Their reassured face, the thick, rounded shapes, to strongly support traditional weapons, have nothing to do with men who, with their clay, bronze or marble bustes, let go from the walls of Palazzo Merulana, as if they lost the case, in a state of eternal battle.
From March 29 to July 6 Matteo Pugliese, guest of Palazzo Merulana, the home of the Elena and Claudio Cerasi Foundation, managed and strengthened by CoopCulture, the audience leads in a space of the soul through a powerful exhibition reminded of the eternal conflict between immanence and mind.
Published by Carmen Sabbatini and made with the patronage of Roma Capital and with the contribution of Zurich Bank, official sponsor, the staff of the Milanese sculptor, entitled In your hands. Gesture, art, matterAlthough outside the parts of the exhibition, with the graceful form of “a matter of trust” influences. This powerful aluminum athlete has stopped fighting and only trusts in itself to fully trust someone behind his shoulders. For him, the exit of the wall stops a solo physical effort to become an act of trust towards someone else, in whose hands entrust the momentum.
Pugliese invites you to think about the game that each of us will have made at least once if a child who drops himself backwards, trusting the friend who would have supported him.
Matteo Pugliese, in your handsSet -Up at Palazzo Merulana | Photo: © Samantha de Martin for Arte.it
It is a thread that returns the memory in this exhibition, it is the same path that the path of ScarabCorrers of joy, symbols of transformation, immortality, rebirth. In this Apulian series he brings a tribute to his childhood, when, as the curator explains, “at sea he enjoyed coloring the Scarab shield and then let them go, while everyone was wondering who had deposited such beautiful colors on their back”. And here they are the vibrant colors of that carefree youth experiment, deposited on the brilliant silhouettes of these kepts of the joy that bring the lightness of objects dear to the artist. A tooth, a stamp, a Goliath, the shape of a soldier, the flower of the Ginestra that survives the dedication of the lava.
Suddenly, in this articulated universe of about fifty “appearances” divided into four sections that analyze the decisive relationship between holiness and immanence, are the only two female figures here. The first, Eva, is a blow in the stomach. Just like the other figures in this section, entitled Extra Moenia, Eva (Final violence and aggression) is a broken heroine, illegible by the violence of those who destroy and then evoke the silence, whereby the sculptor pays attention to the phenomenon of violence against women. Nice video in the room with the origin and dramatic result of this work conceived in clay and converted into marble. Without drawing, like indeed all the works of Matteo Pugliese, without sketch, only the case and its gesture.
Matteo Pugliese, in your hands, set up in Palazzo Merulana | Photo: © Samantha de Martin for Arte.it
The other woman is The Big Mother, PachamamaIn Quechua “Mother Earth”, a tribute to walnut wood to the native peoples of the Andes where it is a symbol of fertility. Finally, the eye reaches the great work that gives the title to the path, In your handsA large installation inspired by Cenacle By Leonardo da Vinci, kept in Santa Maria Delle Grazie in Milan.
“In the jubilee year – Giorgio Albertini – Pugliese writes to us that the numinal lives in the details of our daily existence, in the cracks of our reality”.
Paola Centanni, director of Palazzo Merulana, also underlines the link between the Pugliese exhibition and the current anniversary year. “We liked that the Jubilee or Hope had an artist who confronted the saint in the round of the holiness of art and man, and improve the most contemporary aspect of the Cerasi collection. The dedication of the Cerasi family continues to transform the building into a living room, but into a place of welcome and inclusion.”
On the other hand, the Milanese sculptor in Palazzo Merulana is home, after he has thrown in the big belly of the permanent collection of the Elena and Claudio Cerasi Foundation, the seed that has now gave birth to this exhibition, in the big belly of the Elena and Claudio Cerasi foundation. It is GravitasSculpture that has become iconic, part of the Cerasi collection, one of the most required by visitors.
“Dad had the taste of beauty and fed a certain falling in love with the pieces of contemporary art. As a child he invited us to touch the works,” Alessandra Cerasi recalls.
Matteo Pugliese, in your hands, set up in Palazzo Merulana | Photo: © Samantha de Martin for Arte.it
Even the visitor would be touched by the gesture of the artist, that issue that embodies the ambition of man for a higher dimension, as if he wants to seek comfort in the visionary power of sculpture.
At the end, at the end of the exhibition, the efforts of the materials, their relationship that overtakes far over time, the contribution of the clay, the ceramic support, the wood, the bronze, participating in the story of man, such as when they are the tragedy of the desperate of the desperate of the RapidAnother work that happened to be born in the artist’s study.
For the public, the only thing that remains to listen is to retreat a journey that comes from far away, but that flows to the future with the power of weapons, hands, knees extrapolated from the subject by the miracle of the artist gesture.
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