Rome, Benedetto Pietromarchi at Visionarea ArtSpace with exhibition Nature Loves to Hide

Opening in dialogue with Rome and its natural and monumental heritage is the new season of Visionarea ArtSpace: from Nov. 24, 2022 to Jan. 14, 2023, the exhibition Nature Loves to Hide, curated by Ornella Paglialonga with works by Benedetto Pietromarchi.

On display are 8 sculptures inspired by the statues of the Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge and 2 large artist’s canvases born from the lands of the Tiber River, to evoke its hidden beauty and nature in a double perspective: on the one hand the strictly visual one related to materials such as soils, water and natural elements; on the other hand transforming the occasion into a moment of reflection to talk about history, geological change, the need to create a balance between man and animal and, finally, observe art still as a possible dimension related to imagination.

The exhibition stems from Pietromarchi’s gaze a few meters from theAuditorium della Conciliazione, from Ponte Sant’Angelo to Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, at the point where the Tiber River stands out, where below we glimpse a habitat composed of numerous creatures and lagoon vegetation, muddy and vibrant. As is often the case in Pietromarchi’s practice, the lands close to the places where he works are used for the production of his works, and for this exhibition, the canvases on display are made from the lands of the Tiber River, suggesting a kind of guidance toward the water.

Placed at the Auditorium Conciliazione, VISIONAREA - with the support of the Culture and Art Foundation, an instrumental entity of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale, chaired by Prof. Avv. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele - with La natura ama nascondersi, thus confirms its vocation as a contemporary outpost in constant confrontation and dialogue with Rome, interpreting its new trends and relating them to the enhancement of its heritage.

The monumental statues on Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II stimulate Pietromarchi mainly for compositional aspects, so in the 4 realized sculptures, placed on the side of the first room, reign monkeys, playfully intent on mimicking human features, nicknamed River Gods, emerged from the river silt - still in a primordial state - to rise on pedestals. Finally bursting into the space is a large upside-down trunk where, instead of branches, we find its roots inhabited by parrots of various species and the hanging face of a young monkey, thus activating an atmosphere of melancholic restlessness.

The path continues with a group of small sculptural elements, again small monkeys intent on riding frothy watery waves, about to drink and sneer at the viewer. The demon tussle is the title of this series, in which through the crude forms of clay and a violently comic-realistic mood, a furious struggle within a pitch-like liquid is evoked.

Comments Prof. Avv. Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele, President of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale: "Benedetto Pietromarchi entrusts a very precise message to this exhibition of his: the urgency of rediscovering, even through art, a more natural - almost primordial - dimension of human existence. He does so by operating in close dialogue with the surrounding territory, which he enhances through the use of natural materials (the lands of the banks of the Tiber, for example) and conceptual reference to local flora and fauna. The preferred medium is clay, which the artist chooses for its plasticity and because it is a material that allows direct workmanship, physical contact, and relationship with the body. Among other things, I am pleased to mention that Pietromarchi, in the past, collaborated with the artist Niki de Saint Phalle - to whom I dedicated a major exhibition at Palazzo Cipolla in 2009 - for the creation of the Tarot Garden in Capalbio, and in 2018 he was among the protagonists of the widespread exhibition, also promoted by the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro, entitled Urban Forest in Palermo."

For all information, you can email info@visionarea.org.

Pictured: Benedetto Pietromarchi, The Scuffle of Demons (detail, 2022). Photo: Visionarea

Rome, Benedetto Pietromarchi at Visionarea ArtSpace with exhibition Nature Loves to Hide

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