2022

April 20th / November 27th, 2022

San Servolo Island – Pavilion of the Syrian Arab Republic

59th VENICE ART BIENNIAL

LORENZO PUGLISI

JOURNEY AT THE END OF THE NIGHT

At the 59th Venice Art Biennale Lorenzo Puglisi presents "Journey to the end of the Night", a crucifixion on a metal panel almost 2 meters high "imprisoned" in an iron cage and painted in bright white slightly dappled in red, with just the head, the hands and the feet of Christ depicted, as a symbol of life force. Dense and quivering flashes of material and vibrant colours emerge from nowhere and appear from the darkness to strike glances and consciences.

It is an iconic, essential work of great visual and emotional impact, which the artist exhibits in the garden at the entrance of San Servolo island, in the Syrian Arab Pavilion curated and organized by Emad Kashout.

The installation is part of a broader exhibition itinerary where Puglisi presents other works designed specifically for the Biennale, creating an artistic and conceptual continuum from the island garden to the interior of the pavilion.

“The light from inside the cage slowly filters through the darkness and makes its way out:

the symbol of the cross prisoner in the cage and in the heart of man is there to bring a spark of life and hope -Puglisi says -”.

He takes up a tradition that has been completely lost in contemporary art : "I look at the great masters of the past such as Michelangelo, Leonardo, Goya, Picasso, Rembrandt, Caravaggio" - explains the artist - filtering some of their masterpieces through my gaze, trying to transcend, inducing in the observer thoughts on crucial and current themes, starting from the cross as a symbol of the human condition in our time, so increasingly poor in certainties and values: a condition suspended between the horizontal, the earthly world, and the vertical, the mistery, the unknown".
“My attempt at painting is aimed at the vision of something that is other than the empirically visible, something that is inseparably intertwined and mixed with it; the search for the essential of representation, as an ambition and a goal, is linked to the search for essentiality in life, as a hope for knowing".

In addition to the crucifixion, in the garden of the Syrian Arab Pavilion Puglisi introduces another novelty, an outdoor painting: 7 monoliths will emerge from the lawn, like sparks of life, 7 zinc tables on which he paints his famous white faces and hands, the light at the end of the night, an unprecedented and powerful cycle of works designed specifically for this Venice Biennale.
In the internal spaces of the Pavilion, there are a series of 4 works in the style that made the artist reknowned, painted with oil colour on canvases on his now classic dark background:

Annunciation, On the mount of Olives, Matthew and the Angel and an astonishing Mona Lisa.

The relationship between Puglisi and the Biennale opens up to an exchange of affinity and antithesis between the visual and conceptual aspect of the venetian exhibition, made up of links and contrasts between black and white, spirit and matter: the two large white eyes on a black background is the logo/icon of the 59th Biennale d'Arte 2022, referring to a strong aesthetic which is linked with Puglisi's paintings: the relationship between light, gaze and darkness, a baroque antithesis that has always deeply touched the artist.

At the same time there is an opposition, a divergence of path with the theme of this edition titled "The milk of dreams": "I am interested in reality - explains the artist - with its crudeness without preambles, sometimes even brutal, while I'm not in the surrealist dream of the theme's title. It is reality as it is, the human being that matters, which in any case always remains the central subject."

The title of the Syrian Arab Pavilion is "The Syrian People: A Common Destiny". “A title in which lies the link with my artistic vision, which is that of trying to understand and interpret the human condition - states Puglisi -.

Syria is a nation and a place with the oldest traces of civilization, a necessary starting point for an exploration of the human being. An urgent reflection in every era, but especially in our time, in which for more than a century there have been abundant resources of life for the entire population of the Earth and where instead the violence of man against man continues to prevail and dominate: homo homini lupus. Just as it has been happening to the Syrian people for more than ten years.

"The 59th International Art Exhibition ran from 23 April to 27 November 2022 (pre-opening on 20, 21 and 22 April), curated by Cecilia Alemani. “As the first Italian woman to hold this position, I intend to give voice to artists to create unique projects that reflect their visions and our society”, Alemani has declared.
Cecilia Alemani is a curator who has organized many exhibitions of contemporary artists. She is currently Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art, the programme of public art of the urban park in New York, and is the past curator of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2017.

Info:

59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia

Title: The Milk of Dreams

Open to the public from Saturday April 23 to Sunday November 27, 2022

Curated by Cecilia Alemani

Organised by La Biennale di Venezia chaired by Roberto Cicutto.

The Pre-opening took place on April 20, 21 and 22

The Awards Ceremony and Inauguration was held on 23 April 2022

Syrian Arab Pavilion curated by Emad Kashout

7:01

Exhibitions 2022