Renato Leotta : Vittoria sul Sole

We are delighted to present Vittoria sul Sole, Renato Leotta’s second solo exhibition at the Gallery, coinciding with the hundredth exhibition at Sprovieri.

 

A pyroclastic eruption of a volcano ejects ash and lapilli into the sky, forming colossal black clouds composed of tiny particles of rocks and minerals. These exploded tens of kilometres above the crater, obscuring the sun. The prospect of this "alien" matter just created by nature, which has not yet found a purpose in our reality, is to proceed, moved by the winds like the hands of a clock, aerial, until it falls, adhering to the surfaces, erasing them but also nourishing them. Creating a completely black and lightless landscape.

 

The matter, instead of touching the ground, adheres to the pictorial surfaces or rests on plinths, becoming poetic matter. This action of zeroing invokes a libertarian and anarchic aesthetic, an uncontrolled production of nature in which the volcano brings its own creations, determining objective conditions that can generate a new and ghting thought. The assassination of Caesar and the end of the Roman Republic can, for example, be considered events of such magnitude as to make it justiable that they were announced by extraordinary natural events, like the eruption of a volcano.

 

According to Virgil: The sun itself would have commiserated with Rome for the loss of Caesar by covering its shining face with a dark haze. The people of the time feared an eternal night for having fomented wars and wanted the assassination of Caesar. These verses refer to the mysterious disappearance of the sun following the eruption of Etna in Sicily and subsequently the eruption of the Okmok volcano in Alaska. The assassination of Caesar is therefore seen as an archetypal struggle of terrestrial creatures to destroy the forces of Olympus and, in this case, Jupiter, exactly as in the staging of the heliomachy by K. Malevich’s theatrical play Victory over the Sun, where the Black Square appears for the rst time. This interpretation therefore proposes a relationship between the worsening of environmental conditions - the darkening of the sky and its emotional impact - and revolutionary or resetting historical events. Darkening the sky led to one of the coldest summers in the history of the Mediterranean, contributing to famine and other critical situations.

 

The Guardian titled in 2010: “How an Icelandic volcano helped spark the French revolution”, referring to the 8-month eruption of the Lakagigar volcano in 1783. We could say that the uncertainty of current times and the depressive sadness of our actions - and inability to act, have consequences. For example, on the quality of the air we breathe, the water and the food we ingest. Would a change in the environment therefore lead to a change in human traits?