Exhibitions, Italy, Lecco, 01 May 2016
Duende is the name of a mythological figure of the popular Folklore depicted as a small humanoid, something like a gnome. In time, Duende has been identified as the spirit of evocation, the physical and emotional response elicited by art .
Getting Duende is to get that thrill that makes you smile or cry in front of a particularly artistic expression.
Such term is often used in folk music and particularly during the most intense performance of Flamenco.
Federico Garcia Lorca was probably the first to develop the aesthetics of Duende. In his view four fundamental aspects of the duende can be isolated : irrationality , earthiness , a deeper awareness of death , and a hint of evil. Duende is an earth spirit which helps artists to see the limits of intelligence, to push artists face to face with death and that helps to create and transmit memorable and astonishing art .
Duende is in opposition to the grace, the classic charm and the lyrical virtuosity; for Lorca it is passion , inner conflict that captures not only the artist but also the simple onlooker, something that creates conditions in which art can be understood with only a touch of conscious effort .
With Duende we open the mind's eye and everything is perceived with extreme force.
Duende is a mysterious power that resides in the dark side of things and emotions, it is something perceptible by all of us but hard to explain. As St. Augustine said to define the time : "If you don’t ask me what it is, I know. If you ask me , I do not".
No maps or spiritual exercises to find it because it flows in your veins like blood , which eschews logical explanations and style rules. It burns creating an artistic intense and memorable experience.
Like fire destroys and brings something new, something surprising even in its banality, maybe that "I do not know" that fascinated us.
This exhibition will try to explore the Duende and to summon it through the works of international artists . We will abandon the classic styles, the already seen images, in favor of something more evocative that arises from the artists' own experience, but able to touch each of us .
We are going to explore unknown or maybe just ignored territories, guided by that indefinable power that makes us goose bumps, or that can disturb us while watching an art work .
At the end of such experience perhaps we will not be able to define what Duende is but, for sure, we will have clearly perceived it within us .
Getting Duende is to get that thrill that makes you smile or cry in front of a particularly artistic expression.
Such term is often used in folk music and particularly during the most intense performance of Flamenco.
Federico Garcia Lorca was probably the first to develop the aesthetics of Duende. In his view four fundamental aspects of the duende can be isolated : irrationality , earthiness , a deeper awareness of death , and a hint of evil. Duende is an earth spirit which helps artists to see the limits of intelligence, to push artists face to face with death and that helps to create and transmit memorable and astonishing art .
Duende is in opposition to the grace, the classic charm and the lyrical virtuosity; for Lorca it is passion , inner conflict that captures not only the artist but also the simple onlooker, something that creates conditions in which art can be understood with only a touch of conscious effort .
With Duende we open the mind's eye and everything is perceived with extreme force.
Duende is a mysterious power that resides in the dark side of things and emotions, it is something perceptible by all of us but hard to explain. As St. Augustine said to define the time : "If you don’t ask me what it is, I know. If you ask me , I do not".
No maps or spiritual exercises to find it because it flows in your veins like blood , which eschews logical explanations and style rules. It burns creating an artistic intense and memorable experience.
Like fire destroys and brings something new, something surprising even in its banality, maybe that "I do not know" that fascinated us.
This exhibition will try to explore the Duende and to summon it through the works of international artists . We will abandon the classic styles, the already seen images, in favor of something more evocative that arises from the artists' own experience, but able to touch each of us .
We are going to explore unknown or maybe just ignored territories, guided by that indefinable power that makes us goose bumps, or that can disturb us while watching an art work .
At the end of such experience perhaps we will not be able to define what Duende is but, for sure, we will have clearly perceived it within us .
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