Never been here / Jamais ète ici by Fabrizio Bellanca

From Aug. 5 to Oct. 9, 2022, the exhibition Never been here / Jamais ète ici featuring the works of Fabrizio Bellanca will be held at the Baradello Castle overlooking the city of Como. Curator of the exhibition: Federica Dell'oca.

The exhibition is organized by SlowMoon Arts & Events - Openartelier, with co-design by Slow Lake Como and the Spina Verde Regional Park Authority.

Vernissage and concert:

The Vernissage with free admission will be held on August 5, 2022 at 5:00 pm.

This will be followed at 8:00 pm by the concert "In Fabula" by the ensemble Tinere Harpa: € 15.00 (including drinks); reservation recommended.

Possibility to visit the night tower at the close of the performance, at a reduced price! Tickets also available at the box office on the evening of the event.

Fabrizio Bellanca, Roman by birth but Como by adoption, is a multifaceted artist who loves to experiment by always using new materials.

Among those he uses most are aluminum, on which he works with printing colors overlaid with glass colors, and steel in sheets, on which he works with the dremel, a small drill with stone and diamond tips. The effect he achieves is striking, similar to that of a pencil stroke.

On display are both large-scale works and more pop works by the artist: the virtualoids. the name takes us back to the 1970s, to Polaroids, to moments experienced fixed instantly on paper and in small format. a tool that in its sublime vintage nostalgia becomes a work of art and projects us into the future with its innovative and modern materials. The aluminum and steel supports, together with the glass paints and the dremel used for etching, produce an effect in which figurative and abstract coexist, leaving ample room for personal interpretation.

Never been here, this is the name chosen by the artist for his new exhibition, has two different keys to interpretation. The first is of immediate understanding and refers to the fact that his works had never been on display at the prestigious venue of Castel Baradello, on no occasion used before as an exhibition venue. The other, on the other hand, is more intimate and closely related to the humanity depicted in the paintings. A humanity that in the frenzy of big cities becomes depersonalized, loses connection with places. Men hyper-controlled and hyper-connected in the ether, but little in the soul. Cities, full of posters and ephemeral glitter, are transformed into non-places, mere containers of a life to be traversed distractedly.

Precisely within the park of the green plug, a place charged with culture and identity for the citizens of Como, new works by the artist that refer to the natural world find their place. Flowers rich in details made on steel, reminiscent in some ways of Kandinsky's abstractionism, find in the splendid setting of the Baradello the ideal environment in which to be reflected.

Among the unseen works we also find a lotus flower on a bright green background. made with glass colors on aluminum, hand-brushed to create a holographic effect, it symbolizes the rediscovered purity of a man who meets himself and others again within the places he inhabits. In balance and harmony with nature.

All this is meant to be a good omen, so that man can see himself again in nature, to feel it part of his existence as a source of life and an element to be respected with sacredness.

Text edited by Federica Dell'oca