“Brusii” is the title of the exhibition whose curators are Ivan D’Alberto and Martina Sconci, an overview that retraces about fifty years or Enrico Pulsoni’s artistic career. He was born in Avezzano: Abruzzo welcomes the work of an artist for whom the country of origin was a muse, a source of inspiration and the treasure chest for memories whose echo is in his works. In the exhibition, the two curators were supported by Antonello Tolve, who recently took care of a monograph which encloses in chapters the whole collection of the artist’s works since 1975.
Enrico Pulsoni, “Lenin”, from the series “Lenin’s Perspectives”, letraset and Indian ink on paper, 10 x 15 cm. Courtesy Archivio Enrico Pulsoni (Rome)
Enrico Pulsoni was defined “Phantastisch aktor” by Tadeusz Kantor a famous Polish painter and theatre director from last century. The definition derives from the fact that Pulsoni has always been an eclectic artist, whose artistic production ranges from paintings to earthenware, from artists’ books to works made of metal materials with the most different techniques. He does not practise a simple exercise in style, he uses various modalities that enable him to express a dimension which is both personal and metaphysical with reference to his origins. The Abruzzo region becomes the common thread of Pulsoni’s poetics, recurring in the multifaceted production of the artist. The use of the spiral then occurs, intended as a labyrinth and a refuge from the atrocities of the world, described by the critic Marisa Vescovo already in 1989: «We can highlight Pulsoni’s solar presences, bright but unstable, they confess the instability of the self».
Enrico Pulsoni, “Untitled”, 1981, mixed media on paper, 33 x 43 cm. Courtesy Archivio Enrico Pulsoni (Rome)
Pulsoni’s poetics is the expression of a profound bond between language and time, between art and architecture, the private sphere and the universe. “Brusii” highlights the trait of the spiral, a sign in metamorphosis created with a fluid movement, often unfinished. The exhibition is also a return to base for Pulsoni, who by means of the works exhibited at Muspaq gives life to a dialogue with the surrounding territory, the land of origin becomes an interior landscape. From the beginning MuSpAC – Museo Sperimentale d’Arte Contemporanea dell’Aquila offers to the public the works of avant-garde artists from the second half of the twentieth century, characters who have tried to offer a new meaning to contemporary artistic languages. For his part, Pulsoni has always tried to include all the possible expression forms in his art. With “Brusii”, Muspaq has tried to emphasize this side of Pulsoni’s over ten years old production, his complex research, an anthological exhibition in a hybrid place that appears as a space of sharing and workshop for ideas.
Enrico Pulsoni, “Untitled”, 1990, oil on canvas, 95 x 190 cm. Courtesy Archivio Enrico Pulsoni (Rome)
Therefore, there are exhibited papers, graphics, paintings and sculptures, inserted in the space of the museum as a part of an overall experience for visitors. Works that can be browsed, closely observed, crossed, in synergy with the theatre experience that is one of the sources of Pulsoni’s practice. “Brusii” is formed by paintings, bold earthenware, papier mache and other expressive media that contribute to the creation of “sharp linguistic mumbles”, so called by Tolve. The scenery Pulsoni represents makes us think of Abruzzo, in the shape of metaphysical spirals and chromatic stripping that evoke far away landscapes from which the artist only physically got away. The autobiographic memories embrace a fictitious reality put on stage by Pulsoni, whose works are often full of spirals, mazes, arabesque, places of lightness that are left open in contrast with closed geometric shapes that block the phantasy of the artist from Abruzzo.
Enrico Pulsoni, “Paesaggiocinese”, 2011, acrylic on paper, 70 x 50 cm; “Voltitravolti”, 2014, acrylic on paper, 70 x 50 cm. Courtesy Archivio Enrico Pulsoni (Rome)
Enrico Pulsoni has worked with different techniques and materials trying to analyse well defined themes. The exhibition in L’Aquila introduces the observer to the braiding of word, time and sign in his production, the unravelling of a story based on experience and imagination. Spirals and free sinuous signs in space, a rhythm marked by Pulsoni’s technical ability and skill, who never loses sight of the importance of the intrinsic phantasy of human nature. The exhibition falls within the project ANNUALE D’ARTE 2025, supported by the municipality of L’Aquila.
Francesco Pozzi
Info:
Enrico Pulsoni. Brusii
curated by Ivan D’Alberto, Martina Sconci, Antonello Tolve
18/01/2025 – 22/02/2025
MuSpAC – Museo Sperimentale d’Arte Contemporanea dell’Aquila
Via Pasquale Ficara – Piazza d’Arti, L’Aquila
https://www.muspac.com/
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