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The show
From 5 April to 5 May 2024, the Diocesan Museum of Brescia hosts a retrospective dedicated to Agostino Ferrari (Milan, 1938), one of the most interesting protagonists of the contemporary Italian creative panorama, which analyzes the last twenty years of artistic research.
The exhibition, curated by Elena Di Raddo and Mariacristina Maccarinelli, presents 13 paintings and 10 ceramics, which tell the story of the evolution of the sign, a focal theme of Ferrari's artistic research, but only through a selection of works ranging from the early 2000s till today.
The title of the exhibition, Beyond the threshold of the SIGN , recalls how all of Agostino Ferrari's poetics developed around the sign, characterizing its most peculiar expressive character, and then renewing and transforming itself over time.
Starting from the early 1960s with the investigation of a primordial sign-writing, advanced within the Cenobio group, continued with the inclusion of the spatial and theatrical dimension as another supporting element.
In the Seventies, Ferrari began to focus on the psychological values of color until he created the Self-portrait , the only installation of his career; subsequently his attention returns to focus on the pictorial sign which becomes a story, and then evolves in the space of the canvas thanks also to the use of black sand, until it emerges from the surface and becomes objectified.
The exhibition opens with paintings from the series entitled Beyond the Threshold , begun in 2002, which deal with the great questions of existence. Ferrari delves into the relationship that is established between the "written" surface, where the narrative of signs is visible, and the "laceration": the tear shows how thin the thickness of the support is and, at the same time, the depth of the absolute black, which symbolically takes on the value of what is not knowable. This attention to spatial investigation present in Ferrari, as well as in his master Lucio Fontana, manifests itself in the desire to give the spectator the possibility of looking beyond the canvas, opening up a mysterious, spiritual, infinite universe. In the same room we also find some later works from the Interno-Esterno series. Here the sign takes on strength and space within the composition, moves freely, begins to invade the planes of the surfaces present while still remaining a pictorial sign. The second room is dedicated to the Pro-segno SEMS (Space-Energy-Matter-Sign) and ProSegno “Nuove-scritture” , titles that define the creations created since 2023. These works describe the latest results of Ferrari's research, where the the only absolute protagonist is the sign that appears from the black below, manifests itself on the canvas in all its power, and then transforms into a plastic sign that emerges from the surface invading the surrounding physical space.
The external space of the museum hosts a section dedicated to black and white ceramics, in which the three-dimensionality of the pictorial research dialogues with the material.
The exhibition itinerary continues with the immersive room which presents a video installation curated by Francesco Pio Bellisario, a student of the DAMS for the Arts of the Catholic University. The project, created specifically for this event with the desire to delve deeper into the figure of Agostino Ferrari, consists of three screens, one central and two lateral. The main screen is dedicated to an interview conceived and carried out specifically for the project; the lateral ones host the scrolling images and works.
The review ends with the video interview A Piccoli passi nell'Arte. Agostino Ferrari , the result of the research activity carried out by students as part of the Contemporary Art History Laboratory, DAMS course for the Arts, of the Catholic University. It is a portrait of the artist which is told through the questions of the students, who thus have the opportunity to critically investigate and reflect on the visual language by practicing study, writing, screenwriting, research of images and historical-artistic contents, editing , post production.
The catalogue, which contains the curators' critical texts, is created in collaboration with the JUS Museum in Naples.
