RAFFAELE BARBUTO
Non sono io che amate, ma chi mi abita -
Raffaele Barbuto, 2020
"It is not I who you love, but who lives in me" (Roger Munier, "The least of the world", 1982). The analogy of living in a space and experiencing the art of Raffaele Barbuto.
The impact is misleading, it reminds one of a large colourful advertising billboard, layered by the passage of time. But then, the great work of Barbuto, confronted with more in-depth scrutiny, is a macro-world of languages, fragments, shapes and materials that, by looking over it more closely, shows anatomies, expressions and gestures that remind one of natural elements, such as leaves and details. Of shapes. Or such as dynamic curves of landscapes and movements in thought. The artist approaches the work starting from different levels of large coloured sheets assembled one on top of the other which, through the action of a hand that is initially uncertain, shy, delicate, begins, with vigour, to tear away the superfluous, applying direct, clear, never angry action. The gesture is safe, but coincidental, uncontrolled. These active forms appear random and uncontrolled. Thus the yellows, greens, blues, reds and oranges emerge in the dense and vivid ensemble of this great wall piece. "You do not love a place but those who live there," writes Roger Munier. The house is made by those who created, lived, loved and hated it. The house is the most intimate, contained, mysterious and personal living space: it represents that one moment of pause and warmth. The domestic walls are in fact the refuge of past, present, or future life. Barbuto's work created for Ginger House starts right here, as the title underlines. It is not I who you love, but who lives in me. Through his great work with many facets, created specifically for the space of the house in Porta Venezia, the artist indicates that the traces we leave in inhabited space represent the living essence of that place. The home belongs to those who lived in it. The walls don't matter, what matters is the history of the stories experienced in there, of the memories, of the pains, and of the joys. This is home.
Raffaele Barbuto, (Milan, 1986).
Lives and works in Milan. He graduated in Visual Arts at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and in Special Make-up at the Academy of Arts and Crafts of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. After an experience in Australia, he took part in the 2013 Biennale at the Zhou Brothers Art Center in Chicago and in the "Luxury Art" exhibition at the Altes Dampfbad Museum in Baden Baden in Germany. He has participated in important exhibitions at the Arsenale Museum and at the Biennale gardens in Venice, the MIIT Museum in Turin and Castel dell'Ovo in Naples. He has also been present at international events such as the Photofestival, the National Award of the Arts at Affordable Art Fair in Milan. He still collaborates with various associations and galleries in Milan and Turin.