(Piero Manai – Luigi Presicce, Self-portrait with masks 1899)
Galleria De’Foscherari
Via Castiglione 2b, Bologna
www.defoscherari.com
31 March 2016 – 31 May 2016
Two artists, Piero Manai (1951 – 1988) and Luigi Presicci (born 1976) were inspired by the same painting: “Self-portrait with masks” by James Ensor from 1899. Between the executions of the works are decades. So it is not astonishing that the chosen media and results are different. Nevertheless, the connection is evident.
Antonio Grulli, the curator of the exhibition “Piero Manai – Luigi Presicce, Autoritratto con maschere 1899”, has selected these two oeuvres with the same reference as starting point for a dialog between the works of the two artists. With that, he returned the Manai’s “Autoritratto con maschere” to the gallery which showed it first in 1981. That time was as well a turning point in the creations of the young artist: after a period of hyperrealism he turned to a language of the body, the Eros and the Thanatos. He got more self-centred.
Manai’s over 50 masks are faces as over dimensioned charcoal drawings on canvas paper, partly fragmented. Often, the eyes are only black holes; the mouth is wide open; the facial features are distorted. By the technique and expression they are looking sinister.
This installation is faced by Presicci’s performance “Santo Stefano, i coriandoli, le pietre”, (St. Stephen, the confetti, the stones) from 2015, represented by a large-size photo taken by Dario Lasagni. It shows a group of people standing on a carriage without draft animal. They are wearing ancient looking dresses and masks. The disguise reminds Venetian and Alemannic carnival masquerades. In front of the group sits a man in black suite and hat. He seems to juggle with stones. Confetti lies on the ground. The scene is taken in the little St. Stephen’s church (Chiesa di Santo Stefano Piccolo), Putignano, Bari, Italy, under its light arcs. In consequence, the impression is less sombre, even if the costumes are not really friendly. Both oeuvres refer clearly to James Ensor’s self-portrait by the recitation of masked faces.
Piero Manai created mostly drawings and paintings. Only at the end of his young life he experimented with Polaroids, for him, a form of photography which guides to its origins, without negative, so a unique piece. Whereas, Luigi Presicci works in various media. Besides collages and sculptures, he does photos and video installations which are more than a simple documentation of his tableau vivant performances. They are a new orchestration of the volatile moment.
Antonio Grulli has chosen “La certifica delle mani” (The certificate of the hands) from 2013. It is an on the wall projected series of performance images, more precise video sequences, interrupted by black screens. Each tableau vivant ends with a flash, followed by a sound reminding the noise of ancient photoflash. The pictures on view are showing people, often only parts of their bodies. In consequence the curator framed the installation with Manai’s drawings of torsos. They are leading to a torso sculpture of the other artist.
Moreover there is a series of Presicci’s collages of faced kites. Two are installed in the corners of Manai’s mask drawings. Others are building a bridge to further drawings by their geometric forms. From them the communication goes to two pyramid-like sculptures. With that arises a dialog between the oeuvres, by their content or forms. The attentive visitor might find even more connections.
