50 artists on constant rotation in the east of Rome makes for an inspired new exhibition
Fear Of Others
February 21
The curator and art dealer Carlo Pratis talks about his new ambitious exibhition
- Text by Valerio Mannucci
Guest feature by Cecilia Musmeci
A face to face between an alumnus and a master: Sergio Ragalzi and Paolo Grassino offer their personal representation of fear through the exhibition "Fear of Others" at the Sala Santa Rita. The space that hosts the exposition is a multifunctional place, created in the deconsecrated church of St. Rita of Cascia, placed few steps from Piazza Venezia and the Teatro Marcello, right in the historical heart of Rome. The curator and art dealer Carlo Pratis, who manages the Rome based contemporary art gallery Delloro, reveals the connection that weaves the art works to the exhibition space.
Satellite Voices: Which reasons lead you to choose the Sala Santa Rita to host "Fear Of Others"?
Carlo Pratis: For those who live in Rome, the church is an absolutely familiar place, but has still something untouched. I found it very extraordinary to use a Baroque church like St. Rita da Cascia and being able to subvert this space hrough the work of two of my favorites artists.
SV: How do you think that the art works of Grassino and Ragalzi will work in this space?
Carlo PRatis: Absolutely filling it... The original function of the location is preserved, but the art works give a new and unexpected meaning to the place.
SV: How did the idea of a juxtaposition between these two great Turin artists came?
Carlo Pratis: The idea was to create not just a contrast between two different ways of expression, painting and sculpture, but also to trigger a short circuit between two generations who have breathed the same Turin air, only in different times. Sergio Ragalzi and Paolo Grassino give two interpretation of one of the most primitive and ancestral feeling.
The inescapable destiny is filtered by Ragalzi in the five large canvases belonging to the cycle of paintings "Scimmie", by representing a passing horror depicted on the animals' faces when they reach the acknowledgement: the certainly of death. The monkey becomes human and feels the terror inspired by his own new rational consciousness.
Grassino, on the other hand, reflects upon the instability of the constantly changing today's society and the pressing need to throw light on a dark future. He expressed this idea through dozens of light bulbs that cross a concrete sculpture of a men, lightening a symbolic path in front of his feet.
A silent dialogue starts between the art works, an exchange in which the unavoidable clashes with the uncertain, resulting in an original harmonic dissonance.
Sala Santa Rita @
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