Ignazio Mortellaro. Apar

The “' Apar” project was created to present a selection of works by Ignazio Mortellaro - for his first solo exhibition in Palermo - in the form of a three-dimensional atlas, recreated in the gallery and divided into a number of areas in which the works have been installed. The different parts of this atlas maintain a continuous dialogue with each other and have evocative titles, some of which have been previously used by the artist for his works:Tools, Dark Objects from Deep Space, Moons, Stars and Constellations, Earth and Suns. The reference is always continuous between the different works, because the overall design is that of a cosmogony, where everything is in flux and, in fact, the latest works by the artist - sunspots represented in “Perfectibilité” - might also seem remote islands in the sea and open an abyss of continuous connections, an endless game of mise en abyme.

This idea was born reconsidering the body of work carried out in recent years by Ignazio Mortellaro, with the intent of organizing them according to a personal mapping and presenting them to the public as a narrative cycle that runs through the artist's production from 2010 to the present. A geography that defines an area, but also a compass that directs the artist within his own research.

On display are over thirty works in which the scientific method of Ignazio Mortellaro, through many different media, from sculpture to installation, from photography to video, expressed in a multi-faceted practice that takes different forms, always preferring materials such as concrete, metal, glass, paper and the two colours par excellence, white and black. Furthermore, a selection of electronic music vinyls, designed by the artist with the label Oblivious Artefacts, will be available to listen to for the whole duration of the exhibition.

The circular path of the show starts with gauges and compasses, objets trouves reassembled in geometric harmony within the artwork. Some of their titles reveal the ambiguity of their role as “Strumenti per il Fallimento” (NT: tools for failure), declaring " the impossibility of a synthesis between the space we are and that we inhabit, in spite of the necessary daily practice of measurement", says the artist. At the centre of the room, “Section 1”, a large black and white photographic image of the Sciara in Filicudi, in which the stratified layers of the earth bear witness to the tumultuous geological life of the volcanic island, paradigm of the assembling together of primordial elements.

Another photographic work, “Vedere il Vento”, chosen as the image of the show, is the epitome of the opposing elements of Air and Earth, and the dichotomy of finite/infinite. The image refers to the title chosen for the project, “' Apar”, taken from Giovanni Semerano’s philological reading of the key concept of the greek philosopher Anaximander, the àpeiron, which wouldn’t refer to the philosophical concept of infinity as in Plato, Aristotle and in all the metaphysics after them, but it would be translated as " earth ", " dust ", " mud " , like in the Semitic " ' apar ." A concept of "belonging to the earth" that is found in all previous cultural traditions of Middle Eastern origin, also present in the famous passage from the Bible: “for you are dust, and you will return to dust”. This vision is close to Ignazio Mortellaro’s urgency to find new directions of perspective, opening new territories and suggesting a cyclical movement, like the motion of the stars and the tides. A continuous reversal, like in the work, “Ciò che è in basso è come ciò che è in alto e ciò che è in alto è come ciò che è in basso” (TN: That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like what is below). - Valentina Bruschi

Ignazio Mortellaro was born in Palermo in 1978. An architect and engineer, he lives and works in Palermo and Filicudi. In 2008 he founded the collective Oblivious Artefacts, an experimental project active between Palermo, Rome and Berlin, involving artists, photographers, architects and sound designers. He is responsible for the graphic concept of many labels of experimental electronic music from Germany and UK. Drawings and experimental techniques, video, mixing painting and installation elements, are the main media used in his personal research.