THE VERANDA
Three artists of very different styles and generations face each other in one of the most magical spaces of Casa Testori. At this point, the question of corruption becomes internal to art, with an energy all its own that attacks the works from within. This is the message we seem to get from the two ceramic vase-shaped sculptures by Alessandro Roma. One is collapsing upon itself, the other is intended to hold flowers which are nevertheless unable to grow there. The contrast between the original desire for beauty intrinsic to such works, and a drastically opposite process, appears as a lyrically emblematic evolution. Francesco Fossati makes reference, with his language perennially bordering upon the probable, to another inevitable aspect of reality. Artists themselves may often become a link in the perverse chain of corruption. Fossati’s label does not aim to tell a truth, but to unmask the ever-present risk of hypocrisy. We can create correct messages, while at the same time setting up perverse mechanisms as a result of our marketing decisions. A beautiful statue may become the tool of drug traffickers. The fact that it remains beautiful is a disturbing and thought-provoking problem. Alessandro Verdi, lastly, offers two very recent works, one of which was specifically conceived as part of the “art AGAINST corruption” project. The small human figure moving in a vacuum is the prototype, in fact, of the paintings on the columns of the Sala Testori at the Teatro Franco Parenti of Milan, which hosted the meeting that launched the project. In the second work, the small figure is seen against a vast cosmos, painted with intense blue pigment.
