Gregorio Botta
Breathe in and Breathe out are the titles of the two, ideally associated exhibitions that Gregorio Botta is set to inaugurate, almost in unison, in Naples and in Bologna, at the Studio G7.
Breathe in (inhaling), is the dominant theme of the exhibition at Studio Trisorio, featuring works which elicit contemplation in an intense, protected interior space.
In the first room of the gallery, the Angeli, four wax parallelepipeds, inside of which a mysterious light illuminates a cup, an object that frequently re-occurs in the artist’s poetics. Small temples conceal and reveal a large, undefined space.
Across from, and almost an extension of, the angels are four small alabaster panels which enclose floating forms that, in attempting to emerge, seem to press against the surface. In the center of the second room, a flowered fountain occupies the place of the well in the hortus conclusus. Contained, therefore, closed space, but open to the sky and animated by plants; sheets of rice paper and wax on the walls enmesh the remains of flowers, traces of leaves and stems as well as small drops of blood. These are the Noli me tangere created by Botta, inspired by Beato Angelico in the convent of San Marco in Florence where the blood of the stigmata is transformed into petals and flowers.
The exhibition concludes with a work entitled Hölderlin Paradise, an ideal link between Naples and Bologna: seven glass circles with terracotta flowers are suspended one above the other, evoking the upward movement of a staircase.