Valeria Patrizi
Cantica
by Caterina Acampora
Opening Saturday, June 15th 2024 at 7 pm
to july 11th
The exhibition proposal of Galleria Orizzonti Arte Contemporanea in Ostuni continues inside the project room with the inauguration, on Saturday 15 June 2024 at 7.00 pm, of the solo exhibition by the Roman artist Valeria Patrizi, entitled Cantica, curated by Caterina Acampora
“Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm.”
Song of Songs (Song 2.8-16; 8.6-7)
Song of Songs, when I was told the literary reference behind which the exhibition you are about to experience was being built, my mind inevitably went to the much more well-known “Song of Creatures” by Saint Francis; I confess that I had instinctively found a perfect correspondence between Francesco’s canticle and Valeria Patrizi’s work, I immediately thought of her habit/canvas where nature unfolds ethereally and rises towards something higher. I was abruptly awakened by this construction, it was a much older text that I was being asked to delve into. A subtle, intense text that I later discovered belonged to the Old Testament. And now I have to thank this misunderstanding, this loss of coordinates, if I have come into contact with one of the most beautiful texts of sacred literature. And perhaps that’s exactly what art is supposed to do: make you strip away the certainties that the world of before has sewn on you to reject you afterwards in a condition unimaginable at the time of your arrival. What happens in between is the universal experience and Valeria Patrizi knows it well, it is evident from the discreet way in which she catapults you into this triangle: you, stripped of your truth, her work and her, silent, impalpable and at the same time present. Between you all the time and space of the world without frames to delimit boundaries. And then there are them, of course, his characters. Flesh and blood, there is a before and there is an after, this is clear, but we observe them in a moment of contemplation, of reflection, of dramaturgical suspension. The artist does not tell us who they are and how they ended up, sometimes together, sometimes alone, on that canvas, nor what relationship there is between them, between the animal and the woman, and yet they could only be there, with we.
There is nothing voyeuristic in Valeria Patrizi’s work; he manages to strip away the subject he represents, putting him in deep communication with the spectator who almost feels the need to turn back to make sure he is not seen by anyone, to hope that what is happening is happening with him and for him; the matter, the carnality, the animal that becomes the guiding spirit of a absorbed human, finally present, far from a daily life that wants him distant from a profound contact with nature, with himself. And it sounds almost ironic to think how simple this research makes us appear, it was enough to break down the word itself: the animal which, although by definition “devoid of conscience”, is itself able to shift the plane of reality of the canvas, it is its instinct to tell us about the human. Letting go of this awareness leads us to experience Valeria Patrizi’s work like crossing a summer forest, the stains on her canvases become the way to see the sky through the trees, while life creeps in at every level. The colors he chooses follow this slow progression; they are calm, gentle, light tones, full of care, the same care with which the artist builds her canvases and unrolls them before my eyes in her studio in Pigneto, Rome, where you can meet her with her works rolled up under your arm.
Valeria Patrizi is a skilled artist, her subjects carry silent stories with them, which she lovingly collects among others, because she cannot do without them. His gaze, like that of the women he paints, is aimed outward to welcome others with kindness. In his small studio, he talks to me about plans for the future, shows me clippings, I observe how much his subjects have changed over the years and I recognize myself in a curly woman with big red lips. She tells me that it’s not the first time this has happened to her and I understand that we recognize ourselves in these works because they speak without superstructures to a deep self, we do it, we build it on our own, because the artist creates the space for the meeting. This space becomes a tool for exploring the human soul and its connection with the natural world; the poetic and spiritual atmosphere that envelops the works on display mirrors the biblical text of Solomon, the invitation is clear: contemplate the beauty of creation and the sacredness of love. The drama that unfolds in the biblical work is nothing more than a song, a hymn to love, the narrative that proceeds in a dialogue between two lovers, interspersed with praises of beauty and love. An erotic dream, more than a story; it is not the story of the adulteries of David and Bathsheba, of the incest of Amun and Tamar; it doesn’t want to warn or excite, it just wants to reveal something through the dream.
The breath of the lovers of the Canticle resonates in the rhythm of the artist’s works who once again lets his characters speak, in a farewell that seems to scream lightly: to love you must first disappear.
Valeria Patrizi
Cantica
by Caterina Acampora
OPENING: Saturday, June 15th 2024 at 7 pm
15 June – 11 July 2024
Visiting hours:
from Monday to Saturday 11.00-13.30 and 17.00-19.00
Sunday morning only
GALLERIA ORIZZONTI ARTE CONTEMPORANEA
Piazzetta Cattedrale (Historical Centre)
72017 Ostuni (Br)
Tel. 0831.335373 – Cell. 348.8032506
info@orizzontiarte.it – www.orizzontiarte.it
F: Orizzontiartecontemporanea
Communication Manager
Amalia Di Lanno
www.amaliadilanno.com – info@amaliadilanno.com
EVENT PHOTO
