This Donzelli exhibition (curated by Luca Cerizza, from 26 October to 21 December 2016), is not a simple presentation of the works in their individuality and mutual independence; even less a catalog of formal possibilities. Rather, it is an experiential path, where the works interact with each other and the spatial context to create a rhythm within the exhibition and for the viewer. In fact, in the spectator-work relationship one of the main nodes of Donzelli's work is concretized, especially in his "Mirrors", works built by a prismatic lens that alters the underlying image created by the artist, so that it manifests itself in different ways depending on the position of the observer. What, from a certain position, looks like a mirror, actually reveals its surprising nature as an image as the viewer moves, as if the object possessed an independent internal life of its own.
On the other hand, the titles of some series of his works (“Eccetera Drawings”, “Disegni del quasi”) already place the emphasis on continuity, fluidity and openness as characteristics of his research. If drawing is Donzelli's preferred language, it is because of its ability to be a process of discovery starting from the initial moment, in which the hand rests on the sheet and the sign begins to reveal itself and build an image / rhythm. From that initial moment - which seems to follow the ways and forms of a biological process - the artist becomes the intermediary of an emotional flow, accompanies and supports a path and an internal cadence poised between memory and discovery, between continuity and the unexpected, control and loss of control, which leads him to the formation of the work. This is to be understood as the articulation of signs, yes abstract but of an organic matrix, as if they were fragments of a creative process, of a “germination” that was never truly completed. Paradoxically, it could be said that, at least in the drawings, Donzelli is the vehicle of an infinite sign, of a potential line of the whole that could continue much longer, like an ornament that inhabits the environment. This is limited, articulated in rhythmic and perceptive scans thanks to the installation of the display, the presentation apparatus that accompanies the work.
If on numerous other occasions Donzelli's work was confronted with places of great historical importance and of great scenographic impact (National Roman Museum of Palazzo Altemps, Rome, 2015; Palazzo Barbò, Torre Pallavicina (Bergamo) 2013; Palazzo Fortuny, Venice 2012 ), in this case the artist worked within the modernist profile of the Cortesi gallery. While in these previous circumstances the artist has elaborated a dialogue with the historical stratifications of these spaces and their collections, here he started from a certainly more neutral and functional situation, building a path full of variations thanks to different forms of display.
Unlike usual, the exhibition can only be used from inside the gallery, and is divided into four main spaces / phases: an entrance / introduction, where a couple of isolated works are presented, a large wall organized like a picture gallery containing drawings and “Mirror”, a new room obtained from a significant alteration of the gallery space, and a smaller room where a table of small watercolors is presented as a single work that can be altered and modified over time.
Each work or series of works of "La linea del tutto" is accompanied by different exhibits and exhibition models, as if to suggest a variety of ways and times with which to encounter and enjoy Donzelli's art.
Cortesi Gallery, Lugano
Via Frasca, 5 - 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
Gallery opening hours: Monday - Friday: 10 am-00pm
www.cortesigallery.com
info@cortesigallery.com
