Piero 1/2Botta, RITRATTO DI SALUME CON CRITICO D’ARTE (SALAMI PORTRAIT WITH ART CRITIC)
A painting that is a performance. The portrait of the young critic Elia Gaetano was just the pictorial outcome of an action carried out in Edolo a few days before the inauguration and attested by the shot reproduced here. Gaetano blended into the public life of the small town in the Camonica Valley, attending a concert, getting to know the personalities and places of the town, until he earned the honour of a public portrait in a dilapidated private house. Ironically framed by an old curtain, the effigy was played down by the presence of a salami: a tangible sign placed to mock the futile rituals of contemporary art and bring the philosophical ambitions of criticism back to the concreteness of life, relationships and affections.
