Exhibition
With the exhibition of Alessandro Pessoli (Cervia, 1963) the Cloisters of Sant’Eustorgio continue the path undertaken a few years ago to bring the protagonists of the contemporary art scene into dialogue with this context so full of history and faith.
The exhibition, spread throughout the complex, opens with the presence in the Chapter Room of the Museum of the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio of some pictorial works produced between 2008 and 2019; the Sacristy and the spaces in front of the Portinari Chapel host works specifically conceived in dialogue with the space. In the Early Christian Cemetery, a majolica from 2008 introduces the theme of the body, presented in pieces as in the reliquaries and tombs in which it is displayed; the same investigation is continued by another work recently created for this place.
The exhibition then continues in the section dedicated to liturgical furnishings of the Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini where the final part of the exhibition corresponds to the precious concentration of the museological itinerary, here curated by Giuseppe Frangi.
The opportunity to exhibit in a context of great importance for Christian history and culture, for the history of art, as well as still partly characterized by liturgical activity, has allowed Pessoli to articulate an exhibition that reflects and narrates his conception of sacredness, compared with contemporary living, with the need to live with pain and insecurity.
In his practice the artist regularly uses different mediums, in particular painting and sculpture, with a predilection for ceramics; the exhibition itinerary designed for the Cloisters of Sant’Eustorgio testifies to the variety of materials and techniques that characterizes his production. In Pessoli’s works the representation of the human figure recurs, through which he addresses themes of an existential nature: historical characters, classic iconographies of the history of art, images of everyday life mix in a dreamlike, painful, at times grotesque reconstruction of reality, never free from an instinctive sentimental dimension. The religious element has entered the artist’s iconography in particular since the end of the 2000s, with works that take up themes and images from the life of Christ.
