Alessandra Di Castro Antichità and Galleria Franco Noero jointly present at Palazzo Martinelli in Monopoli Giovanni Lanfranco's 'Angelica e Medoro' in dialogue with Sam Falls' on site works and ceramic beams, part of the city-wide exhibition curated by Vincenzo de Bellis.
A text written by Vincenzo de Bellis outlines the nature of the whole project and presentation:
One of the main aspects of the 'Panorama' project is that of relating artists and works of profoundly different eras and origins. Thinking about the theme of hospitality understood as a relationship with the other, someone different from us and the many diversities inherent in each of us, I had the opportunity to exhibit an important work such as 'Angelica and Medoro' by Giovanni Lanfranco. The painting represents one of the most important episodes of the chivalric poem 'Orlando Furioso' by Ludovico Ariosto: Angelica is the princess of Catai, today's China, who arrived in Europe at the court of Charlemagne, who falls in love with the very young Saracen infantryman. Medoro and leaves with him for Cathay. The story is important as Orlando, who is in love with Angelica, will lose his mind after discovering that she fled with Medoro, becoming furious, hence the title of the Ariosto poem. Without going into too many details related to the poem itself and to the war between Moors and Christians, the 'leitmotiv' of the whole, we can say that this narrative, albeit written in the Renaissance period, is unfortunately still very current and very linked to the relationship with the other, with the stranger, with the one who is different from us. In the spirit of the relationship between ancient, modern and contemporary I have chosen to invite an artist of the present like Sam Falls to express himself and confront himself with Lanfranco's painting by giving his own interpretation, not referring at all or directly to the allegory narrated by the painting, but on the contrary by responding in a conceptual key. Falls has enthusiastically decided to present two kinds of works, the first is part of the 'Rain Paintings' series, works on canvas made 'en plein air' by covering the surface of the cloth lying on the ground with leaves, branches, flowers of the local vegetation and sprinkling it of dry pigments. Outdoors atmospheric agents such as rain and humidity dissolve the dry colors on the canvas, staining it in the parts left free by local leaves and plants, almost becoming an atlas of the surrounding flora and allowing the randomness of the pigment dilution process to be part integral part of the work, in the attempt of total interpenetration with the nature that surrounds us and with the course of its time. This work, a diptych, will mirror the same dimensions in each of its parts as Lanfranco's work, at the edge of the frame. To the canvases are added a couple of works belonging to a different series born, however, with the same premises and intentions, these are double T beams filled on one side with ceramic impressed with natural elements such as branches and flowers and painted, using the traditional technique of double fire. The design and the enamelled colors of the ceramics are echoed in the ceiling beams of the Palazzo Martinelli exhibition venue painted with motifs that bring back to nature. The reasons for the dialogue between works and artists are therefore not based on iconography or narration, but on the very essence of the work of art and on the relationship that a contemporary artist has towards its creation. As Falls himself says: "The plant, if taken as a subject, tells of a place and can inspire the process by which art is created. The shapes of a body can tell many stories and the relationship between two bodies within a single plan can outline the terms of a story.
Vincenzo de Bellis, August 2022