Strengthened by a deep-rooted belief in the possibilities of painting, Alessandro Pessoli (Cervia, 1963) has subjected the pictorial medium to over thirty years of theoretical and formal reinterpretations. His rich visual language, in which classical iconographies alternate with references to futurist expressiveness, and incursions into the worlds of science fiction and comics, finds correspondence in an equally rich plurality of materials and techniques used: from ink on paper to cinema animated. The exhibition “The Neighbors”, the artist’s first solo show in an Italian museum, curated by Nicola Ricciardi, takes inspiration from the relationship between these two extreme sides.
In line with the attention dedicated in recent years by the MAN Museum to the relationship between visual arts and animated cinema, Alessandro Pessoli’s exhibition was born from the study of the two stop-motion films made by the artist almost 15 years apart. ‘from each other. In Caligula (1999-2002), humans, animals and inanimate objects appear and disappear in a continuous oscillation between construction and destruction. The over 4500 drawings that make up the film do not weave a single plot, but rather follow the irrational structure and symbolic richness of a feverish dream, alternating playful moments with grotesque representations and drawing on iconographies as distant as a Christ on the cross and a plane in the skies of the First World War.
Petrolini self-portrait (2014) instead revolves around the figure of the Italian actor and playwright Ettore Petrolini and the Dadaist character he invented—Fortunello—who in Pessoli’s hands becomes the expedient through which to undermine themes linked to the cultural history of the country and address reflections on the identity and nature of the artist.
The apparent distance between these two animations is filled by the different series of drawings in the exhibition, among them The Neighbors , specially created for this occasion. Made at distinct moments between 2000 and the present day, the inks on paper and the screenprints on canvas share a setting and a veiled cinematic flavour: here Captain America and Popeye make their appearance, the religious iconography mixes with the popular culture, personal episodes are intertwined with national history, and allusions to the Italian Renaissance dialogue with references to European Pop painting – all without apparent continuity.
The set of these multifaceted works reflects Pessoli’s particular agility of thought, an attitude that has allowed him to move over the years between very different themes and languages ​​without however ever losing sight of his own obstinate formal research.
Finally, the exhibition closes – also in chronological terms – with the self-portrait Studio City (2015), in which the artist appears as the protagonist of a colorful cartoon. The title is an explicit reference to Los Angeles, the city where Pessoli has lived since 2009, and in particular to neighborhood where the main film studios find their home: the ideal backdrop for the lively adventures of its characters, partly extras waiting for a role on the set of a film, and partly neighbours, people from the neighbourhood, familiar faces, neighbors.
