IL PROFUMO DELLA VITA
Dimenticando il cardo quale causa di morte per Dafne, dalla quale la Terra, addolorata, fece nascere fiori spinosi, Mimmo Sancineto ha voluto, per così dire, riabilitare questo fiore selvatico dedicandogli una mostra personale. Ha osservato molto attentamente questo miracolo della natura in modo ravvicinato nelle sue molteplici varietà di forme e di colori e ne ha studiato i caratteri. Antropomorfizzando la forza propria dei cardi che fioriscono e prosperano nei terreni più inospitali e nei climi più aridi, ha attribuito loro caratteristiche e “comportamenti” tipici dell'essere umano: come il cardo eleva il suo fusto ed i suoi rami verso il sole, resistendo al vento, alla pioggia e a tutti gli insulti dell'ambiente e conservando l'integrità e la bellezza dei suoi rossi e dei suoi gialli, così l'uomo, fronteggiando e superando mille difficoltà, continua a vivere con dignità e coraggio realizzando i suoi progetti esistenziali.
I colori fermati sui dipinti virano dai più tenui e dalle sfumature pastello a quelli più decisi: con i rossi sanguigni, i cobalto, i viola scuri e tutte le relative sfumature, l'Artista, metaforicamente, rappresenta le passioni e le turbolenze dell'animo umano, ma anche la delicatezza e la fragilità dei sentimenti più profondi.
I colori, usati sapientemente, sono spesso resi più corposi e plastici attraverso l'utilizzo di stucchi ed impasti che materializzano i soggetti rappresentati quasi come in un bassorilievo: anche questa tecnica contribuisce alla rappresentazione di un fiore dotato di una forza e di una vitalità straordinarie. Impastate ai colori, le sue crete, spalmate con morbide ma energiche spatolate, raccontano proprio questo: al di là delle spine, simboli della necessità di difendersi e di offendere, questi cardi, dai cuori vivacemente colorati, hanno comunque il “profumo della vita”.
Ed è con questa immagine che l'artista consegna il suo specialissimo ed insolito bouquet a chi ha voglia di andare oltre l'apparenza per cogliere sostanza e significato.
English version
Mimmo Sancineto described his Calabria in his exhibition in Rome: “Scritture nello spazio” (Writings in space), at Palazzo Venezia, in the Refectory Hall, organized under the sponsorship of the Ministry of the Environment, represented at the vernissage by Mr.Aldo Cosentino.
The opening was very well attended and it was “honoured” by the presence of Mr. Claudio Strinati, the Curator of Roman Museums and Monuments. In his speech he underlined how long and hard the artist’s work is, so that he can get the right balance and coherence that are absolutely necessary to make his message, in this case his pictorial message, “credible” and universal at the same time.
“Scritture nello spazio” is the “story” of a life devoted to painting and sculpture as well, used to describe a “difficult” Calabria, where the protection of the natural environment, of the Pollino National Park, of the flora and fauna, and the improvement of the local culture are in contrast with some negative messages that mass media give about this region. So, the desire to get out of a limiting regionalism and to communicate positiveness is a “leitmotif” of primary importance.
Mimmo Sancineto perfectly knows that it’s really difficult to pursue this aim; he has known it for over forty years, since he has started describing by paintbrushes and colours what he lovingly calls: “his native country”. Like every serious artist, but, particularly, like someone who is guided by a real inspiration, he has always learnt and experimented new techniques, he has felt the joy of discovering the brightness of Mediterranean colours. Actually, the colours he paints really exist, as they are inspired by his emotions.
At first, his choices were cautious, (sometimes he drew his inspiration from impressionism), and from his masters : Andrea Alfano and Emilio Greco, but, later on, those choices, however present they are, as regards the contents and meanings, have evolved.
This painting isn’t mannered, rather, it’s extremely realistic. Even if its shapes are abstract, less and less recognizable and nearly virtual, it becomes “legible” only if we use our sensibility and our hearth. That’s the only way of reading just the messages that have inspired the painter during his life, both in his first realistic period and in the recent one, that is more abstract and of matter.
In the Roman exhibition there is love and anger, faith and sadness, joy and fear, a mixture of feelings “written” through amazing colours, that the artist spread on the canvas with a paintbrush, but more frequently with thick spatula strokes that give an almost tridimensional volume and stir up deep emotions at the same time.
There is no lamentations about cultural alienation in South Italy and no dejection, but vital and cathartic energy in painting only joy of living.
The exhibition, open to the public until 4th of April 2005, has been dedicated to the memory of the art critic and journalist Giuseppe Selvaggi.
The graphical project has been signed by Flavia Zacà and Sandro Sancineto, that have mounted the exhibition and prepared the catalogue as well.