Giorgio Persano
Piazza Vittorio Veneto 9
Torino
October 25, 2004 – February 5, 2005
If it were up to me, I would eliminate all wickedness, suffering and destitution from the world. I want to wipe out the evil which threatens the world, painting works which ignore the world of violence; I want to paint virtue and courage. Why do we concern ourselves with art? Because it is a fleeting mystery which helps us live, and allows us, through the beauty of form and the consolation which it offers us, to bear everything else. Because art is an essential, magical moment in life, of which we ask a sip of water, whilst expressing a wish.
As I contemplate these things, I am preparing new works for Giorgio Persano, who a quarter of a century ago hosted my first ever exhibition in Turin. I met him in 1977, when of my generation of artists I was the youngest, and he the youngest of his generation of gallery managers. Our friendship was thus born – an idealist, romantic and righteous, he seemed a knight of the Holy Grael. It was, back then, forbidden to paint, but we had our conscience and courage. In this way, an experiment in imagination and the free will for a pure and profound art began.
Drawings hidden away in drawers or placed against windows, frescoes, immense watercolours, endless and forever shifting exhibitions – even the closing of an exhibition was cause for celebration. We would transform the gallery into a mysterious event of emotional communion, whilst outside in society, the dialectic of violence triumphed. We, on the other hand, sought art which was beautiful and useful to everyone – art was, hence, living existential inspiration, and the gallery a space of invention and creativity in all its breadth, depth, height and length. Art has here preserved its honour and passion, and for this reason an exhibition of paintings which celebrate love and nature in the most beautiful colours in the world is needed. It is here that the artistic avant guarde meets the existential avant guarde, and my work seeks to light the space of the soul through the evoking of a legend of pure and fresh art. It is the rebel artists in the metropoles who are increasingly alone, rebelling also against rebellion itself and all those pretend freedoms.
We are the indomitable expression of an art which invokes and celebrates creation and all its gifts.
Artworks of exhibitions
