Esercizi e Simulazioni
by Francesco Simeti
Fondazione Pastificio Cerere
October 8 - November 15 2010

www.pastificiocerere.com


by Clara Giannini

Francesco Simeti is an Italian artist born in 1968 in Palermo. He is an example of the phenomenon that has partially characterized Italy in the past years: the flight of artists toward New York, the capital of contemporary art. He works between Europe and America, and has developed many temporary and permanent works that modify the public environment. An example is a work present in Rome at the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere.

It is not by chance that the space used for the exhibition is the Pastificio Cerere. The Fondazione is not only near the artist’s mentality, but it is also perfect for Simeti’s works. In fact, it is an ancient industrial space in the heart of San Lorenzo, and a symbol of this neighborhood. The rooms are like white cubes that seem existing outside time and space; they allow the spectator to live a sort of alienating experience that helps him in focusing on the exhibition itself, in entering in it and becoming part of that nature that Simeti represents and from which contemporary society and people seem always more and more distant.

Visiting the show is an experience that completely involves the spectator and helps in understanding the artist. Although it is very small (it provides only four works), Esercizi e Simulazioni represents the artist’s vision of the world, and the criticism he directs at contemporary society.

The spectator follows a circular path that begins and finishes with the most important work of the exhibition: Whole Wheat, 2010, which covers the facade of the Pastificio Cerere building overlooking Via Tiburtina, and was conceived in occasion of the refurbishing of the entire Cerere edifice. Whole Wheat, 2010 is a large print on PVC surface covering more than 700 square meters. On it, plants of different origin and species have been assembled as a collage. The background is a light blue grayish surface, and only some of the plants are colored using different shades of yellow and green as well as orange and red. This composition, repeated several times, forms a rectangle that creates a symbolic forest and gives birth to a pattern: a practice Simeti is very well known for. With Whole Wheat, 2010, the artist wants to represent the revenge of nature on those human actions which are destroying the natural environment in order to build artificial surroundings where living. However, Simeti also wants to warn people to take an ethical commitment in the society, guaranteeing environmental sustainability and saving of natural resources. This is a significant social engagement that not only testify the importance of nature in everyday life, but indirectly it underlines the role and importance of nature in art.

Inside the building are the other three works. Two of them are xylographs. They are painted in gray, and the medium of the white paper makes them confounding with the white wall on which they are hung. The final impression is that the works are represented directly on the wall, they become part of the building and seem as if they were coming out from it. The natural element is the protagonist again, but here Simeti decided to show another aspect of this entity: its destructive force. In these images, nature is seen as a creature able of revenge, of rebellion against humankind which lives and abuse it without thinking to the consequences of its actions.

The exhibition goes on always revealing something more. The last room is the most particular space because it is a white rectangle empty for two thirds. The work occupies only the back of the room, and it is arranged on different levels. It is an installation in which paintings on cardboard and artificial natural elements (birds and branches) are combined together in order to create an environment that captures the spectator. The atmosphere produced, thanks also to five lights that come down from the ceiling and stop at different heights, is very suggestive. The game of light and shadow helps the spectator in immerging himself in the surrounding, in listening sounds of nature as the chirps of the birds, the water that flows, and the wind among the leaves.

The visitor’s travel finishes with giving another glance to the pattern outside the Pastificio. After the observation at the show in the spaces of the Fondazione, the observer understands something more about Whole Wheat, 2010. Simeti’s works are completed one by the other creating a pathway that allows the spectator to understand step by step the artist and his exhibition. While walking on this lane, Simeti’s intentions and his involvement in the world around him appear clear. A tangible proof of his interest in the social area is Whole Wheat, 2010 itself. At the end of the show, the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere (autonomously involved in projects regarding society and environment) will give part of the pattern to the workshop that the Cooperativa Cecilia ONLUS of Rome manages in the detention home AE in Casal del Marmo. Here, a group of women will create bags from the PVC whose revenues from the sale will be devoted to the Cooperativa.