Giuseppe Stampone

La Natura delle Cose

Museolaboratorio - Ex Manifattura Tabacchi

17.06.2023 - 06.08.2023

curated by Enzo De Leonibus

From June 17 to August 6, 2023, the Museolaboratorio - Ex Manifattura Tabacchi in Città Sant'Angelo (PE) will present the project La natura delle cose by the artist Giuseppe Stampone, winner of the "PAC2021 - Plan for Contemporary Art" promoted by the Ministry of Culture's General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity. The work will be unveiled to the public on Saturday, June 17 at 6 p.m. officially becoming part of the Museum's Collections.

The title refers to the six-book philosophical poem by Lucretius, written in 50 B.C., in which the Latin poet outlines the molecular constitution of the universe, the soul and its destiny, the fear of death and the individual characteristics of human beings (body, senses, thought and love). The last two books are devoted to the creation of the world, including natural phenomena such as weather systems and the development of civilization. In this work Lucretius seeks to place humanity in a broader and more universal context, investigating man's place in the natural world, both at the molecular and astrological levels.

Stampone started from this starting point to create the project La natura delle cose (The Nature of Things): about sixty works - including photographs, drawings and a video installation - designed to stimulate a reflection on the landscape and the "place" that man occupies in relation to the planet on which he lives.

The artist returned to two places dear to him, Gran Sasso and Maiella, in Abruzzo, elevating them to a paradigm of this idea. During long walks, Stampone personally took a series of photographs of the mountains and then made graphite drawings of them. The intent of the process was to create an archive of images for future generations, who, because of man's lack of care for the planet, risk seeing the habitat in which they live changed forever. It is now scientifically proven that land consumption, pollution and the unbridled exploitation of natural resources are having tragic and almost irreversible effects on the very fragile ecosystems.

Departing from the main mode of operation of the works of recent years (the artist has often taken images from the Internet to create his works), in this new project Stampone chose to use the camera personally with the intention of rediscovering the affective value of the portrayed subjects, his identity and his origins. After drawing the mountains reproduced in photos, the artist put the original images into Photoshop to obtain the numerical references of the Pantone colors of the snapshots, thus comparing the graphite of the drawings (the natural) with the chemical colors used to make the prints; as industrial colors, created to imitate nature, the hues were then juxtaposed with the images of nature to blur the boundaries between natural and artificial elements.

The entire process was documented in the video displayed in the exhibition, which chronicles the project stage by stage: from the artist's high-altitude excursions, to the taking of the photographic shots, to the production of the drawings to the selection of the Pantones. The video, entitled Gran Sassa, was made in collaboration with artist Maria Crispal, the artist's life and work partner.

This interest in industrial processes can be read as a desire of the man/artist to imitate nature, but also as an attempt to master it that nullifies our sense of precariousness and limitation. Graphite, on the other hand, is a material that implies a precise-not deceptive-relationship with time, and a choice of the author; drawing is a process that nurtures reflection and helps to reformulate our relationship with time; working with pencil does not allow the process of making a drawing to be accelerated; using graphite is thus Stampone's chosen way of opposing the accelerated pace of life today.

Gran Sasso and Maiella, "Stampone's mountains", are both autobiographical and universal. They are images that the artist carries within himself, linked to his identity and memories, but also mythical iconographies, figures that inspire awe and monumentality. In this work, the mountains have given substance to the artist's reflections, who has returned to his childhood places in an attempt to trace a deeper connection with things; for us as observers, the work is an opportunity to rethink our role in the world through art, ethics, and a sense of responsibility toward our host environment and other living things.

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