Franziska Berger Studio Gallery – via Puccini 3, Ponte Felcino (PG)
From 18 to 26 May 2013
Carlos Giordano personal exhibition
In these period in which the artists take refuge and deal with non-places, or those themes or places that are similar or assimilated in many parts of the world, Carlos Giordano, an Argentine artist, chooses and rediscovers a characteristic, almost a fundamental aspect that remains deep in the identity of the South American country: las marcas. Las marcas are those symbols, those “stamps” that were applied on the skin of the livestock to identify the property of the animals. They are a kind of hieroglyphics of particular shapes that are the language of property, possession, love in exclusive terms (you are amazed at the imaginative variety of these symbols!)
Giordano carries these signs of ownership on the human body. They are bodies of men possessed, wanted or desired. Las marcas enter and exit the male body, mark it or spare it. Sometimes they only partially outline the male body, as if to symbolize localized desires. Sometimes they are near but leave him free. They are close, almost like a threat that could always come back.
Las marcas are not tattoos, they are profound signs, they do not take into account the individuality of that body to which they are imposed. The bodies with sculptural features are depicted in pieces, the faces not visible. In their anonymity these bodies are at the mercy of the signs of possession.
Towards the end of this passage the body frees itself from the “Property” and the soul takes its place. The soul prevails and materializes in the representation of the calla lilies. The flower of purity par excellence. Flower with very feminine connotations that contrasts with the representation of explicitly male bodies. Calla lilies suspended in the abyss of the black background and materialize almost abstract in our eyes becoming themselves symbols. Symbols of being but not of possession.
The skillful use of color once again enhances this combination. Pastels (today a rare technique) mainly as well as acrylic colors bring to light the soul and the body. On the one hand the bodies with warm and soft colors are broken by the dynamism of the engraved line of “las marcas “, on the other the calla lilies are sublimated by the light and dark contrast of a dotted design on the monochromatic unity of the black background. On the one hand stability on the other movement. On one side body on the other one soul.
Giulia Passalacqua
