Textural Geographies: When Shapes Create an Itinerary

In Greek, the word eidos defines the rather abstract, albeit fundamental, nature of reality. Translated directly, eidos represents the distinctive expression of the characteristics of matter intuited by thinking beings. More simply put, eidos describes the essence of all things. This is the word Greek philosopher Plato assigned to the place of intersection between the realm of being and the realm of becoming in his Theory of Forms; the point of convergence between idea and form through which we experience the world.

Shape is fundamental to our experience of reality. It is through shape that we understand sensory experience while simultaneously intuiting abstract knowledge via our mental facilities. Shape is the point of departure at which aesthetic conditions are transformed, allowing for us to both know and not know eidos – a barrier through which we are both lost and oriented at once.

In Textural Geographies, the great masters of the European twentieth century – Agostino Bonalumi, Alighiero Boetti, Enrico Castellani, and Christo – lead the viewer on an immersive textural path. The presentation of different artistic processes and techniques finds common ground in the geographical attitude shared between the artists, ultimately generating a proper itinerary consisting of ups and downs, lights and shadows, multiple directions and ties to specific places of the world. Figurative signs are not the landmarks to guide the viewer: lines, curves, colors, ledges and recesses create a sinuous movement to be followed in a continuous flow – a stream of consciousness not made up of words, but shapes. Limits and borders are blurred in order to provide an alternative narration, considering similarities and parallelism in the processes and ideas of artists close to each other, but who, however, conceived their unique voice.

Textural Geographies strives to seduce the viewer with its elegant patterns and colors thereby capturing impressions challenging to define in words. It is the goal of this exhibition to create a forum for consideration of the universal contributions of these artists to the human experience.

Caterina Fondelli