MOTOR

Tucci Russo Gallery,
Torre Pellice (TO), 2019

THE EXHIBITION

On the occasion of MOTORE, Pirri once more reflects on some of the characteristic themes of his artistic production which plays on the relationship between painting and architecture, spatial installation and sound.
The itinerary that the artist proposes within the Tucci Russo gallery includes some environmental, pictorial and sculptural works from different moments of his career.
The title of the exhibition originates from a version of the artwork “PASSI”, which for the first time is hosted in a private gallery and not in a public space or in a museum. The floor of mirrors that shatters under the weight and steps of the spectators, duplicating the space and rendering it infinite, is this time surmounted by a sculpture in the shape of a lamppost swelling with light and colour. The chromatic gradation of the luminous globe spreads through the room recalling the explosion of a child’s marble and the real noise, the glassy crunching caused by the steps of the spectators on the floor together with the consequent perceptive mutation, are precisely the motionless MOTOR of the entire exhibition. The acoustic waves produced by the breaking of mirrors on the ground spread through all the rooms of the gallery, ideally giving virtual life to the shapes and colours of the watercolours scattered on the walls. The other works, recent or past, thus rediscover their common feature, the invisible and immobile MOTOR, in the expansion to infinity of acoustic and visual waves.

THE ARTWORKS

In addition to the specially made series of watercolours, the exhibition includes a series of works with the title ARIE, which reverberate their colours on the walls through the application of feathers on coloured and transparent Plexiglas surfaces, whose painted and luminous halos are reflected on the wall contrasting strongly with the fleshy, dark and violent tone of black acting as a basso continuo in the construction of the exhibition.
The work “Compagni e angeli” explodes into the space it occupies, as an architectural sculpture, dedicated to Antonio Gramsci, the communist politician and philosopher. It’s the precursor to a large public project dedicated to Gramsci, currently under construction in the cities of Tirana (in the park of the Ministry of Culture) and Turi (close to the prison where Gramsci spent his long imprisonment). From dark to light, a sensory journey accompanies the visitor on an escalation from night to day, in which light takes on a dimension that is both spiritual and real, tangible.
Also on display are works created in the mid-eighties selected by the artist together with the gallery owners; juxtaposed and in dialogue with the more recent ones, they represent an uninterrupted journey that began in 1990 with the GAS exhibition at the gallery. The Tucci Russo gallery has captured the artist’s evolution over time.
In addition, a series of works on paper will be shown, made with different techniques and relating to the design of the exhibition itself.