which, as a total entity, is transformed into an eremitic rock, is derived from the long history of the forces of nature to which we are subjected and my constant fascination with the infinite complexity of nature”.

Sandro Chia’s works on paper are an important element of his artistic production. The work donated to the Hospice is part of a series that was shown in Faenza in the exhibition Sandro Chia: Ceramics vs Drawings 1:0, and shows one of the poetic aspects of the artist’s work. The rather solid Harlequin-figure “bursts through” the paper exploding into a thousand colours. The subjects chosen by Sandro Chia come from a range of different origins: mythology and reality, classical art and the cutting edge, photography and film-making – but it is for this very reason that they are able to narrate such fluid contemporary situations, constantly subject to transformation or metamorphosis, without mitigating solutions. For further information concerning the works on paper by Sandro Chia: Sandro Chia. Works on Paper, Galleria In Arco, Turin, 1989.

This piece donated by Cuniberti to the Hospice shows the typical world of the artist. The masonite fibre board, the rapid streaking line which we know will not stop at the edge of the board but will race on over the work table, out the window, and beyond, retracing an existence that is both imaginary and “unpredictable” as stated in the title. But to prevent it from escaping – simply stop and listen to the music: it could be an aria from Mozart. Enjoy the thistledown lightness, absorb the colours, grasp the signs not of what seems to be there – but what truly exists. Because, like Osvaldo the strange inhabitant of Stranalandia, Cuniberti creates his own period in time, his own weather, and his own units of measure, flora and fauna: in short – his own universe. In this work the artist opens the door to his world, letting the viewer enter his Pirro island and go surfing between his unpredictable skies and horizons.

The mirror is a common theme in the work of Flavio Favelli. Once again, using strictly recycled material, this work is recomposed using dozens of black tesserae to create a compact but irregular surface. As its title suggests, this is a type of archive or file where each piece represents a recollection or a memory. In fact, it is true that memories are like the icons on desktop arranged in tight rows alongside one another, and to recall them – it takes no more than a click. In recomposing his memory the artist looks into the mirror (and is reflected) in this mirror-keyboard: and at this point it is the memory that poses us the question “How do I look?” while we gaze back at it, safely filed away in the mirror. It is up to us to provide the answer.

A recurring theme in the work by Enzo Fiore is his series of portraits of public figures: actors, artists, and musicians, and his reproductions of famous paintings. All created on a large scale, they make up a truly authentic archive, not only of the images they represent, but above all of the materials he uses. The work donated to the Hospice is the portrait of the famous American artist “Basquiat” whose penetrating gaze is almost disturbing in its intensity. The three-dimensional effect of the materials creates a short-circuit between the extremely “classical” composition of the subject – its central position, the interest focussed on the face, the relationship between the figure and the background – and the portrait’s unique and unexpected materials. Basquiat, an artistic legend, is regenerated through nature, emerging in a new vital dimension within which, as the artist himself states, Enzo Fiore finds his inspiration for creating portraits of visionary reality.

The intrinsic poetry in Gastini’s work is one of the main elements in the piece donated to the Hospice by the artist: deep scratches and a limited colour palette in mother of pearl, black and dark blue, plus slices of slate (sometimes replaced by terracotta) create an interaction between light and shadow. Any graphic elements – smudges and lines – are scarce and seem to float in space on the paper. The painted aspects transfer powerful energy to the material elements, to capture and direct the viewer’s gaze rapidly from one space to another as if leading it to participate in the expanding action of the composition. This work conveys a sense of lightness despite the materiality of its component elements.

The subject of the work donated to the Hospice by Grelo and the Galleria Bongiovanni is one of the artist’s favourites: animals as the main subject, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, and now and then accompanied by human figures. Animals appear everywhere in Grelo’s works. They are enigmatic and impassive: they observe what is happening around them, watch what is happening in the distance, or gaze at the viewer from the canvas as we go about our daily lives. Tigers, monkeys, pumas, dogs, wolves, or – as in this case – lions. Solemn and stately, highly symbolic, often the animals represent the artist himself who dons this disguise in order to observe us better or to confuse the image portrayed, requiring the viewer to look further than the obvious, just like the lion in this piece. Last of all – the title: another of the artist’s characteristics is his ironic twist. The Lion at a movie show gazes at something unknown on the screen with great concentration. But as always with Grelo, it is up to the viewer to discover the hidden irony and identify its meaning.

The title of the work donated to the Hospice by Guerzoni is the same as that of the exhibition held by Marcorossi artecontemporanea, where the artist presented a theme close to his heart: transformations and wear caused by time; traces of the past in a kind of archaeology that cannot be – and in fact has no need to be – restored. Once again the focus is centered on the image of the wall, great narrator of the history of mankind in its most humble form. The scagliola splits and bends under such heavy responsibility, but it manages to transmit its message all the same, maintaining a tight grip on the fragment of metal that holds it together, to bring the countless stories from the past into the present. The almost monochromatic white texture helps the viewer interpret the deep jagged cracks which do not represent wounds but openings that reveal secrets and recollections.

This work is a unique piece created by Paolo Icaro in the well-known studio of Soravia in Albisola. The piece chosen for the Hospice has many of the features typical of the artist’s work: first and foremost, terracotta clay, one of Icaro’s favourite materials, mainly because of its “unfinished” aspect, giving the impression of a rough draft, not totally polished, but where theme and concept are integral and complete. Lastly, the title “Manrovescio” (Back-handed slap) the mark left by those five fingers from a slap on the cheek that many of us remember from childhood, a small allusion that reveals a touch of irony that is often present in Icaro’s work – a gentle but incisive irony that is to be found frequently in the titles he gives his pieces.

The work donated by the artist is part of a project entitled Gli Albi dell’Avventura (Illustrated books on the Adventure), a new phase in his return to photography, and which was on show in 2010 at the Galleria De’ Foscherari in Bologna and in 2011 at the Fondazione Marconi. This exhibition included unique copies of three books describing the project, hand-written and illustrated by the artist in which he tells the story of his incredible and moving artistic adventure in taking the original work “Concetto Spaziale” (“Spatial concept”) by Lucio Fontana to “heal” in the snow. The gallery owner Giorgio Marconi entrusted the artist with the original work by Fontana, giving Jori the possibility to carry out and narrate his project. In his books, Jori wrote: “the slashes by Fontana appeared to me what they had always been: A wound, the wound of modern art! And the snow – what else could the snow have represented other than the perfect healing treatment?”.

The immediate impact of this work donated to the Hospice by the artist lies in its extreme elegance. A magical atmosphere combined with the harmony of pure curving lines communicate the concepts of Maraniello’s work to perfection. A blend of the archaic and strongly contemporary, this sculpture can be viewed differently from all angles. From one side it recalls some enigmatic bird, from another – a musical instrument – or rather, a musical note ... a crotchet or quarter note ... the only note with the constant ring: do, do, do, do ut do.

Cut, broken, cracked even in its wonderfully classic purity. Here is the Decurion that Mitoraj donated to the Hospice. All the hallmarks of the great artist’s work are impressed in this sculpture: myth, the classical world, western civilization, conceived in a totally idiosyncratic way. As C. P. Latella says (caffeeuropa.it) “it seems like a surgical operation, or rather, an autopsy, to isolate the most important factor. ”Nothing could be truer. Before the work of Mitoraj there is never any need to think of contamination or copies; the work is not copied or remade. The work was born right here in the contemporary world, and here, in the contemporary world, it is sectioned and re-presented. In the Decurion’s “empty” eye we find our souls again, our models, our philosophies. And our memory itself is called upon to piece together the missing pieces of these sculptures: through enchantment, we realize that ultimately it comes to us naturally. Because they are part of us.

“... is a snapshot. It is a snapshot of the gaps between my ideas and the things I make because of them. It is a snapshot of the cut between knowing and being. It is my attempt to jump the widening gaps between the world and the works I make to skew it. It is a snapshot of crossings attempted; spans holding and collapsing. It is a snapshot of repetitive failure; of ropes thrown but not necessarily caught. It is a snapshot of how bridges fail and why they are rebuilt to fail again.”“Dreams change”, he writes “I am no longer an anthropologist. That surprises me; an important part of my life has gone without my realizing it. Anthropology was my friend, my serious companion. Anthropology was what took me out of myself, stretched me, and kept me seeing. It opened the world for me. Not just the geographical world, but the actual world of gaps and edges, of contradiction and paradox and constant change. Anthropology destroyed the certainty of my upbringing; it taught me to play with difference. It taught me to dance. And anthropology’s dance was thought itself; its music was ambiguity: the rhythm of clarity slipping way. Anthropology gave me the gift of sliding thought.”

This work donated to the Hospice is introduced by the title which the artist considers an integral part of the work itself, to the point of adding a handwritten title on the reverse side. SciàMano is one of a series of those works where the extreme precision in creative technique demonstrates Ontani’s enormous talent. A lenticular hologram attracts the gaze of the viewer who then participates directly in the actual transformation action. The work changes constantly before our eyes in a visual metamorphosis that actually occurs and is not simply imagined. As well as the artist, the other subject of the piece is the Hand of Fatima, the hand that encloses an eye, apotropaic symbol in many cultures, an amulet to ward off evil that increases the capacity to see and act. A wonderful invocation by the monarch-shaman-artist for the do ut do project and for mankind as a whole.

One of the unquestioned protagonists among contemporary Italian artists and sculptors today is Mimmo Paladino. The work the artist has donated to the Hospice holds all the inherent visual impact that makes Paladino’s work immediately recognisable: this small figure encloses an enigma, almost “losing” its identity in its fusion between head and helmet. Paladino’s piece is extremely pictorial – almost ethereal; it seems weightless and the pose of the head itself adds to this impression of levity. The mysteries of existence are enclosed untouched within this mask, as if for centuries.

The apartment is one of a series of images realised in the home of the French writer Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues. After the death of the author and his wife, Sylvie, the apartment was left intact. The image represents the original traces left on the wall by paintings hung there. These photos, printed in medium and large format, were taken during the four years in which Francesco Patriarca lived in the apartment. He also wrote a book on this experiment entitled The apartment by F. Patriarca, Les Editions Filigranes, Paris, 2004.

The work donated to the Hospice by Petracchi – Annunciation – is one of great impact. Many of the most familiar aspects of the artist’s work are present in this piece: a very refined elegant composition, mixed materiality, strong symbolism, and a spare, minimalist composition comprised of only a few elements that force the viewer to search for the meaning within his own personal symbolic code. We will attempt to interpret the piece: the radiating white background represents the sacred wind heralding the arrival of the Angel in the presence of the Virgin who is also drawn into the surge of light, immediately immersed in the role that awaits her. An ancient prayer is impressed on her mind and lilies, the quintessential Christian symbol of purity, innocence and virginity assume the main role in the work as the central element, beginning the infinite route forward towards hope for all mankind.

The piece donated to the Hospice is a study for a great work: more precisely, a monumental video installation, from the summer of 2012, for the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. For some time now, this place has hosted events featuring monumental works of contemporary art that converse with the marvellous architecture of Ancient Greece. Here Plessi gives us a stone monolith within which we imagine a virtual image. As the artist himself writes about the project, it is “Not Plessi but Plessi’s archetypes” that seek that “Soul of the material” often present in the artist’s research, a soul that leads him to interact profoundly with monuments, architecture, and great artists of the past, in a witness’s ideal transition between history and contemporaneity.

The work donated by Pozzati to the Hospice is part of his De-Positions series from 2006 in which he places the “corpse” in an unexpected location: a “different” location where it is laid in different “positions” as if removed from its deliberately theatrical effect. In these works Pozzati suspends the instant of irony and satire, calling the viewer to spend a moment of reflection, asking him to try to go further than a time when, as the artist states: “we were all descended or taken down by the slaughter of the latest trends, by the idea of art as art, by the critics’ concept of art, rampant standardisation, perhaps even by history”. With his unmistakeable style, Pozzati offers us this very refined multi-media collage where the person taken down (from the cross)... is the artist.

This work, donated by the Galleria De’ Foscherari, is one of the pieces from Sartelli’s final period. These final works seem to mark a new approach by the artist: an explosion of nature with fragments scattered on the surface, almost like an entire universe flattened onto a sheet of paper, pierced by meteorites as they travel towards the unknown. In this piece the artist has scratched, scraped, and pierced the paper over and over again, not simply to create a third dimension but one that is far deeper than that to which we are normally accustomed. Countless openings into an infinite universe that each of us longs to see.

In this work donated to the Hospice, a candle burns slowly in front of a tiny window, like that of a monk’s cell inside a monastery where all is silent and communication occurs through signs and symbols. A voiceless dialogue with the viewer in which the memento mori of the candle flame which sooner or later will die, is in complete contrast with the photo of the candle itself: if on one hand the photo is a sign of eternity – in fact the term “immortalise” is commonly used in photography – on the other hand the candle is a symbol of transience par excellence. But the question remains: which of the two will prevail?

The work donated to the Hospice by Sissi was initially part of a large display presented at Palazzo Crepadonna in Belluno at an exhibition for Artist of the Year (2005). The work designed for that first exhibition has grown and evolved over the years: initially it formed a type of wall, while now Macchie (Stains) is composed of dozens of panels of paper towels laid over one another, painted with coloured inks, and stitched together on a fabric backing. Once again, Sissi has demonstrated her manual dexterity creating yet another masterpiece, where sheets of paper appear to be the corolla of exotic flowers; the entire composition seems to represent a wonderful TV screen that shows nothing but glorious colour. Here is yet another example of the artist’s wonderful creative skills in poetic works that have no beginning and no end. An artist who is able to express herself in infinite ways to create art forms that are all-embracing and in harmony with all the senses.

This superb still life, one of the artist’s favourite subjects, represents a bowl of prickly pears. But it represents far more. As the title states, Guardando a Sud, (Looking South) within this painting – and the term within is not chosen lightly – is the quintessence of all that is southern Italy: a region full of life, of abundance, of strong flavours and searing midday sun. Perfect harmony where the light seems to glow from within every substance, defining that plasticity and constant optical discovery described by Federico Zeri.