Julius Galgani
I forgot about you
Edited by Daniela Pronestì
November 28 – December 15, 2024
Opening: Thursday 28th November at 6pm
Speakers:
Giulio Galgani – artist
Daniela Pronestì – art historian and exhibition curator
Thursday 28 November 2024 at 6 pm , at the MA-EC Gallery in Palazzo Durini in Milan (via Santa Maria Valle 2), the solo exhibition Mi sono scordato di te by the artist Giulio Galgani will be inaugurated, curated by the art historian Daniela Pronestì . On display is a cycle of recent works – with the exception of some sculptures from the early 2000s – which well describe the concepts on which Galgani's (1958) artistic research has always been based, namely memory, roots, belonging . The complete opposite of what the title suggests, which, provocatively, speaks of oblivion, forgetfulness and distraction to place the emphasis on everything that, on the contrary, deserves to be remembered and brought back to the centre of both individual and collective attention.
An idea of “recovery” that Galgani’s art declines on the technical-expressive front as well as on the conceptual one. On the one hand, in fact, his work denotes a vital and fierce relationship with matter , be it natural or artificial, organic or inorganic, expression of peasant culture or industrial production: what happens, in any case, is at the same time a recovery and a redemption on the aesthetic level of elements that the artist not only transforms into something new, thanks to a process of radical re-signification, but also preserves their original memory by making it enter the work. The “matter” becomes, therefore, the protagonist not only because it is the object of “transformation” but also because it is valorized in the light of its own symbols, meanings and signs.
The result is works that, escaping the usual artistic categories, confirm the hybrid nature of Galgani's expressive register , which does not allow any distinction between painting and sculpture, plant materials and industrial elements, traditional tools and personal techniques. The organic and the inorganic coexist in his works, recalling the contrast between authenticity and artifice, the vital energy of nature and the action of man. The aim is first of all to go back to the roots of the Tuscan identity, the one in which Galgani recognizes himself and which has fueled his inspiration since his figurative debut with works inspired by archaic Etruscan sculpture, to then arrive, several years later, at objects such as spades, pitchforks and sickles - banners of human work that become part of his symbolic repertoire both as installations and as elements reworked in a graphic-pictorial key - and then arrive at the Paesaggi evasi , clods of Tuscan earth ideally taken from the original context and placed in a vase to allude to the landscape as a set of memories to be passed down and protected. A way, therefore, to express the his connection with the culture and the "signs" of the territory in which he lives and more generally with the values of the land understood as a heritage of symbols and knowledge that risk being lost in the era of globalization.
In this exhibition, Galgani's gaze ranges from the homage to great protagonists of culture - as in the cycle dedicated to Giacomo Puccini in the year of the anniversary of his death - to the "presences" of the landscape with the series of Alberi nomadi , or installations - obtained by mixing pieces of wood, color and other materials - in which the tree, no longer sedentary, sets in motion to express, on a symbolic level, a rooting in its own culture, in its own territory, which does not result in being "radical", and therefore does not close or limit thought, but rather facilitates it, makes it possible, because it allows us to carry with us an identity heritage that becomes wealth to be shared. Nature, as an explicit reference to the fundamental values of living, therefore offers itself as the context of a reflection with which Galgani reminds us that, in the post-modern era characterized by the absence of ties, vulnerability and uncertainty, we are all nomads in search of roots . Trees – the artist suggests – in transit from one land to another, each loaded with memories and meanings – like those evoked by the material and the sign in these works – that we carry with us as a legacy that is both personal and collective, symbols of a lost or forgotten belonging and of the need to rediscover one's roots.
English: The Girasoli series can also be read in this light, a material-pictorial stylization of forms that recall the flower and its location in the landscape, but also the recent project with which Galgani moves from the land to the sea and the “presences” that characterize it, such as the fishing net, which in these works symbolizes social and cultural, personal and collective dynamics that entangle lives, experiences, relationships, in an inexplicable tangle. Nets that capture, therefore, represent an obstacle, limit freedom, but can also be understood as an opportunity for connection, a means to enter into a relationship with others, with the surrounding reality, in a way that is not virtual and ephemeral, but real and concrete, in a direct relationship with things. The nets that Galgani applies on the canvas, mixing them with other material and color, are a way to remind us – again the value of memory – that we are all connected, us and others, us and the nature around us, creatures among creatures, in deep connection with the living.
The exhibition, which will run until December 15 , will be open to the public from Tuesday to Friday 10am-1pm and 3pm-7pm, and on Saturday 3pm-7pm.
An original artist, protagonist of numerous exhibitions and events in Italy and abroad, Giulio Galgani is a character with a multifaceted creativity and an inexhaustible curiosity. After an initial figurative path in the early 1980s, he oriented himself towards an enigmatic dimension of art, of predominantly metaphysical inspiration, which, from 2000 onwards, will be followed by a completely new intellectual and human direction. Born in Genoa in 1958, he has lived in Tuscany for many years, immersed in the greenery of the Val Di Chiana, a land where he draws inspiration for many of his works. From 1990 to today he has held numerous solo exhibitions in private galleries and public spaces in Italy and abroad (China, America, Europe) curated, among others, by Martina Corgnati and Giovanni Faccenda. Of particular note are the anthologies: Chiostro del Bramante (Rome, 2012), Palazzo Bastogi (Florence, Tuscany Region, 2012), Palazzo Medici Riccardi (Florence, 2013), Palazzo Comunale di Pontassieve (2014). He is present in national and international public collections such as: Vatican Museums; Palazzo Comunale di Cortona; Museo Casa Natale di Michelangelo; Musicom Museum, Amberg; Assembly House, Norvik. In 2024 he published his monograph edited by Skira with the title Ritratto di un artista irregular .
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