Critical texts, Italy, Brescia, 19 December 2008
As far as time - and therefore space - is measured in terms of light, this is the qestion that in a certain way arouses from the observation of Silvia Casilli's paintings:
which is the place and time to which her paintings refer to?
The answer is not so immediate. Nevertheless we canno't consider the obscure and indefinite matter over which and from which these suggestions take place. This matter is bitumen - that obscure and indefinite matter originated millions of years ago from the decomposition of overflown woods and from their sedimentation in the soil as hydrocarbons. And it is in the variations and modulations of this obscure and indetermined matter that the work of Silvia Casilli finds its grounding, so as to be rightly defined as contemporary artwork.
Let's therefore try to understand the semantic value of this term - contemporary - according to which we identify the idea of 'shared time'.
Silvia Casilli's work has recourse to this precious conceptual contribution and it is an evidence of this interpretation of the term.It could be asked according to which expressive and communicative ways this process displays.
In order to find an exausive answer it is nevertheless necessary to go back in the art history in order to recover a certain part of memory. According to it- at the end of the '70s and as a consequence of the collapsing of self significant values connected to forms, that stated that an a priori given form could and should communicate only itself - the next step was that of taking into consideration the archetypic forms as a good chance to put them in an ironic framework till the point to consider that new attitude towards art as being worthy of the title of 'post-modern'.
This term was coined by the French philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard 30 years ago, in 1979. Is it still possible to reason in terms of 'post - modern era'? Or, shouldn'n we reason in terms of conemporaneity?
It is my opinion that anything can be said about contemporary art except identifying it in a unique bulk defined as 'post - modern'. It is not to be questioned that inside the contemporary artistic scene examples of post-modern art do exist and these ones find their conceptual basis of their existence in the contraposition that binds them to the environment of mature rationalism; nevertheless this kind of works is uniquely and voluntarily linked to the framework they oppose to.
Different is the case od Silvia Casilli. Her work has nothing to do with the sphere of post-modern.They evade this conceptual cage in order to resolutely arrange in the field of conemporaneity - that is that dimension of shared, common, participated knowledge according to which the basical conceptual ground assumes all the characters of the black, empty, unexpressive screen where everything finally has the same weight - the shocking images of Saddam Hussein execution as well as those of a bisquits brand - because they are both inserted in a media environment where real and fake do mingle till vanishing.
This is the sphere in which these works abide. A dark, empty, formless field identified by the matter itself from which these works generate their light - that is to say bitumen.
This black and shapeless sphere is the perfect metaphore of contemporary period as far as it mirrors the world crysis in which everyone shares the most comprehensible dimension of the absence of perspective. It is exactly from here that Silvia Casilli extracts her shapes and colours in a perfect balance between figure and abstraction so as to reach the higest result an artist can aspire to - that of suggesting a sort of re-creation.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger rightly identified poetry as the highly defining character of an artwork. Had it the opportunity of meeting the works of Silvia Casilli, one of her works would have probably decorated his parlor.
Enrico Napoli
which is the place and time to which her paintings refer to?
The answer is not so immediate. Nevertheless we canno't consider the obscure and indefinite matter over which and from which these suggestions take place. This matter is bitumen - that obscure and indefinite matter originated millions of years ago from the decomposition of overflown woods and from their sedimentation in the soil as hydrocarbons. And it is in the variations and modulations of this obscure and indetermined matter that the work of Silvia Casilli finds its grounding, so as to be rightly defined as contemporary artwork.
Let's therefore try to understand the semantic value of this term - contemporary - according to which we identify the idea of 'shared time'.
Silvia Casilli's work has recourse to this precious conceptual contribution and it is an evidence of this interpretation of the term.It could be asked according to which expressive and communicative ways this process displays.
In order to find an exausive answer it is nevertheless necessary to go back in the art history in order to recover a certain part of memory. According to it- at the end of the '70s and as a consequence of the collapsing of self significant values connected to forms, that stated that an a priori given form could and should communicate only itself - the next step was that of taking into consideration the archetypic forms as a good chance to put them in an ironic framework till the point to consider that new attitude towards art as being worthy of the title of 'post-modern'.
This term was coined by the French philosopher Jean Francois Lyotard 30 years ago, in 1979. Is it still possible to reason in terms of 'post - modern era'? Or, shouldn'n we reason in terms of conemporaneity?
It is my opinion that anything can be said about contemporary art except identifying it in a unique bulk defined as 'post - modern'. It is not to be questioned that inside the contemporary artistic scene examples of post-modern art do exist and these ones find their conceptual basis of their existence in the contraposition that binds them to the environment of mature rationalism; nevertheless this kind of works is uniquely and voluntarily linked to the framework they oppose to.
Different is the case od Silvia Casilli. Her work has nothing to do with the sphere of post-modern.They evade this conceptual cage in order to resolutely arrange in the field of conemporaneity - that is that dimension of shared, common, participated knowledge according to which the basical conceptual ground assumes all the characters of the black, empty, unexpressive screen where everything finally has the same weight - the shocking images of Saddam Hussein execution as well as those of a bisquits brand - because they are both inserted in a media environment where real and fake do mingle till vanishing.
This is the sphere in which these works abide. A dark, empty, formless field identified by the matter itself from which these works generate their light - that is to say bitumen.
This black and shapeless sphere is the perfect metaphore of contemporary period as far as it mirrors the world crysis in which everyone shares the most comprehensible dimension of the absence of perspective. It is exactly from here that Silvia Casilli extracts her shapes and colours in a perfect balance between figure and abstraction so as to reach the higest result an artist can aspire to - that of suggesting a sort of re-creation.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger rightly identified poetry as the highly defining character of an artwork. Had it the opportunity of meeting the works of Silvia Casilli, one of her works would have probably decorated his parlor.
Enrico Napoli
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