LA MIA AFRICA : EMOZIONE E COSCIENZA
OCTOBER 2022- MARCH , 2023
ON VIEW AT
ARKIOS ITALY
VIA DANTE 14
20121,MILANO
ITALY
Espinasse31 Contemporary Art Gallery in collaboration with Arkios Italia presented a solo show by the artist Alvise Ranieri, “La mia Africa: Emotion and Consciousness”. Under the concept of Art in the office, Espinasse31 aims to take art out of the purely cultural spaces, to bring it closer to the public. The gallery, in collaboration with different entities and institutions, offers a personalized exhibition design service to the different spaces. In this exhibition Ranieri reflects on the fragility and complexity of the African continent. From his own experience in this continent, the artist conceived this series of artworks with the aim of contributing in some way to the birth of awareness of issues to which we cannot remain indifferent.
Alvise Ranieri's Technique is inspired by the tearing of frescoes. Having collected thousands of photographs over years of travel, at some point Alvise Ranieri found himself playing with them, thinking of them as integral elements of the places where he had been. This gave rise to the idea behind his works, to transfer them to canvas by exploiting the same techniques used for tearing frescoes, in which the color is removed with the use of canvases bound to the pictorial layer by means of glues that transfer the painting from the plaster to the canvas itself. A fabric with a very delicate weave , where each thin thread is interwoven with the others in a fragile game of balances . Where it takes very little for a small tear to spread to create irreparable damage . Things that we unfortunately witness every day and that have made Africa a symbol of the battles for life , those that are finally being fought on the front pages of newspapers , after for too long they concerned only a handful of visionary pioneers.
Alvise Ranieri , has touched all this with his own hand for a long time , living it even on his skin . That is why he thought up this series of works . As if they were notes taken so as not to forget the great emotions he experienced but above all the reflections that flowed from them . With the aim of making a contribution , however small , to the birth of a consciousness on issues before which we can no longer afford to remain indifferent.
The works in the series cover a life course of several decades spent in different parts of Africa. Each one of them deals with different moments and situations and refers both to very personal, almost intimate contexts. All the artworks are connected by a common thread, consisting not only of the emotional aspect, but above all of encapsulating themes that impose deep reflections.
In other words, each work aims to represent dream and consciousness, in fact reproducing the very essence of Africa, incapable by its nature of separating suggestion and reality, making them coexist in situations bordering on the unreal.The common thread of reflection is visually represented by colored lines that mark each of the images. Colored lines that cross the images, blades that want to cut, to break the enchantment of the moment to open the vision to other horizons. To not stop at the surface, but to go to the essence of the issues, in some cases tragedies, that the images themselves subtend.
