Until 19 February 2006 · Alessandro Vicario · Pesaro, Centro Arti Visive Pescheria

A skilful interplay of planes. A clear reference to a narrative fabric, in which frontal and overhead views form the warp and weft of a discourse that expands through perception. Filling a void left behind...

The exhibition brings together photographic works produced by Alessandro Vicario between 1999 and 2000. A twofold investigation of inhabiting and experiencing our most intimate spaces. Set beneath the evocative entablature of the old fish market, the first event organised by the newly established Design Department of the Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, directed by Mariadele Conti, aims to provide a starting point for an exploration of the territories of vision, encouraging a design practice more attentive to the emotional dimension of space. A space that is also inward, defined by seemingly impenetrable surfaces that meet in a dimension familiar to us all, touching the deepest layer of feeling. A kind of box of feelings, its walls immaterially whitewashed, from which fragments of a lover's discourse suddenly emerge.

A door jamb bearing the marks of carefully recorded growth; the silhouette of a picture outlined on a wall bereft of its artwork. Then floors, surfaces, traces and triggers of a thousand memories, each capable of stirring as many emotions. These are not merely extracts from life, but intangible traces that speak of lives and individuals whom Vicario makes us regret never having met. Memory becomes an absence, not only of affection but of roots. It expresses a forceful need for cultural recognition of one's own existence, constantly poised between being and becoming, departure and return. Ancient, age-old questions about how to face the loss of a loved one and preserve their memory remain only one aspect of the narrative, allowing another strong sense of unease to emerge towards the glossy pages of magazines and the immaculately styled interiors of fashionable venues.

The intense attention given to places and to the introspection of the domestic interior, experienced as the absolute space of one's personal sphere, seems to cry out for redress against an architectural language in which every sign is carefully designed and everything is communication. The multisensory evocation of memories foregrounds the need for an architectural composition capable of moving once again from the inside out. To become lived experience, rather than representation alone.

Francesco Benedetti

Exhibition visited on 25 January 2006

A work by Alessandro Vicario exhibited in Pescara

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