Daniel Boccato / fly like an eagle
Curated by Domenico de Chirico
September 19 – 3 November, 2018
RIBOT – arte contemporanea
Enrico Nöe 23, Milan
Chirico, the first solo show in Italy of the artist Daniel Boccato (Campinas,
Brazil, 1991; he lives and works in New York). A selection of recent wall
sculptures from the series “Wall Works”, specifically made for this show, shall
be presented.
Symbolist echoes, influenced by logos, flags, image libraries and devoid of
details, emerge from the walls of the gallery taking, on the first floor, the aspect
of proud birds of prey and, on the lower floor, those of trees of different
species. Sharp outlined silhouettes which, through the use of vectorial
rendering digitally developed by the artist, space Pop Art to Minimal Art
references.
walls. Even if these works protrude by a few centimeters from the walls, they
still come across as being a part of the setting and contribute to the creation of
a very special atmosphere. Boccato conceives the “Wall Works” as
contemporary bas-reliefs, deprived of any purely figurative value in order to
concentrate exclusively on the form and on the relationship that they generate
with the environment.
shaped by a laser wood cutter, so they maintain all the distinctive features of a
“unique piece” because, even though they can be reproduced on any walls, they
must have the exact colour and particular characteristics of the walls hosting
them and so, as a result, they are always different and never repetitive.
atmosphere, an apparently mute space that is then animated by the presence of
the viewers who, when entering a room populated by these forms, spark off a
subjective, emotive, and spiritual relationship with them.
Cooper Union School of Art in 2014. He has had solo shows at Tabacalera, Madrid, 2018; Sorry
We’re Closed, Brussels, 2017; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, 2016; Formato Comodo, Madrid, 2016
and others.
The Song of Melancholy, (1883, 1885)
For Zeus (King of the gods of Mount Olympus) eagles, with their wide and
proud wings, have a powerful and majestic flight path like ships. They rapidly
plunge down onto their prey and then seize, immobilize and finally devour it.
Known as the proudest of all animals, in Nietzschean philosophy the eagle em-
bodies superman for whom time understood as “eternal return” does not repre-
sent an obstacle to his will to Power but rather acts as a constitutive element that sanctions his dominion.
Fly like an eagle looks like this: four eagles that sail over four trees. Each of the-
se eight elements has an independent life, yet they perform in a chorus that sings in unison.
Narration takes place through the use of dry, direct, descriptive language that is
easy to understand. In turn, the rigorous neutrality of this language is geared
towards enhancing the potential of the exhibition space. The focus is on the
walls – conceived as carte blanche – and on different ways of using them, by means of a sort of oscillating game between camouflage and relief.
Daniel Boccato defines the outlines of the subjects, stripping them of narrative
and expressive vivacity. The paint covers everything and erases differences and
distinctive features, indeed the whole work is painted with the same shade of
paint as the background. These works, though all colorless, have a unique and
unrepeatable character which is emphasized by a mimetism that is inextricably linked to its substratum.
Boccato investigates the intuitive and perceptive process of the spectators,
who are freely invited to clear the interpretative processes of their imagination,
because “he who sees the abyss, but with eagle’s eyes, – he who with eagle’s talons grasps the abyss: he has courage.” *
* (Friedrich Nietzsche – Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1883, 1885 – An Adaptation based on the Thomas commons Translation –
From The Higher Man).