RES DIVINAE
THE POETRY OF THE EARTH
LA MACCHIA - CAPALBIO
from the 29th of June until the 30th of September 2019
Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light.
Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky.
Life is matter and is earth,
what is and what is not,
and what beyond is in Eternity.
Lucius Anneus Seneca
I strongly wanted Andrea Roggi here at La Macchia this year as I felt the necessity to start a project of our own. I wanted us to be represented by someone who truly makes us feel at home as well as deep-rooted in this wonderful territory. Not only for his being Italian and above all Tuscan, but most importantly for being so in such an heartfelt and passionate way.
The works by Andrea Roggi bring us back to the Tuscan nature, to symbols of life such as the olive tree, the cypress tree, fire, love and especially to the immense fragility of the balance among all these. He does that through the rediscovery of ancient materials, intrinsic in our history, such as marble and bronze.
My first approach to Roggi’s work was through his olive trees and the intertwined figures from which they bloomed. This strong reference to the myth of Apollo and Daphne − so loved by all of us − fascinated me, only to discover how much more is enclosed in Andrea Roggi’s thought, which is the fruit sprung from the love for the earth, from the strong roots of this love that rustles among the fragile leaves.
The globe which, thanks to its perfect sphere, grows on its crust a trunk composed by two figures that together create life. On this strong and enveloping land love grows, as does the tree of life.
But are these roots so firm? Are they really strong? Following the artist’s path we find increasingly damaged, more fragile and ephemeral spheres. The roots are exposed and we find them at the mercy of events. We find trees of life which are still strong, but on increasingly friable and insecure spheres, until we get to suspended trees without spheres and bare spheres without trees.
Finally we find that the spheres become circles, almost like thin traces of the pencil that seems to be drawing them, circles of life now lightened by the weight of man and his defeats. In appearance simpler, actually more emotional.
The circle of life for us is a warning or a wish.
Andrea Roggi tells our story and warns us.
Isabella Borromeo
Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
He (the Creator) gave to Man an uplifted face and bade him stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven.
Publius Ovidius Naso, The Methamorphoses, vol.I, 85-86
From the 29th of June until the 30th of September, the bronze sculptures of Italian artist Andrea Roggi will be exhibited in the enchanting architectural setting of the club La Macchia in Capalbio within the solo exhibition entitled Res Divinae - The Poetry of the Earth.
The subject is particularly loved by Maestro Roggi, with his sensitivity – which is at the same time intimate and dreamlike, intensely spiritual, philosophical and sentimental – he makes tangible the intangible, transforming his creative ideas into works of art through a sophisticated manipulation of his distinctive element, bronze as – in line with the Michelangiolesque maieutic – of marble.
The Tuscan Maestro’s evocative works translate the suffused mysticism of his poetics into archetypal shapes linked to the most sacred themes: Mother Earth, the goddess of nature and spirituality; the Tree of Life, with its phytomorphic trunk and emphasized roots; the circularity of Life and the ciclicity of Time.
The Mother Earth, with its spherical shape, is an iconographic and symbolic motif particularly cherished by the Tuscan sculptor, since it contains in its signifier and its meaning his aesthetics and his artistic-intellectual manifesto.
Terra Mater appears to be equally the title of a monumental bronze artwork in
the shape of a sphere (world) made with a particular technique conceived and patented by Roggi himself which gives an earthly and magmatic perception to the bronze matter, appearing to be permeated by atavistic chthonic and telluric forces.
Other monumental works, attributable to the theme of the Tree of Life − a vital and luxuriant element of the Terra Mater − are dedicated to Salvific Love such as Our Love as a Flame, Our Pure Love, Our Roots Our Future.
In a timeless dialogue with the uncontaminated nature that surrounds the club, characterised by the Mediterranean scrub and by olives trees, are also exposed some sculptures belonging to Roggi’s latest production – Terra Mater and Time is a Circle – which present a progressive stylistic rarefaction up to the formal abstraction, in a continuous flow between figuration and trans−figuration.
The artist who was born and raised in Castiglion Fiorentino, in the province of Arezzo, chooses the sphere, the circle, the world as a symbol of the Mother Earth. Not only can one find a vast array of symbolism in his pieces of work, but the meaning behind them clearly reflects his deep-rooted identity, for instance through the iconic Tuscan plant of an olive tree whose roots and branches are aiming towards the sky.
There we observe his philosophy, characterised by an intimate respect for Nature, memories and traditions so hardwired into our history. At the same time, the hope of the moral and intellectual rebirth of humanity, thanks to the spiritual elevation obtained by aesthetic contemplation and intellectual reflection also plays a significant role.
Once again the Tuscan sculptor reveals himself as an absolute bronze virtuoso, through such an evocative exhibition: his refined structures immediately stupefy any admirer for the wisdom of his technique, which is combined with subjects oscillating between quivering classicism and abstraction, in a continuous tribute to the sacredness of Nature and to spiritual and emotional Love.
Marina Azzurra Lulli
The Poetry of the Earth is never dead.
John Keats
