THE FORTRESS OF THE NEW DOGMA
“from the last supper to the news paper dogma”
The installation as a whole is called “THE FORTRESS OF THE NEW DOGMA”
and is composed of several works created by me, in order:
“THE KEY TO THE LAST SUPPER”
painted on glass with vegetal pigments and marine animals on glass and mirror, which depicts one of my pictorial compositions of Christ’s last supper, with the 12 apostles and the figure of Judas represented with a mirror that reflects his ideal shape. The mirror is the door through which the spectator involuntarily enters the scene, inside the Domus, the house where one of the most important banquets in history is ideally set. Man and humanity is represented as repeating itself and continues to betray itself over the centuries;
“THE REPLACEMENT OF A DOGMA”
a version of my “last supper” painted on glass with vegetal pigments and marine animals on glass and mirror, in which I simulated a figurative explosion of the image of Judas, placing 12 weapons (from machine guns to of guns) composed with News Papers from all over the world, and in the center a key and many small pieces of glass. This work is in turn surrounded by stacks of daily newspapers from all over the world.
To the right of replacement of dogma, a work by Banksy representing the MONNALISA shooting at my painting “The Last Supper” with a bazuka in hand
In front of these three works, on the left “RESURRECTION” with the silhouettes of three women (signifying the three Marys who go to Christ’s tomb the next day). The work is part of the “The box” series, that is, of my works that I started producing in 1998 using recycled material, then perfected over time with which I started a new current that I called NEOSPACEIALISM. The reason for this definition lies in creating an infinitely small and different space, penetrated by light and therefore returned to the viewer’s gaze in infinite spatial possibilities. The color pigments are made from stone dust from Sinai and marine animal pigments that I get from beached jellyfish.
Inside the boxes there are hidden writings, a sort of universal message, in Latin (in other cases in ancient Greek or ancient Arabic or Aramaic) in order to make the interpretation and the gaze and the possible meaning conferred by the observer.
Always in front, but on the right, a small work from the series of my armillary spheres (which I have implemented in different sizes and materials starting from 2016 using the irons and woods of ancient old 15th century barrels from the Morsasco Castle in Piedmont where I have an atelier) the work called “SUSPENSION OF THOUGHT” is located, in which I stigmatize with two different silhouettes of man the moment in which man’s potential reflection and thought is concentrated and the release of a idea. The condition of man suspended between thought in potential and its realization, clear manifestation and the consequences that come from it. In this work I enclose the entire anthropocentric vision of man from his first “domus”, his ego, himself and the externalization and collectivization and openness of his own thoughts to others. The human universe is thus enclosed in a sort of epocentric galaxy, the armillary sphere in which everything externally seems to be subservient to him.
The entire installation, however, THE FORTRESS OF THE NEW DOGMA,
it is a reflection on the dogmas of the past and the more seductive and insidious one of the present. Dogma is an act of absolute faith for the believing community, solemnly declared; principle considered indisputable truth. Dogma is literally a truth that cannot be discussed, guardian of very high concepts and supernatural revelations, a cornerstone that holds the arc of faith of an often religious reading of the world.In fact, when we think about dogma, religion and its numerous dogmas come to mind.
But the dogma also resides in other dynamics, the dogma shows itself as a pretentious arbiter, which to question has the flavor of a challenge because it is indubitable. Historically, the dogma has been experienced both ways. We could say that it is an axiom, which however does not live in the field of logic, but rather in that of religion, and by extension the social sciences in general.
With this work, well beyond the dogma of the trinity, of the immaculate conception or of the body of Christ in the Eucharist, pushing itself to the greatest and most dangerous dogma of our modern era, that is, a certain type of Press that stands out inescapable and indisputable truths, petrifying itself conspicuously replacing the truth or possible truths, with the force of media reiteration of news regardless of its source and correspondence to the reality of the facts. The historical revisionist press, subjugated to political and geopolitical dynamics, both economic and due to the popularizing power they possess as irrefutable dogmas, suffocates every possible possibility of giving voice to the true events or the reasons for them.
Home Away from Home – as a general theme created by the curator Yev Kravt, was for me an opportunity to explore the cultural relativism of each belonging, rooted in one’s own language, culture, religion in which we feel safe simply because we grew up there and experienced, like a sort of reassuring walls of thought. And the strengthening of a daily dogma, generated by the succession of plausible information which, despite not having the specificity and critical analysis of an academic and accredited source, but responding to the need for fast, last-minute anticipatory information of critical thinking, they escape logic and the concrete search for truth and take the form of dogma.
The Fortress of Larnaca, the place chosen by the curator to place my installation, is strongly evocative of the Fortress of the new Dogma, of the V now tested and very strong power: the Press, the press and the games underlying it, often ignored by its faithful followers