In Naples, at the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte, on Tuesday 14 February (12 pm, Burri room on the second floor) the catalogue, published by Arte'm, of the exhibition “Interno con Marmi” by Flavio Favelli will be presented on the last day of exhibition of the work that the artist has chosen for the ninth appointment of “Incontri Sensibili”, the focus exhibitions of the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte that put contemporary artists in dialogue with the Museum's collections.
The artist and curators Angela Tecce and Sylvain Bellenger will be present, moderated by Adriana Rispoli, independent critic and curator. The installation was conceived in relation to the Ciborium, built between 1619 and 1623, designed by Cosimo Fanzago to contain the Holy Sacrament in the church of Santa Patrizia in Naples. A true miniature architecture, embellished by the technique of marble inlay that imitates plant shoots, vases with flowers and birds, a monumental tabernacle of the Neapolitan Baroque in gilded bronze, gilded copper, polychrome marble and semiprecious stones (jasper, amethyst, agate, lapis lazuli). A dialogue that is not limited to the tabernacle but also extends to the other works exhibited in the exhibition Oltre Caravaggio. A new story of painting in Naples, curated by Stefano Causa and Patrizia Piscitello.
“Interno con Marmi” is composed of materials of various origins, marble and wood, which evoke the domestic environments of Italian bourgeois homes. The work produces an ambiguous and unstable space, played on a few homogeneous colors, with blind spots and narrow spaces, resulting in strong contrast with the symmetry and preciousness of the Ciborium, an expression of Neapolitan Baroque. Like a monument on a pedestal, Favelli's work brings together fragments of personal and collective memories. At the same time, it compares two aesthetic and cultural models, both devoted to guarding an unknowable mystery.”
For a long time I have been creating works with pieces from various pasts, which are considered antiques or old objects or flea market stuff, but have no meaning as antiques or modern antiques. They are subjects themselves, they have a psyche, multiple meanings, they are oracles for poets and they embody the environments and memories where I have lived; they are thus a small guide, they are totemic presences that establish relationships and tell of profound moments. They are little flames that regenerate faded or disappeared images” writes the artist in the catalogue.
“By choosing to exhibit in the gallery on the second floor of the Reggia di Capodimonte, a room that the curators call 'the church', both for its large space and for the religious paintings of the Counter-Reformation that are exhibited there, Favelli has moved in spirituality. Have these poor materials, this marble that is not marble, these nailed panels taken on a spirituality closer to our time than that of the angels and martyrs exalted by the Baroque? But perhaps I am the only visitor to perceive this dimension of the work, Favelli certainly would not recognize himself in it, a sign that his work, in part, has already escaped him and like all great messages has already taken its flight”, states the director of the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte, Sylvain Bellenger in the catalogue.
“I have always told myself, when faced with Flavio Favelli's compositions, that they resemble scores, thanks to the procedure of recovering in shorthand form fragments of a recent past so close to us. – not only temporally but psychologically and, above all, emotionally – to make it present and alive like a melody that comes back to our minds completely casually but insistently", writes Angela Tecce, president of the Donnaregina Foundation for the arts in Campania in her contribution to the catalogue.
Article published on 9 February 2023 - 13:40
