Ex Elettrofonica is pleased to announce the opening of Nimbus or Square Halo and Watteau’s Drawing, the first solo show at the gallery featuring Sergio Breviario, curated by Gianluca Brogna, on Tuesday, 12 March 2019.
The title reflects the unconventional way the artist examines the language of art, not just showing the outcome of his research, but creating an alternative and personal world where the work comes to life. The public is accustomed to Breviario’s unpredictability, constantly using new exhibition frameworks to trigger an artistic process.
Here, too, the exhibit will be dynamic, at times unstable – necessary to demonstrate the idea that states: the artwork is not just the thing placed on a pedestal but the image of that thing that is created in the mind of the viewer. This is what art is for – moving our gaze a bit further. (Sergio Breviario)
As deliberately revealed by the title, its components that develop the imagery the exhibit refers to are: the nimbus, or square halo, and Watteau’s drawing.
The citation of Antoine Watteau is linked to the story of perhaps his most famous painting, Gilles, which the artist painted around 1718 for his friend, the theatre actor Belloni. It’s a portrait of Belloni dressed as Pierrot, who, looking closely, seems to have a halo around his head. The painting was supposed to be a sign for Au Caffè Comique, although today it appears to us to be one of the most unsettling and melancholy portraits in art history. The artist’s wish to set Watteau as one of the fixed points in the construction of his project comes from this incongruence between narration and vision.
Secondly, there is the element of the nimbus, or square halo. In early Christian and Byzantine frescos and mosaics, a specific square-shaped halo represents, in a sacred conversation, a dignified person living at the time of the completion of the work itself (cit. Treccani Encyclopaedic Dictionary). In short, a person who could aspire to a round halo, the undisputed symbol of sanctity, in death.
While in Watteau’s painting, the halo is a suggestion of the viewer, in Sergio Breviario’s cognitive process, it becomes a topos. Because the saints are eclectic figures, with compelling iconography, bearers of incredible stories that then become possible.
The exhibit, composed of sculptures, drawings and videos, shows the relationship between these elements, It ends up creating a perspective change in viewers, on the condition they want to play the game, of course.
Sergio Breviario, Bergamo 1974. He lives and works in Milano. Since 2003 he has exhibited in Italy and abroad. Among his many solo and collective shows: 2018 Walkabout 01, Fabbrica del cioccolato Foundation for arts, Blenio (Switzerland); 2014, Drawing for Lightnings, Kunstraum t27, Berlin; 2016 Vitello tonnato, Plutschow Gallery, Zurich; 2013, Arimortis, curated by Milovan Farronato and Roberto Cuoghi, Museo del 900, Milan; 2012, Prototipo di macchina per la conquista del mondo, curated by Ludovico Pratesi, Fondazione Pescheria Visual Art Centre, Pesaro; 2011, A ruota libera, curated by Milovan Farronato and Chiara Agnello, MAXXI Museum of XXI Century Art, Rome; 2009, Non voltarti adesso/ Don’t look now!, Ca’ Pesaro International Modern Art Gallery, Venice.
