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GIORGIO TENTOLINI
Casalmaggiore (Cremona), 1978
Against an entirely blank, monochrome background, ten meticulously arranged layers of metal mesh, painstakingly planned and patiently cut out by hand, create the chiaroscuro gradations that make up the faces of young women and mannequins, details of classical statuary, architectural interiors and cityscapes.
The artist’s analytical approach to vision, which derives from his training in the graphic arts and professional experience as a photographer, led him in the early years of the new century to separate faces, bodies and natural elements into levels of light using overlapping layers of acetate and Plexiglas or strips of acetate and wood, then coming to describe his subjects, between 2007 and 2010, by cutting out a series of modules in layers of PVC mesh or incising the areas of light and shadow in paper and tulle (2014–2015). During this period, he displayed his work in London, Berlin and Amsterdam. The works in metal mesh (2016–2019) are the apex of this expressive exploration. In them, we find a materialisation of the symbolic sublimation of epiphanic visions that the initial photograph taken by the artist frees from the jumble of images of today’s visual panorama and saves from the passage of time to make it resurface as a vague retinal impression that we discover lodged in a remote corner of the memory. The play of the interweaving, misalignment, overlapping and change in weave direction of the hexagons of the mesh allows us to perceive, from a certain distance and in contrast with the background, the perceptive complexity and distinctive features of the figure. Light serves as an organising element for the eye, rationally recomposing the points of light into which the intangible sensory sign made real by the artist has been divided. Through the layering of memories and experiences, the image resurfaces in this intangible substance, made possible solely through losing itself in a vision that does not follow the cognitive parameters of perception, giving rise to doubts and questions about the true substance of the human being and the impossibility of fully grasping the essence of the real.
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VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
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WORKS ON SHOW
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Giorgio Tentolini, Venere, vista 2 (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Igea, vista 4 (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Atena (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Demetra, vista 4 (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Hera Barberini (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Amazzone, vista 4 (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Igea, vista 5 (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Hermes Lansdowne (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Nilo (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Amazzone ferita, vista 2 (Pagan Poetry), 2018
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Giorgio Tentolini, Giunone Pentini (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Discobolo, vista 2 (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Pan (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Venere (Pagan Poetry), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Juno Ludovisi (Pagan Poetry), 2020
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Giorgio Tentolini, Barberini – dett. 8740 (In Limine), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Barberini - dett. 8617 (Immobili), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Barberini - dett. 8630 (In Limine), 2019
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Giorgio Tentolini, Afrodite (Pagan Poetry), 2018
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Giorgio Tentolini, Testa ideale maschile (Pagan Poetry), 2018
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Giorgio Tentolini, Afrodite al bagno (Pagan Poetry), 2018
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Critical text by Prof. Valter Rosa
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To conclude these brief reflections, I offer my attempt at a lapidary summary of what I have seen in Tentolini’s recent works, displayed in the highly calibrated exhibition at the Museo Diotti: stolen impersonal photos, restored capacity and intensity of the gaze; a drawing (also in the sense of ultimate aim) gained back through and beyond the technical and craftsman translation of the images; restoring voice and light to words and figures extinguished in the fast stream of uses and abuses; poetry.
Prof. Valter Rosa
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