8
Paolo STACCIOLI
IL PRIMATO DELLA STORIA
te agli assalti della nullità di pensiero.
Meraviglia, quindi, per questa nuova mostra che ci è re-
galata con il consueto garbo silente da Paolo Staccioli,
con opere così vive e croccanti da far sorgere un’intratte-
nibile fame d’arte, fame di lui. Stupore anche, oltre a me-
raviglia, che in questi nostri contemporaneissimi giorni
del 2013, Staccioli, attraverso il suo antico linguaggio, di
artista che lavora con i metodi eterni e lenti della scul-
tura, riesca il più moderno, in quella maniera rivoluzio-
naria che tanto sarebbe piaciuta a Pier Paolo Pasolini,
con quel modo aggraziato e umile che tanto avrebbe in-
cantato Pavese e con quel retroterra di significati densi
e misteriosi che avrebbe fatto impazzire D.H.Lawrence
che, se avesse potuto conoscere Paolo Staccioli, se ne sa-
rebbe senz’altro innamorato. Oppure per certe movenze
mai raffigurate prima nella storia della scultura, di certi
cavalli, ad esempio, prese dirette di attimi sconosciuti
ai più fino al momento in cui l’artista, con l’innovativi-
tà incredibile che fa balzare avanti la storia dell’arte di
centinaia di anni in un minuto, non ha deciso di raffigu-
rarli. E che a noi, spettatori incantati delle sue opere, fa
stringere il cuore perché, finalmente, pensiamo, c’è chi
ha capito cos’è la Storia e ci ragiona da pari e questa è, se
volete, una promessa d’immortalità.
Alessandra Bruni
New York 2013
PAOLO STACCIOLI
THE PRIMACY OF HISTORY
P
aolo Staccioli or the primacy of History. It is with
History , in fact, that the Master deals, with his
agile vitality. It is in this environment, hostile to the
awareness and dreadful for most people, the History , that
he works comfortably, even affording interpretations, which
show his deep familiarity with it. It is clear in “Viaggiatori
con sfera” (Travelers with sphere) (2009 luster ceramic, h
cm 187/195 ), where the sphere is the world with all its past
, the Platonic perfection of Time and Space, the chance of an
access elsewhere, respect to the present, the same present in
which the work lives. Confidence , nourished by grace and
intelligence, is evident in “Guerriera” (The woman warrior)
(2006 , luster ceramic, h 197 cm ), echo of an ancestral
period of matriarchy , sort of renewed Big Mother, endowed
by the sculptor with the armor typical of femininity and that
goes beyond the contemporary parameters of female, very
unique in this , to declare the uniqueness of a look, Staccioli’s
one, light years far away, and much more. Unknown is, in
fact , the figure of the woman warrior , in our present, except
for the not edifying memories of the women warriors of
Gaddafi, of whom the not regretted leader liked to surround
himself. I cannot find any other one in our collective and
contemporary imagination, and this work , not just for this
, seems to me so high and so immense to embody the very
symbol of what the artist’s look should be. I beg your pardon
for having dwelt but some of Staccioli’s works, like this one,
have the almost miraculous power to rip us away from the
present, to lead us to a higher one, in which different kinds
of life and soul dimensions resound. Once this veil is lifted,
everything becomes softer and solar, enlightened in a warm
and human light, and all this is the mysterious Staccioli’s
grace , his ability to capture the exciting redness and “
trembling throbs “ of History. Everything in his art is made
of necessity and “La Guerriera” (The woman warrior) (2011
, bronze, h 175 cm ), “Dondolo con due figure, maschile e
femminile” (Rocking chair with 2 figures, male and female)
(2010, Corten steel and bronze , h 170 cm , total width 220
cm ), or “Viaggiatori con sfera” (Travelers with sphere) (see
above) are born like plants from seed, with the spontaneous
power of life that roots anytime and anywhere, through
that channel of artistic energy that is Paolo Staccioli. In this
sense , his works are necessary, as necessary is water, air
and light and the artist’s greatest merit is not to resistance
to his vocation , to offer himself spontaneously and without
defenses to the work of energy, being able to shape, work ,
bend and raised it to its highest level.
All this with irony , constant complement of grace and
intelligence, indispensable adjective when we talk about
great art moving blocks of forgetfulness and opening ways
not traveled since immemorial time , that opens up the old
views to new visions and fills of wonder and amazement
. It is due to the fact that the artist’s works are nourished
by the high material of Time and History , vivified by
the deep mastery of the touch on the material ground,
that becomes sculpture , that the artist removes from our
monochrome imagination. Ceramics and bronzes pulse
with life , procession with music , groups of men , ships
and carriages and towers and crowds, which remind to
Murlo’s corteges or Tarquinius’ processions in the misty and
enchanted Maremma of some millennium ago. Or they do
not remind to anything, to the ones who is not sufficiently
familiar with our history, becoming great precursors of
imagination and creativity , meant in the highest sense , the
divine one. Yes, because it is divine and divine is the artist’s
thought, moving him to shape the hard material of bronze
or the soft ground, the unique and highest product of his
synapses. It is not a coincidence that he plays his art like
this , deepening and thickening our thin contemporary, in
order to make it stronger to the assaults of the nullity of
thought. Astonishment for this new exhibit, donated with
Paolo Staccioli’s usual silent grace, with such vivid and
crispy works, that increases the hunger for art, the hunger
for him. Wonder, further to astonishment, because in these
very contemporary days of our 2013, Staccioli , through his
ancient language of an artist who works with eternal and
slow methods of sculpture, is the most modern, in that
revolutionary way that Pier Paolo Pasolini would have liked
so much, in such a graceful and humble way so loved by
Pavese and with those dense and mysterious meanings that
would have driven crazy DH Lawrence, who, if could have
known Paolo Staccioli , he would have surely loved him. Or
for certain movements never shown before in the history
of sculpture, of certain horses, for example , direct images
of moments unknown for most people until the moment
in which the artist , with the innovation that the history of
art jump out of hundreds of years in a minute, didn’t decide
to show them. We are an audience enchanted by his works,
which moves us as we think that, finally , there is somebody
who has understood what History is and thinks about it as
a peer and this is , if you want, a promise of immortality .
Alessandra Bruni
New York 2013
