MI ODI A RIO
Opening in Florence, at La Fonderia Art Gallery, is “MI ODI A RIO”, an anthological exhibition by Alfredo Rapetti Mogol, on Friday, June 7th at 5:00 PM, in the presence of the artist.
From June 7th to 29th, the premises at Via La Fonderia 42/R will showcase the last ten years of production by the Milanese artist. A lyricist like his father and a “painter of words,” Rapetti Mogol makes graphemes and music the constant theme of his work. On display in Florence will be his famous ‘writings’ on canvas along with his latest word-deconstruction works, including several unprecedented pieces.
Featuring over twenty works that testify to the constant research of one of the most prolific and acclaimed contemporary artists on the Italian scene, the exhibition is a diary rather than a mere anthology, wherein words serve as both the message and the interpretive key. If it contained only alphabets and letters, “MI ODI A RIO” could simply be a florilegium of the author’s past ten years.
In the Florentine exhibition, alphabetical deconstructions materialize on canvas, lead, concrete, and antique papers, while writing is carved into marble. A few floral motifs also find their place within the exhibition spaces. A central installation—a triptych comprising three tombstones bearing letters from soldiers at the front line and their tears collected in a holy water font—re-discovers the salvific role of art. In “Sinfonia azzurra” (Azure Symphony), a musical score becomes a blueprint from which notes rise like a song.
In his artistic expression, Alfredo Rapetti Mogol blends writing and painting. The word is the knot that binds his two professions: that of a songwriter (under the pseudonym Cheope) and that of a painter.
Within his works, writing delves into color through the impuntura (stitching) technique. Artistic vocabulary becomes communication, and the pictorial language merges with the verbal one. The artist navigates between order and chaos; he does not compose words but rather deconstructs them, placing the viewer inside an enigma, urging them to assign their own meaning and to move along the border between word and image.
The word is a testament, a trace of human existence and self-awareness, a memory of one’s own being and emotions.
“The deconstruction of the word and its subsequent re-composition is a new evolution of my work on language and its signifying form,” explains Rapetti Mogol. “In this specific case, the letter-molecule ‘detaches’ itself from the mother word, delocalizing to create new verbal aggregations, unprecedented graphic islands. At first glance, these neographisms appear to be an unknown tongue, seemingly without any coherent meaning—a ‘non-language’ that re-acquires the meaning of its original content only within a sensitive observer and through a pure mental process.”
The anthology of Alfredo Rapetti Mogol’s productions will be presented by the writer and essayist Sandra Landi.
The exhibition is organized by gallerist and Artistic Director Niccolò Mannini, with the organizational support of Riccardo Nicoletti and Elisa Frego.
Vernissage on Friday, June 7th at 5:00 PM in the presence of the artist, with wine kindly offered by the Degli Azzoni Avogadro Winery.
