Figures,
but not only figures
"Beautiful is that which, without
concept, is known as an object of necessary satisfaction".
Kant
The subtlety in elaborating and making a piece
of art can be seen only as an apparent demonstration of the virtuosity
of the artist. But here, in this case, it shows a superficiality in the
look of the observer who did not allow himself to go beyond this simple
reading. If it requires a redoubled and tireless dedication of the one
who produces it, for him who appreciates and seeks interpretations and
approximations, intending to penetrate this universe, this may also be
more difficult. I prefer to say may, because images take the observer
to readings, but cannot oblige or condition so peremptorily, a single
reading.
Nothing - in the images produced by Mauro Piva
with his drawings/paintings - points us, immediately to icons of barbarity,
violence and destruction in which we are immersed in our daily life. And
although they are not indices of these times, neither should they be seen
as the signs of a refusal to recognize this real world, if we may believe
in the real, or in that which comes to our eyes, as reality. They may,
in fact, be apprehended as signs of an attempt to deal with something
which is still vital to us: man himself. In them there is nothing to lead
us to the idea of sacrificing the human in detriment to the collective,
or even the social.
In the delicately molded, but deliberately disfigured
figures, because they are not identifiable persons, but of the wider and
more comprehensive category with which the artist seeks to work, we find
this always fragile, in appearance, human being and his relations, his
weaknesses and his desires; his loneliness and his need for the other;
the individual and the pair, Eros and Thanatos.
The first nucleus presents a set of seven individual
windows which immediately bring us the idea of imprisonment: in all of
them there is the ostensive presence of railings. All of them are closed,
with one exception, which appears to be (or leads us to believe) that
it is being closed. And having noticed this, the logic could be revised:
couldn't the idea of imprisonment or self isolation be a mistake, after
all, wouldn't we be barred from this world which is proposed by these
images?
In the second nucleus, we are placed in front of
- or would it be better to say on - three tables holding drawings which,
because of their very nature, because they were drawn up as aerial views
of interiors, condition our gaze, obliging us to take on, in this case,
comfortably, the position of voyeur. Comfortably yes, because we do not
need to hide under any excuse to be able to notice that the situation
was created to allow us to adopt something always desired, and often denied,
or not openly adopted.
The third part, from the first room, shows us a
"constellation" of images, or we could see them as a representation
of this typical space of man and relation of contemporary man, which is
the city. A uniformity made possible by the use of gray as a backdrop
and as an identity for the seventy-six pictures, also alludes undeniably
to the same space of contemporary life. A microcosm in which we can appreciate
visions of the metropolis.
The second room of the exhibition, with drawings
in three parts - door and two windows - placed near the floor, as if becoming
the skirting board of the environment, they are linked as if they made
up a game; and, once again, the set plays with the possibility of observing,
it has a "Lilliputian" characteristic, placing us in the role
of Swift's character. Each one of the sets is made up of the façade
of a house, houses placed on the road in which the artist lives, in the
space/life of the artist himself. In the case of the skirting board façades,
the observer will literally have to bend down (therefore, a dislocation
away from the conventional), in order to observe the windows and boards
in which these "inhabitants" are, as it were ready to come out
and inhabit the space; there is in them an apparent desire, an impulse,
but nothing that would let us be sure that this will happen. We will have
to come down to the level of the floor, of the material itself, so that
we can, as Gullivers of the 21st century, "live" the experience
of these "human beings".
In each one of the groups of images presented at
the exhibition, we find a situation which does not allow us to enter the
proposed spaces; we are always made to look, observe, we are always strangers
to the situation in which we cannot interfere. Nothing we can do allows
us to think that we can change them. The characters do not exist for us,
but in spite of us. And that which appears to be an imprisonment may,
in fact, be seen as a refuge.
We could also seek a reading of forms, and, when
it involves bodies, this would lead us to think even of a choreography
for which a whole set is created. The images, like a dance notation, would
propose a record of this observation of lives and their relationships,
but which could also be seen as a musical score to be used as an indicator
of possibilities.
In the almost septic spaces, with low relief tones
- and in which the whites, browns, grays, pinks and blues create this
kind of reality - shows itself to be a movement of these bodies, as a
dance, a true intertwining of these bodies, very often insinuating more
than the figures, the (im)possible relations, amongst them and among us
observers who believe, or see ourselves, represented in these situations.
Marcos Moraes
October 2004
 opening: 04/03/2004
utill: 04/30/2004
hours: mon/fri,
10am - 7pm; sat, 11am - 2pm
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