The exhibition “Ti bacio molto” by Andrea Astolfi, was born from the discovery of a Portuguese guide, containing a letter dedicated to the artist, in which the words of loving witnesses from a past story, conclude in the words “Ti bacio molto” that give the title to the show. This short message fully involves the artist to the point of becoming an epiphany, from which emerge memories, impressions and lived experiences, missed opportunities and contemplated landscapes, of which the contours are retraced.
Andrea Astolfi, “Ti bacio molto”, installation view, 2024, ph. Marzio Santoro, courtesy s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare
The gesture of highlighting the signs traced by the once loved person, starting from a love letter, is the starting point of the entire research movement. The use of carbon paper is not a purely aesthetic choice and serves to understand the artist’s desire to underline and retrace the salient moments of that past bond, sinking into a time now lost. Hence the desire to recover old diaries and drawings to retrace and transpose them too. For example, the exhibition presents on the back of four small postcards depicting architectural sections, the places dearest to the artist, such as the Cathedral of Atri, the view of the city outside the walls, Villa Comunale and the detail of the fresco of a Christ in a mandorla present in the Cathedral itself. Among the other works, there is a postcard purchased by the artist in an ancient village, on which, again with carbon paper, the profile of an old farmhouse immersed in a hilly landscape is imprinted, and a sheet of dusting paper with the same representation upside down, inserted in a light wooden frame, both resting on their pedestal.
Andrea Astolfi, “Casolare + cavalluccio”, carbon paper and marker pressure on tracing paper, 2024, ph. Marzio Santoro, courtesy s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare
The drawn postcards alternate with four works from the “Diaries” series, screened by anti-reflective protective glass, to protect light blue sheets of carbon paper, on which further notes find space, words with barely hinted lines, like thoughts that intertwine and dissolve guided by the current of the Adriatic Sea: “I loved”, “Bonjour”, “I should have”, “therefore”, “roundabout of the house”, “portion of”, “passed”, “I kiss you very much”, “from here everything becomes more distant in the light of the sun”. Analyzing this last sentence, we understand that it contains a bit of the meaning of the exhibition, as if to say that the more things are in the shadow, the more they can be read. The exhibition, in fact, which plays on what is visible and what is not, stimulates us to immerse ourselves in the darkest points of memory, where every now and then memories flash with their clarity in our mind, making us inhabit a temporal space between past and present.
Andrea Astolfi, “Ti bacio molto”, installation view, 2024, ph. Marzio Santoro, courtesy s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare
The contrast between shadows and lights is also evident in the layout of the workshop space s.m.l.00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare: entering a first room with a minimal style, therefore easily modulable, we are enveloped by the brightness of the white walls and enraptured by the cold lights, transported into the ripples of the carbon paper, into the darkness of the blue with its shades, and then intrigued by the subtlety of the words just sketched out trying to extrapolate the story in its entirety. Despite the presence of a large amount of light, the impression is that additional sources of illumination are needed to find new information about what is being narrated. Figuratively speaking, the viewer moves in the dark and is asked to activate a certain gaze to capture the truth of the artist’s thought more closely, for greater awareness. The works on display are the result of research carried out by Andrea Astolfi over the years, and in their complexity they are evocative of some works that have the ability to capture the public’s attention by activating all their senses, such as “Blu” (2021), a unique scented artist’s book, or the “foggy” black and white photos of “Cut Landscape” (2022).
Andrea Astolfi, “Autoritratto”, pressure on carbon paper, 2024, ph. Marzio Santoro, courtesy s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare
In “Ti bacio molto” we are committed to identifying portions of houses with their details and fragments of a speech fixed on paper. Places and experiences that the artist lives firsthand, contemplates, observes, records and calls us to travel with him, in a visual walk, thus creating an emotional journey between the visible and the invisible. Deep emotions distributed over time, in the frame of shadowy colors illuminated by the sunlight. The exhibition therefore takes on the connotation of a logbook or a sketchbook, on which the artist jots down reflections carefully recovered from the past, which in the exhibition take on the value of a work: an intimate story, full of accents on reality, shared with everyone, in which each of us can recognize our own life experiences.
Andrea Astolfi, “Da qui tutto diventa più lontano alla luce del sole”, pressure on carbon paper and stains, 2024, dettaglio, ph. Marzio Santoro, courtesy s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare
A sum of fourteen well-studied pieces to form a single work that is both personal and choral at the same time, and also experiential, given that all the senses are called to be activated, first of all, sight. The spectator, for example, is invited to be flooded by the fullness of the blue color and to be transported by it so that some word emerges from the depths of the “sea” or comes to light like a star in the firmament, or to perceive through observation, the fragility of the touch of carbon paper; to hypothetically trace sounds, flavors and scents of that narration that is at the same time dedication, couple intrigue, testimony of autobiographical experiences and story. In conclusion, we can say that Andrea carefully analyzes everyday life and passionately lives reality as the intensity of his blue.
Chiara Di Carlo
Info:
Andrea Astolfi. “Ti bacio Molto”
08/11/2024 – 31/12/2024
s.l.m. 00 – zerozerosullivellodelmare spazio-officina
directed by Lucio Rosato
Open from Tuesday to Saturday, 18:00 – 20:00
Free admission
Via dei Marrucini, 19 – 23, Pescara
www.zerozerosullivellodelmare.it
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
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