Carichi di chiaro in notte acre

Anna Marra Contemporanea presented Carichi di chiaro in notte acre (roughly, “Loads of light in a bitter night”), a solo exhibition by Elvio Chiricozzi that opened on Tuesday 21 November 2017.

On display were recent large-format pencil drawings on wood or canvas, continuing the series Ritroverai le nubi (“You Will Find the Clouds Again”), begun in 2013, in which the artist examined the basic dimension of an event through continually changing phenomena that nonetheless keep their identity. Clouds, and later lightning, became a metaphor for our being: attentiveness to the world makes us kaleidoscopic, while identity itself does not change.

Chiricozzi is a meticulous artist who has made a pact with time: in his work, time runs off its usual tracks. His executional rigour mirrors a personality that allows no shortcuts, choosing instead to stretch out time without setting himself any destination.

The word “artefact” used to describe his work is not a value judgement. Manual execution, for Chiricozzi, is central to the poetics that hold his whole body of work together; knowing how to make something describes an entire life and his particular relationship with art. It is a mark that presupposes culture and research, where nothing is left to chance, even in describing the turbulent movement of clouds or the instant lightning breaks over the earth.

In this demanding project, Chiricozzi attempted something difficult: he threw the clouds violently down onto the earth, interrupting the magic of their lightness and the imaginative associations they once offered. Grey became the idea of sky and cloud — the blank slate before blue, with everything that implies. He wanted the clouds on the ground, because dreams are best seen up close: looked at from every angle, their limits and their potential recognised, almost under a microscope. Then he let them go, once again.

Practical details

• Run: 21 November 2017 – 20 January 2018
• Where: Anna Marra Contemporanea, Rome
• Catalogue: published by Gangemi Editore, text by Claudio Libero Pisano

Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for reference; it was organised by Anna Marra Contemporanea.