This series is named after my first major solo exhibition dedicated to MEMORY SUCCESSORS = MNEMAGOGES (from the title of a story by Primo Levi). At this time in my life I needed to deal with REMEMBRANCE , as perhaps you did.
Certain THINGS had immense evocative power for me and just seeing them brought back memories of precious moments spent with loved ones that I was afraid to forget.
My father's watch, for example, an automatic wristwatch, brought me closer to him and allowed me to feel and see the movement of his arm as he wound it, so much so that I could still smell my dad's perfume !
I found that by painting those things, I was stopping the memory and all the moments related to him!
From the first works in this series came my first major solo exhibition at the San Giovanni Monumental Library in Parma in 1999 and my entry into the art world.
In the bottoms of this series, I experimented with papers that were initially stretched and crumpled and not visible; then I used newsprint that was partly visible; finally I used papers that I dyed with tea (I often used baking paper because of its transparency characteristic).
I would glue them by following my instincts and trying to find their balance.
I remember the baking paper hanging all over my kitchen to dry (dripping mercilessly everywhere!).
and one day I forgot the tea filter inside some roughly folded papers , and when I opened them they were stained perfectly
and the anxiety in trying countless glues before finding the right one, which then in the end was the easiest one...the vinyl one!
But I remember the joy and the sense of achievement when the process that went so evolved during the series and led me to at first paint the whole medium , focusing only the central part of the picture and then I switched to painting only the central part and the rest as if it disappeared,I removed the superfluous, leaving only the vignettes of the predominant color of the main subject(to create the effect of implosion/explosion)
With many works in this series, I began my collaboration with galleries.
You can explore each work by clicking on the image.
