Description
I would like to talk about Utopia.
I would like to say that we can no longer afford to speak in public about utopias that are too high.
I seem to recall that Marx attributed to certain socialists the lack of a scientific analysis of reality. I think he said they were a bit abstract. Unprofessional. And he called them utopians. Then over the course of the last century we realized that even the scientific nature of the Marxist method turned out to be a bit abstract, not very applicable and in some ways unsuccessful. Many jokes were told in the Soviet Union. I seem to remember one of these sounded more or less like this: do you know what the difference is between communism and capitalism? Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man.
Communism is precisely the opposite.
I seem to remember that in the last century there was also talk of negative utopias, for example about George Orwell and his 1984. In my book of literature there was a phrase like this: sometimes the ideals inspired by the realization of a world perfect lead inevitably to the building of an oppressive and inhuman world.
Alice still lives here . It is the title of a book published for the 30th anniversary of Tricromia. Although this gallery has moved home at least twice. Maybe three. Maybe more. A book published at a time when people are asking questions about their home. Someone had chosen to live far from the city. He had isolated himself so as not to be distracted by the confusion and found himself completely alone. Someone had found a small house trusting in the human wealth of the city and found himself confined in a hole surrounded by an emptied city. Someone else was happy to spend some time in his beautiful home that he had never had time to enjoy. And after a while he couldn’t do it anymore either. Even a big house can be a prison. Mixing time and space in an unbalanced way creates problems. Inmates have too much time and little space, for example. And in fact they ask to spend less time in jail. Alternatively: they ask for a little more space.
I would like to talk about utopia.
I would like to say that we need a model that resembles the world, but which is a little better than the real world. Made with the best pieces of the real world, but cleaned of the rotten ones. Agreeing on which ones are rotten and which ones are healthy would already be a step forward. Perhaps Giuseppina asked Ahmed and Samuele to design this model of the world. Perhaps you have been asking artists for thirty years to design this utopia made with the good pieces of the world. And if the utopia works, they will be able to use the pencil to draw them, but also the eraser to erase the wrong pieces from the world. Perhaps Giuseppina has been asking artists for thirty years to have a house designed for her Alice. Maybe Alice is really her.
I would like to talk about utopia.
I would like to say that it has something in common with dreams where we can have incredible experiences without using pieces from other worlds. In dreams there is the same world we encounter when awake. It is made with the same material. When I was little I had a dream that made me reset everything I had thought about dreams up to that moment. That is, I realized that I was dreaming and I did not wake up. So I tried to pilot the dream. It happens to many. But at that point I realized it wasn’t easy at all. That I couldn’t dream of things I didn’t know. I could see bigger or smaller things. I could mix them, but they were more or less the same as when I was awake.
I would like to talk about utopia.
I would also like to say something about dreams. That is, I would like to say that they are two things that work in a similar way. That to represent utopia you have to learn how to do it. You have to be a professional. And for dreams the same criterion applies. Dreaming is like driving a car. With a little commitment, everyone can get their license and drive the Panda. It takes a little more effort to drive an eighteen-meter articulated lorry. And only a few can race at the formula one grand prix without killing each other at the first corner. The same criterion applies to drawing and writing. We all know how to draw and write a sentence, but how many can write a novel or paint a picture? The criterion also applies to a small novel or a small painting.
Alice still lives here . It is a title made up of words. For me Alice is Giuseppina. Abitare is what she has been doing for thirty years trying to find a place for her and her artists. Professional people of dreams and drawings like Ahmed and Samuele. Ancora is an adverb. It indicates that an action or fact is not concluded, but continues, it continues in the present. It is written in the dictionary.
Here is utopia.
Ascanio Celestini
