"... And so we went out to see the stars again" is the last verse of Hell of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. After painstakingly crossing the "natural burella" that connects Hell to the beach of the Antipurgatory, Dante and Virgil at the end contemplate the starry night sky of the other hemisphere: it is an omen of the new path of light and hope after the previous darkness , "as pure happiness of the gaze".
(Bianca Garavelli, in D. Alighieri, Inferno, Milan, Bompiani, 1993, p. 501)
The Flat - Massimo Carasi Gallery reopens its doors to the public, after the protracted closure due to COVID-19, with a group show that looks forward to a restart of the activities.
Convinced that the physical space of the gallery will resist the broadsides of innovations and will remain an essential meeting point to share with the public, we recognize that no man/woman is an island. Art, in all its disciplines, remains the most enthralling mystery and witnessing its representations will simply remain of Vital importance.
The artworks in this show are like the stars, to which Dante refers to and they illuminate a very dark path. So for the end of the season program, we have chosen a roundup of works that try to shape the physiognomy of contemporary human beings with their passions and obsessions, between damnation and holiness, bewilderment and hope. These are words that refer to woman/man but do not really portray them with their aspects. Instead, these “fragments” evoke human’s presence by interpreting the fetishes that they left behind as traces.
These artists, use new and traditional media, adopting the most varied techniques to grasp their dimension with simple, or sometimes, categorical gestures.
Painting, botanical scanning, installation, use of electronic parts, ready-made reinterpreted, explore the space from the dark towards a rediscovered way out.