THE APPOINTMENT*

 

The “Stand-In Painting”, or rather the duplicate of the “Infinite Painting”, was activated during this project.

From 16 to 21 July 2019 I was invited to carry out my painterly gesture in the Chiesa della Propositura in Pratovecchio in the province of Arezzo.

Every morning at 10am with my usual inertia and rhythm dictated by habit I kept my daily appointment with myself six times and headed to the church, continuing to generate colour in the “Substitute Bowl” and adding layers of paint to the “Stand-In Painting”.

My palette changed in order to accommodate the colours of the place. I focussed mainly on the thirteenth-century painting of the Madonna housed in the small chapel. Red, which is the origin of all my paintings, coincided with the red of Baby Jesus’ swaddling robes. Then came three pinks taken from the robes of the Madonna’s clothing and finally two blues found on the robes of two small angels at the top of the painting, but also the blue of Peter’s Resurrection and the blue of the skies and della Robbia’s ceramics from the Casentino valley.

A musician played the piano alongside me while I was painting. Two actions – that of painting and that of playing – flowed in tandem and together they continued to add other sounds and other colours to the world.

Every morning at that time the curator, the artist and the people who lived in the area joined me and approached me to exchange a few words about what I was doing and about what all this meant to them in relation to their own experiences and lives. 

From the intimacy of the studio to encounters with others.

* “The Appointment” is a project for “Waiting – Esercizi per il tempo” curated by Pietro Gaglianò for STAND UP FOR AFRICA and “Aspettando naturalmente pianoforte”, Pratovecchio (AR)

(Written in 2019)