THE CONTINUITY OF BECOMING

by Andrea Pagnez
Andrea Pagnez / Vetro

 

“There are doubtless fears of various types associated with going beyond certain taboos when we are dealing with themes such as spirituality, religion, the area of the soul. It is the fear of losing control. And yet it is only when you abandon your self-control that you arrive at new forms of vision. In fact, when fear of the unknown makes room for confidence, then change and innovation are possible.”
 


In an era such as our own, where we are constantly faced with infinite transitions, we are often tempted to wonder if it isn’t possible to codify the different phenomenologies of contemporary art in a sort of cinematic ritual that would make it comprehensible in its totality, in its unitary globality.

If we start with the concept that all art (and not only art) is matter, then it is only natural to reflect on whether it is right to bring matter back to a level that transmits pure energy. All this derives from the fact that, alongside the external world, there is also an interior world.  As there are always two sides to every coin, we would therefore have find the right, but certain, balance. And man, dealing with art, has, as it were, the possibility to re-design his own role, along with his limits and boundaries.

The meaning of all this lies in the fact that art, metaphorically, reveals itself as a travel companion able to accompany us towards new dimensions of life. It asks us questions about which and how many resources we are harbouring, about what we are able to mobilise in order to reach new horizons. If we want to undertake this journey, we need bridges. And Art is one of these: it allows us to get to the other side, it leads us back to a situation which is in any case consubstantial with man. A situation in which thought begins once again to logically restructure a new grammar and language. New in the sense of re-found.
 
All contemporary art, in fact, is nothing other than a reflection of the idea or philosophy of a transversal, complex and at times even incomprehensible (if superficially interrogated) cultural era. This is why it seems ever more willing to provide innovative spatial dimensions, new temporal dynamics. It attempts to represent the interior world of man. It simulates the feelings, sensations, emotions that he would be experiencing if he were faced with his own thoughts and wanted to completely traverse these thoughts.

 

A work of art is thus the end result of a specific process – possessing a specific form and aesthetic, it serves no purpose except that of channelling a very specific form of energy. It is always a sort of communicative performance. It allows man to plumb his own conscience and to void it. In fact, it is only within empty spaces that energy is able to unleash its own creative force. Consequently, by asking how to develop this energy in the face of the complexity of the world, questioning the need for free mental space, man is experiencing a journey where reality and the virtual go hand in hand: two dimensions which are no longer disjoined, in that the virtual is nothing other than an “as-if” reality.
 
Now, the contents aspect of any work of art lie in the presupposition that the artist is in fact able to explain the most concealed of man’s movements and desires. Once this clarity has been acquired, the artist can purposefully use the talent he has been given. His raw material will always be the conscious awareness of his own energy, his mental resources. His aim will therefore be to develop forms where his energy can be liberated and from which, at the same time, he will receive new energy. In fact, the artist is nothing other than someone who gives form to something. He shapes new images for values and then speaks of form once again. His is a continuous process as he is constantly interrogating himself on what is really important in his life. Regardless of the variety and multiplicity of his products (whether they are beautiful, ugly, weak, strong, sensual, cold), he none the less follows an extremely progressive path: energy always needs direction, otherwise it is lost. If the artist didn’t have any energy, he would not be able to define any form for himself, that is no behavioural form, and he would thus lose his own energy. All of this, however, provided he doesn’t undertake this as an act of will; if he did, then he would inevitably sacrifice his own happiness.
 
Considering what we have just said, this volume would therefore like to present and promote the understanding of just how important it is to go from an artist’s notoriety to the importance of his work, in an attempt to bring together different experiences within a possible product level, trying to create a tangible, and an equally subtle and ineffable, link between these.
 
If art is put forward as the locus of communication, then it is also the locus of self-reflection, in that everything is inevitably related to everything and everyone.

Andrea Pagnez,  curator, writer, ARTIST