Mass & Energy, 2024

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July 2024-August 2025

Abstract Art vs. Figurative Art: the “interruption of the Infinity Sign” in my last photo art projects “Big Bang” and “Neural Nets”

Since 2023, my visual attention has turned to the so-called natural world, and to a lesser extent the social world. This shift in perspective requires some philosophical and aesthetic considerations.
Italian artist and philosopher Michelangelo Pistoletto, who has reflected deeply on art, advocates visual art as the highest and most constructive form of human participation and reinterpretation of natural and social reality. In 2003, he clearly formulated his vision with the creation of "Third Paradise." I quote from an online article by Alessia Barra (https://www.mostradante.it/2024/01/che-cose-il-terzo-paradiso-di-pistoletto/): "The Third Paradise represents the evolution of the infinity symbol. It is, in fact, a sort of elongated infinity with a third circle inside. The first circle represents the first stage of humanity, that is, when man lived completely integrated with nature and in harmony with it. The second circle represents the second stage, that is, when, after biting into the apple, man decided to walk on his own two feet and create what we can call "the artificial world." Thus technology, innovation, and science were born, but we distanced ourselves from nature. In some way, man wanted to replace her, becoming capable of creating and destroying without the right balance, forgetting where he came from. The third stage is the most important and corresponds to the central circle, and it is the right balance between the two previous ones. It corresponds to man returning It is a dimension of peace and balance, and aims to be a dimension to be pursued and sought in society as in everyday life.” (Alessia Barra, January 29, 2024, Mostradante).
From this perspective, an “artistic” production of images through pure formal abstraction, without a connection to internal and external reality, is not appreciable. In pursuing my latest projects, which for simplicity's sake I have collectively labeled as “abstract photo-art,” I believe it is important to clarify how to connect them to my previous visual production, which is clearly aimed at exploring and improving relationships between humans and between humans—myself included—and the surrounding world, with a design philosophy not dissimilar to that outlined above by Michelangelo Pistoletto. I believe that my visual research on the visualizable phenomenological interactions between energies and mass are not pure abstractions, but arise from the desire to explore the physical world, with a curiosity similar to scientific research, but with a different approach and methodology. Photography—as Pistoletto already identified and professed—makes a significant contribution to the exploration of the relationship between the artist and the surrounding world, and to the interpretation of the meaning and value of artwork. In my recent visual explorations, "Big Bang" and "Neural Nets," I seek to interrupt the infinity sign, as Pistoletto's genius envisioned many years ago. In conclusion, I believe these are not purely formal and insignificant abstract images, but rather they seek to interrupt the infinity sign and visualize this interruption, inviting the viewer to question the vital process of which we are part.
I believe I've clarified the relationship between my previous photographic production, predominantly humanistic in the vein of the more famous Henry Cartier-Bresson and others, and my latest, seemingly purely formal and conceptual. The red line is the visual exploration of the relationships between the photographer and other people, between the photographer and physical reality, between the photographer and his memories. An ongoing quest that I hope will not end until my physical demise.

Leros, Greece