Evita Andújar – Andrea Pinchi | DELL’AMORE, DEL MITO E DEI MITI PEROSNALI

Curated by Emmeotto Arte

RELAIS RIONE PONTE | ROMA

Via Giuseppe Zanardelli, 20 – 00186
(only by appointment)

Written work by Valentina Luzi

“There was a time when I dared to dream that Miriam and I, past ninety, would die together like Philemon and Bauci. And then a munificent Zeus, with a slight touch of the caduceus, would have turned us into two neighboring trees, with branches that touch each other in winter, the leaves intertwining in spring” - Mordecai Richler, Barney’s Version -

The myth of Cupid and Psyche is one of the most beautiful love stories ever. It was the Latin writer Apuleio to recount it in his "The Golden Ass" in the 2nd century AD. The metaphor of the eternal dichotomy between rationality and instinct, between heart and mind, has inspired the greatest writers, poets and artists. It is impossible not to think of one of the most sublime achievements in the history of art: the sculpture Amore e Psiche by Antonio Canova. And it is from here that the common thread of Evita Andújar and Andrea Pinchi's double solo show unfolds on 12 February at Relais Rione Ponte in collaboration with Emmeotto Arte. Intervening on the mention of Canovian memory, the two artists reinterpret, in four hands, Cupid and Psyche, each with their own stylistic code, a story and a myth, and make them personal.

Andrea and Evita are certainly different, the artistic production and their approach towards the matter are different, but there is an important and fundamental sub-layer that connects them, besides the relationship of esteem and mutual friendship: behind every work there are emotions, people, lives and ... personal myths. This is the first thing that strikes you about their works, even knowing nothing about them, empathy is immediate.

For Andrea, the use of different techniques and the reuse of various materials (wood extracted from musical instruments of the past, traces of lead, papers, animal skins and fragments of cloth preserved and stored during the years in which he restored pipe organs) together with cultural baggage, which with force, irony and romanticism makes space between direct and indirect quotations, which draw from ancient philosophy to the contemporary novel, - as not to mention the work "While Barney sees Miriam on his wedding day" of 2016 - generate an elegant and intense poetics and find from time to time a new story to live and re-live. In the sequence of the works on show, a selection of works of different formats of recent years and unpublished, all the elements present, abstract and not, compose a geometric as well as captivating architecture. Because of that, the story is fluid but complex at the same time and made of fragments of life, passions, sufferings, crises, changes and loves. The shapes, the sharp and contrasting colors and the material are the means to give voice to the Cupid and the Psyche, which, in origin, does not mean anything other than "Soul". And the heart, a universal graphic symbol, becomes a recurring component for Andrea, in its stylized form that lends itself to a different story every time.

In Evita's works, from the Liquids series to Stolen Selfie, the main characters are human figures caught in intimate and private situations. The observe can easily perceive a sort of disorientation, a restlessness where the identity and the presence of the body waver in atmospheres whose bordes are vague. The feeling of emotional vibration is accompanied by visual snapshots, where in the foreground there is a "shot" in a limited space, influenced by the media dynamism of our time. The subject prevails on the environment and rich in narrative leads us to that intimacy that is perceived almost as "ours". The mastery of the pictorial gesticulation of light and color, in a dance of chromatic intensity, responds to the ever changing world and to the rapid flow of things with an effect of liquefaction of the image. The "instagrammable" moments without precise details bring us back to memories, life stories, through a translation of thoughts and a deep investigation of the souls living and living in the works.

The exhibition aims to give a perspective of observation and personal interaction, in the "private" dimension of the cosy and intimate settings of the Relais Rione Ponte, closely observing what human bond, love or emotion hides behind the essence of every work by Evita and Andrea, let us see the quid which is not visible at first glance, through the material and immaterial elements, the past and the present that create the stratifications of experience and feelings, lived life and realized art, myth and history .

Every single work is a piece of a mosaic, a moment, a "movement" that composes a symphony. Evita and Andrea are like two musicians who duet, capable and aware of making their artistic and human personality interact with the individual stylistic characteristics. Through the rooms of Relais Rione Ponte, we discover the notes of one and the other, protagonists of the same score, each with their own tools-feelings of investigation until they merge into the work realized together, where Evita’s Soul-Psyche meets Andrea’s "heart"-Love.

Evita Andújar
After completing her training in painting and restoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville, she undertakes a number of specialised courses in painting and visual art, including the Cadiz International Painting Course, led by renowned Spanish painter Antonio López García.
Having finished her PhD, she comes to Italy in 2000 thanks to a scholarship provided by the Spanish Academy of Rome.
Since then her work has featured in a large number of exhibitions in Italy, Spain, the UK, France, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates, exhibiting alongside both major contemporary artists and emerging talent.
Significant awards for her work in Italy include: winning the 2016 Adrenalina Prize and G.Casciaro Prize, being shortlisted for the Arte Laguna Prize at the Arsenale, Venice, and twice a finalist for the Arte Mondadori Prize curated by the Arte Cairo Editore magazine, in 2015 and 2017.
In 2016 she was selected as artist-in-residence at the Bocs Art Project (Cosenza, IT) and the 2017 she won the Marchionni Prize’s artist residency award(Sardinia, IT).
Her work features in numerous important collections such as the Fondazione Romaand the Bilotti Collection, the Diocesan Museum of Cosenza and the Luciano Benetton ‘Imago Mundi’ Collection, Spain.
She has lived and worked in Rome since 2000.

Andrea Pinchi
Born in 1967 into a family of pipe organbuilders, where it was common to see materials bow to the primacy of art.
He began to paint as a child with the artist Nereo Ferraris (1911-1975) who lived with his aunt, Maria Pia Pinchi, a fundamental figure in his cultural and artistic development. Between 1989 and 1996 he came into contact with Aurelio De Felice (1915-1996), who suggested to focus his artistic development by drawing on his own expressive world. This led him, from 2005, to what Maurizio Coccia has defined as Pincbau, that is to say, the construction of works scrap materials resulting from the restoriation of antique pipe organs or from those built by his own family.
From 2011 he exhibited in:  Bari, Basel, Bruxelles, Como, Florence, Foligno, Madrid, Milan, Prato, Rome, Spoleto, Treviso, Verona. He was part of the 54 Biennale di Venezia and he held exhibitions in the Museo Palazzo Collicola Arti Visive of Spoleto, Museo Palazzo della Penna of Perugia and at the  Complesso Monumentale del Vittoriano in Rome.
Curators: Alessandra Bertuzzi, Francesca Briganti, Maurizio Coccia, Lauretta Colonnelli, Noemi De Simone, Roberto Gramiccia, Valentina Luzi, Roberta Macchia, Sveva Manfredi Zavaglia, Gianluca Marziani, Stefano Masi,Irene Niosi, Matteo Pacini, Vittorio Sgarbi, Claudio Strinati, Alessia Vergari.
Some of his works are  in museums, fondations and private collections in Bari, Bonn, Basel, Bruxelles, Dubai, Florence, Foligno, Liegi, Koln, Madrid, Milan, New York, Padua, Rome, Spoleto and Teheran.