#Eduardo Rodà
YEAR VIII N.63
Part 3 - So close so far – virtual and silent proscenium
Genesis
of an installation and temporal epilogue
….. "To bring
to light is to render to light, the shapes, colors, textures, which wrapped in
black, are freed as if imprisoned" ...
This was the intention I had set myself,
when the installation of the works was finished and the service lights were
closed, another type of work began, perhaps the most important, that of
illuminating both the exhibition space and of course the works.
After several failed attempts, came the
idea, to start from scratch, making the whole space dark, that is: closing
every source of light, so we found ourselves in the absolute dark....
Many were the artists and there was
no lack of examples, who used black as a starting point for their creations:
Just think of Leonardo da Vinci and his "From the dark removed" the
light and dark that envelop objects and people in a mysterious atmosphere; the
Russian and Muscovite artist Malevic with his black square on black, Kandinsky
the other Russian, with his spiritual in art, the French Pierre Soulages with
his tested works and many exclusive black Outrenoir and still the American
Serra with his works on paper.
Further back in time, with the Homo Sapiens that centuries
ago, in the Upper Palaeolithic, began the great creative journey of humanity,
in the dark, deep and often impassable caves, finally, to arrive at the virtual
world of today, the screens that envelop all possible images.
... The light technician, knew very well
his work and so he began to turn on one at a time the spots illuminating the
work, one after the other and exclusively the work. The result was really the
most satisfying.
The black that had inhabited my works from
the beginning, framing the various images, now came out of the canvas, to move
on the walls and on the canvases remained the color in its exclusive
brilliance.
The detail, enlarged out of all proportion
or reduced in size, was at the centre of attention, wrapped in shutters and
hunted.
Years passed, in the meantime the series
of works followed one another in a consequent development to arrive at 2013,
where From the dark removed , from historical reference becomes the theme of a
new corpus of works and probably a short film.
A journey through the meanders of
creation.
A text
So close so far
The work as "original" loses its
"aura" of uniqueness as it is reproduced.
The artist participates in spite of
himself in the reproduction of his work, when he photographs it for his
artist's dossier. The copy, the copies are born then. Then, the duplicate
circulates more and more, then the original rarely shows itself.
In my work, the copy is deliberately
deprived of the original, thus reducing the distance between the two, so that
the "aura" of uniqueness disappears.
Starting in 1985, the idea of simulating images
generated by computer and video are already part of my aesthetic concerns.
Later, canvases became similarity, like monitors, in which it is possible to
perceive images with different points of view, frames and fields of colours.
Images, still similar to those of a film, where our point of view moves like a
camera in action.
In the installation - Proscenium - both
near and far beyond the idea of copying, there is that of detail, which is
disproportionately enlarged to become a subject of the stage. A series of small shots are placed at
the opposite end of the large central painting.
The transition from the large surface to
the small and again to the large surface is made immediately and quickly. The
dimensions in size are variable; the space occupied by the staging particularly
takes into account the human dimension and its perception - the smaller works
that are offered to the eye, their presence, being no less than that of a real
object, like the larger canvases, including the lateral ones, which are
enlarged to contain the visual presence of more people.
A dialogue is established through
"the open window on the world", the most historical concern of
painting, this dialogue becomes the symbol of today's electronic information.
As well as a surface containing a detail or the whole, reduced to a
"pamphlet-instructions for use" that is easily at first glance.
An aspect of novelty in my work, lies in
the fact that in the same installation, multiple dimensions and numerous scales
can occur.
My works organize themselves, in series
and groups, reflecting the emotional and intellectual phases of research of the
moment and of my life as an artist inscribed in the present era.
Watch the film Proscenium
