Giuseppe Desiato. Like the quietness of flowers
“Like the quietness of flowers…” This fragment from a poem by Giuseppe Desiato sounds like a mystery, tender and enigmatic at the same time. To discover the meaning of these words, one has to immerse oneself into Giuseppe Desiato’s work as well as into his personal life.
Naples, his city, lives in this poem as well as in his work. Yet the artist is also part of an international discourse to which he contributes vividly with his clear vision. His artistic practice cannot be defined as part of any movement as it is rather a kaleidoscopic experience that explores the singular and complex universe of an individual.
Desiato could be described as a “tableau vivant”, moving in between art and life as he conceives his personal narrative which he then projects onto a collective dimension.
The artist creates his own poetics: something different from Body Art, even if similar to it, something outside of Fluxus even if close to it, something distinct from Viennese Actionism even if relating to it.
Desiato is operating along the periphery of accepted Behaviour with extreme individualism, which some would say is a typically Italian trait.
To the extent that the body becomes a medium, a territory of possibilities, a perceptive openness to the world. By operating in a context that is recreated and shared each time, he can finally overcome the centrality of the work as “object” and emphasise it as “pure experience”.
“I want to be always independent, like the quietness of flowers…” By adding a fragment of poetry, Desiato’s work gradually reveals its alchemical mystery. And so for the artist, peace is restored, chaos is transformed into cosmos.
Everything comes into view because Giuseppe Desiato’s work is essentially a constant search for a possible balance between culture and nature, between the individual and the world. His work destroys in order to reconstruct, unmasks in order to reveal and searches in the obscure folds of life for its fullest and most luminous meaning.
text/ Elena Re
The exhibition is realised with the support of the Stiftung Kunstfonds and the special programme Neustart Kultur
The exhibition is a part of Berlin Gallery Weekend.
