{"id":9374,"date":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-27T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/testi_critici\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\/"},"modified":"2009-05-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-27T22:00:00","slug":"the-optics-of-the-infinity","status":"publish","type":"testi_critici","link":"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/en\/critical_texts\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\/","title":{"rendered":"The optics of the infinity"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"l-section wpb_row height_medium\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container rigamostratitolo\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><h2 class=\"w-post-elm post_title titolomostra entry-title color_link_inherit\">The optics of the infinity<\/h2><h4 class=\"w-post-elm post_custom_field type_text curatore color_link_inherit\"><span class=\"w-post-elm-value\">Curated by Marco Meneguzzo<\/span><\/h4><h5 class=\"w-post-elm post_custom_field type_text periodo color_link_inherit\"><span class=\"w-post-elm-value\">28 May 2009<\/span><\/h5><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><section class=\"l-section wpb_row carouselmostra hide_on_tablets hide_on_mobiles height_auto\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"w-grid testicriticicarousel type_carousel layout_7131 cols_3\" id=\"us_grid_1\" style=\"--gap:.5rem;\"><style>.layout_7131 .w-grid-item-h{}.layout_7131 .usg_post_image_1{margin-bottom:0.5rem!important}.layout_7131 .usg_post_content_1{text-align:center!important;margin-bottom:35px!important}<\/style><div class=\"w-grid-list owl-carousel navstyle_3 navpos_outside\" style=\"--arrows-size:1.1rem;--arrows-offset:-20px;\">\t<article class=\"w-grid-item post-759 attachment type-attachment status-inherit hentry\" data-id=\"759\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"w-grid-item-h\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a ref=\"magnificPopupGrid\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg\" class=\"w-grid-item-anchor\" aria-label=\"gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4\" title=\"Marco Menguzzo and &quot;The theatre and its double&quot;, Thiene, Vicenza, Italy, 2009\"><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-post-elm post_image usg_post_image_1 stretched\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"528\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg\" class=\"attachment-us_600_600_crop size-us_600_600_crop\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg 772w, https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4-300x264.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/div><div class=\"w-post-elm post_content usg_post_content_1\"><p>Marco Menguzzo and &quot;The theatre and its double&quot;, Thiene, Vicenza, Italy, 2009<\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/article>\r\n<\/div>\t<div class=\"g-preloader type_1\">\r\n\t\t<div><\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"w-grid-json hidden\" onclick='return {&quot;action&quot;:&quot;us_ajax_grid&quot;,&quot;infinite_scroll&quot;:0,&quot;max_num_pages&quot;:1,&quot;pagination&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;template_vars&quot;:{&quot;columns&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;exclude_items&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;img_size&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;ignore_items_size&quot;:0,&quot;items_layout&quot;:&quot;7131&quot;,&quot;items_offset&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;load_animation&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;overriding_link&quot;:&quot;%7B%22type%22%3A%22popup_image%22%7D&quot;,&quot;post_id&quot;:0,&quot;query_args&quot;:{&quot;post_type&quot;:[&quot;attachment&quot;],&quot;post__in&quot;:[&quot;759&quot;],&quot;post_status&quot;:&quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;post_mime_type&quot;:&quot;image&quot;,&quot;posts_per_page&quot;:999},&quot;orderby_query_args&quot;:{&quot;orderby&quot;:{&quot;post__in&quot;:&quot;ASC&quot;},&quot;order&quot;:&quot;ASC&quot;},&quot;type&quot;:&quot;carousel&quot;,&quot;us_grid_ajax_index&quot;:1,&quot;us_grid_filter_params&quot;:[],&quot;us_grid_index&quot;:1,&quot;_us_grid_post_type&quot;:&quot;attachment&quot;,&quot;page_args&quot;:[],&quot;lang&quot;:&quot;en&quot;},&quot;carousel_settings&quot;:{&quot;autoHeight&quot;:0,&quot;autoplay&quot;:0,&quot;carousel_fade&quot;:0,&quot;center&quot;:0,&quot;dots&quot;:0,&quot;items&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;loop&quot;:false,&quot;nav&quot;:1,&quot;slideby&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;smooth_play&quot;:0,&quot;speed&quot;:250,&quot;timeout&quot;:3000,&quot;transition&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;aria_labels&quot;:{&quot;prev&quot;:&quot;Previous&quot;,&quot;next&quot;:&quot;Next&quot;}},&quot;carousel_breakpoints&quot;:{&quot;0&quot;:{&quot;autoHeight&quot;:0,&quot;autoplay&quot;:1,&quot;autoplayHoverPause&quot;:1,&quot;items&quot;:1,&quot;loop&quot;:true,&quot;stagePadding&quot;:0},&quot;601&quot;:{&quot;autoHeight&quot;:0,&quot;autoplay&quot;:1,&quot;autoplayHoverPause&quot;:1,&quot;items&quot;:2,&quot;loop&quot;:false,&quot;stagePadding&quot;:0},&quot;1025&quot;:{&quot;autoHeight&quot;:0,&quot;autoplay&quot;:1,&quot;autoplayHoverPause&quot;:1,&quot;items&quot;:3,&quot;loop&quot;:false,&quot;stagePadding&quot;:0},&quot;1281&quot;:{&quot;items&quot;:3,&quot;stagePadding&quot;:0}}}'><\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><div class=\"w-separator size_small\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><section class=\"l-section wpb_row carouselmostra hide_on_default hide_on_laptops height_auto\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"w-separator size_small\"><\/div><div class=\"w-grid type_grid layout_7131 cols_3\" id=\"us_grid_2\" style=\"--gap:1.5rem;\" data-filterable=\"true\"><style>@media (max-width:1024px){#us_grid_2 .w-grid-item{width:50%}}@media (max-width:600px){#us_grid_2 .w-grid-list{margin:0}#us_grid_2 .w-grid-item{width:100%;padding:0;margin-bottom:var(--gap,0px)}}<\/style><div class=\"w-grid-list\">\t<article class=\"w-grid-item size_1x1 post-759 attachment type-attachment status-inherit hentry\" data-id=\"759\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"w-grid-item-h\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-post-elm post_image usg_post_image_1 stretched\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"528\" src=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg\" class=\"attachment-us_600_600_crop size-us_600_600_crop\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg 772w, https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4-300x264.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/div><div class=\"w-post-elm post_content usg_post_content_1\"><p>Marco Menguzzo and &quot;The theatre and its double&quot;, Thiene, Vicenza, Italy, 2009<\/p>\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/article>\r\n<\/div><div class=\"w-grid-preloader\">\t<div class=\"g-preloader type_1\">\r\n\t\t<div><\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\t<div class=\"w-grid-json hidden\" onclick='return {&quot;action&quot;:&quot;us_ajax_grid&quot;,&quot;infinite_scroll&quot;:0,&quot;max_num_pages&quot;:1,&quot;pagination&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;template_vars&quot;:{&quot;columns&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;exclude_items&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;img_size&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;ignore_items_size&quot;:0,&quot;items_layout&quot;:&quot;7131&quot;,&quot;items_offset&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;load_animation&quot;:&quot;none&quot;,&quot;overriding_link&quot;:&quot;{\\&quot;url\\&quot;:\\&quot;\\&quot;}&quot;,&quot;post_id&quot;:0,&quot;query_args&quot;:{&quot;post_type&quot;:[&quot;attachment&quot;],&quot;post__in&quot;:[&quot;759&quot;],&quot;post_status&quot;:&quot;inherit&quot;,&quot;post_mime_type&quot;:&quot;image&quot;,&quot;posts_per_page&quot;:999},&quot;orderby_query_args&quot;:{&quot;orderby&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;DESC&quot;}},&quot;type&quot;:&quot;grid&quot;,&quot;us_grid_ajax_index&quot;:2,&quot;us_grid_filter_params&quot;:[],&quot;us_grid_index&quot;:2,&quot;_us_grid_post_type&quot;:&quot;attachment&quot;,&quot;page_args&quot;:[],&quot;lang&quot;:&quot;en&quot;}}'><\/div>\r\n\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><section class=\"l-section wpb_row testomostra height_small\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_text_column\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><p>It may seem strange that an artist such as Paolo Scirpa, so uncompromising in defining the area of his work, so active at the heart of one of the great centres of the art system, and so closely allied to some of the most significant trends in contemporary art, in fact developed his creative career from totally individual and independent positions.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there was a personal factor, linked to the artist\u2019s discreet and at the same time strong character, which played an important role in this regard. Those who know Scirpa are conscious that this aspect of his personality has had a considerable effect on his industrious isolation (even though he is no stranger to all aspects of society and socialization, as demonstrated by his teaching role at the prestigious Brera art academy). But on the other hand, the solitary image of his work cannot be attributed solely to questions of personality, because in any case, Scirpa had the courage and foresight to leave his native Sicily and move to Milan, where contemporary art was livelier and in closer contact with what was happening elsewhere in the world. Likewise, it would be erroneous to say that he has been ignored by art criticism: one just has to look through the very long list of scholars \u2013 of by no means secondary stature \u2013 who have written about his work over the years. The area in which the artist has received insufficient attention is the market, the circulation of his work through art galleries. The latter have taken less risks than they could and should have done, just because, in the period of the artist\u2019s maturity \u2013 from the early 1970s \u2013 the type of work that he was producing may have seemed rather isolated with respect to contemporary trends. At this point, the reader may feel puzzled, because the opening lines of this essay stated that Scirpa\u2019s work was in line with some of the most important contemporary currents, which seems to contradict the idea of isolation. But this is not actually the case. The market\u2019s focus is always on a given moment in time, and it tends to reject any form of temporal or cultural prolongation. Often this trait of \u201cseizing the moment\u201d is in evident contrast with artists\u2019 work on themes which may actually require a considerable amount of time for their development, and which may be nurtured by the gradual metabolic transformation of inner needs. These needs sometimes correspond to collective needs, therefore the \u201cZeitgeist\u201d, or the \u201cspirit of the age,\u201d and this results in an area of research being developed contemporaneously by several artists \u2013 or scientists, or philosophers \u2013 or groups that coalesced around that core theme. This is a mechanism that leads to the theme being revealed and highlighted precisely due to the plurality of individuals involved, with a collective capacity for identifying a problem and suggesting, or imposing, their respective individual solutions. However it may also happen \u2013 as occurs in the majority of cases \u2013 that single personalities choose to work in a given area of expression because they find it impossible to abandon their inner needs and aspirations. Such individuals thus help define and further enrich areas of expression that have already been identified but that have not yet been entirely formulated, and their work is performed without taking into consideration what is happening in terms of trends or fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, if we consider Paolo Scirpa\u2019s earliest works made using light \u2013 and more in general, all those works that earned him his reputation as an \u201cartist of light\u201d \u2013 we could say that his area of expression can be located in the field of optical-kinetic art. This area achieved greatest success in Italy and internationally between 1959 and 1965\/66, and it then slowly declined, contemporaneously with the abandonment of any belief in a \u201cperceptively\u201d better society. At the same time other currents were in an ascending phase, such as Pop Art \u2013 with its diametrically opposing position with respect to optical-kinetic art \u2013 and Arte Povera, which was closer to a position of directly challenging the global society of the day. The first impression is that Scirpa\u2019s work belongs to optical-kinetic art, but not to that season: in other words, the optical-kinetic characteristics of his production did not coincide with the period in which Italy\u2019s kinetic artists and groups rightly achieved greatest recognition and development. Examples include the T group, the Enne group, and the MID group, who in fact succeeded in focusing attention on the theme of man\u2019s perception of the world and the mechanisms involved in the spectator\u2019s view of reality. In actual fact, Scirpa began working in this area a few years later. In 1972, when he had moved to Milan, he almost definitively abandoned the initial abstract-geometric style that had hallmarked his long Sicilian apprenticeship, and he decided to concentrate not so much on the representation of light, but rather on light itself.<\/p>\n<p>A short step backwards enables us to review the period of the Sicilian artist\u2019s creative training. He first exhibited at a group show as early as 1953, when he was just nineteen. However, these exhibitions, though important, were rather local in character. It should be remembered that at that time, a young artist\u2019s career was cadenced by more definite and slower stages of development than is the case today. His participation in the 9th National Quadrennial Art Exhibition in Rome, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni, in 1965, marked a significant step forwards. In this case his abstract language, already reinforced by consolidated printmaking skills, had reached evident maturity, though it was not yet totally independent. The artist swung between a lyric current close to the Informale style and a more clear-cut form of abstraction, though there were also references to certain reminiscences of naturalism. The technique of etching \u2013 which at that time was his preferred medium \u2013 in a way forced him to draw and then to delineate, marking shapes and perimeters. This is how the idea of a circular motif \u2013 a \u201csun,\u201d a \u201chabitat\u201d \u2013 first appeared, a motif enclosing the magma of life, in that period expressed by the metaphor of a sort of meeting between natural form and artificial human constructions. Scirpa began to exhibit this circular habitat, this sun, regularly, giving increasingly precise definition to his language, when he moved to Milan, where he taught at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts with Luciano Fabro (he was professor of Painting from 1992 to 2001). In fact his first solo show was held in 1967, while his debut in Milan dates to 1969. In those years, just before the new departure that he would implement with his \u201cludoscopes,\u201d his work proceeded in dual directions, demonstrating the range of his interests. On one hand, he was increasingly concerned with the language of perception, developed in increasingly rarefied and minimalist forms. On the other, he could not fail to be affected by a world that was increasingly captive to the urge for productivity, amongst induced demand and consumerist delirium. His attention to this social condition led him to create the first works that were entirely his \u201cown\u201d (not that the previous works were not, but just that these revealed a highly personal and unmistakable code): large \u201cobjects,\u201d almost kaleidoscopes, with a myriad of boxes for products, empty packaging, assembled on mirror surfaces to form a sort of miniature city or contemporary skyline. It is no coincidence that the first of these works, made in 1972, is named \u201cConsumerist megapolis.\u201d The message is obvious: the city of man has become the city of consumerism, in which man\u2019s identity is expressed by means of consumption, or rather by consumerism which is the former\u2019s degenerative derivative. Scirpa would continue to work on this theme, even many years later, with a small number of carefully-targeted works which, from the early 1990s, would become installations, with dimensions such as to occupy and identify a significant portion of space.<\/p>\n<p>However, Paolo Scirpa\u2019s personality is revealed by the origin of these works, or rather by their initial motivation. Of course, it is true that the years in which Scirpa developed his anti-consumerist stance coincided with the period hallmarked by the most radical and violent protests against capitalist society in the West, but in actual fact the artist\u2019s motivations run deeper and have more distant origins. Into all his works, Scirpa injects a powerful ethical tension, a \u201cdoit \u00eatre\u201d of almost religious intensity. He himself remembers that he met, when he was very young, Chiara Lubich, founder of the ecumenical Focolare movement, ascetic and energetic instigator of the idea of \u201cunity\u201d in human spirituality. We will see how the artist later transfigured and metaphorized this concept into his \u201cpoetry of light,\u201d and also into his perception of the error of man in his abandonment to the inequitable voracity of consumerism. In actual fact, this moral significance is far more direct and declared in this cycle of works than in the other, in which the prevalent theme seems to be the analysis of language. However, in all probability \u2013 this is my opinion \u2013 the \u201cludoscopes\u201d and the related works are those that best express the transformation of Scirpa\u2019s ethical motivation into physical form.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLudoscopes\u201d are three-dimensional works with geometrical neon light sources, built from 1972, and therefore they were contemporary with Scirpa\u2019s work on consumerism. Over the course of the years, they were accompanied by a series of paintings \u2013 oils and acrylics on canvas \u2013 that seem to be their two-dimensional portraits or depictions. From the very earliest \u201cludoscopes\u201d, the artist consciously restricted his alphabet to three geometrical forms, square, circle and triangle. He put these forms into movement, with infinite repetition in space, by means of mirrors: a real space, because the work is three-dimensional and the light is generated by a bulb, but at the same time it is a simulated, depicted space, almost a two-dimensional surface. Substantially illusory. Scirpa himself pointed out to me, as if surprised by this realization (renewing one\u2019s understanding, seeing something that had already been seen before), how in the concentric neon circles one finds the forms of the \u201cscalea,\u201d the seating steps of ancient theatres, Ancient Greek theatres, the theatre that he himself had seen, or rather experienced, in his native Syracuse, as if this were a sort of indelible imprinting, culture becoming part of biology, of his DNA\u2026 His chosen form is multiplied by means of a series of translations and intersections that suggests the work\u2019s potentially infinite propagation in space, far beyond its actual physical dimensions. In this sense, the decision to use a light-emitting source, such as a neon tube, is only natural, because it is justified by an inner, idealistic need. It denotes the artist\u2019s real and profound adherence to his deepest motivations for the chosen direction of artistic research: for Paolo Scirpa, the quest for light as unifying element of reality (or, in more religious terms, \u201cof creation,\u201d as perhaps he himself would say).<\/p>\n<p>However it is significant that the artist did not abandon painting once he had adopted the \u201creal\u201d medium of neon bulbs. He continued painting, above all in the 1980s, and right up until today. These works resemble \u201cportraits\u201d of his \u201cludoscopes,\u201d translated into paint and light effects. While for some artists, the transition from the depiction of an object to a material used as it is, with its intrinsic characteristics, is irreversible, not only was it reversible for Scirpa, but in fact he used two techniques contemporaneously without any problems. In other words, Scirpa is unique in that his theme was not so much involved with whether to depict or to \u201cpresent\u201d the object, but rather with the more general, more universal, and perhaps more traditional, theme of light itself.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps this is one of the reasons why his position in the area of optical-kinetic art is in part anomalous \u2013 and not just for merely chronological reasons \u2013 though admittedly inevitable. The factors that place him squarely within this current are the media used, the way they are used, and the results desired and attained. On the other hand, his position is anomalous, because his intentions are wholly metaphorical, and can in no way be reduced to the effectual reality of perception. Optical-kinetic artists of strict observance, so to speak, showed only minimal interest in any aspects transcending the problems of human perception. At most, they extended their interest to the \u201chistorical-social\u201d questions of perception, thus including not only the analysis of all types of physiological perception, but also an exploration of the relationship between the production and fruition of vision, with occasional forays into the field of sociology (not to mention the relationship between art and industry, or between the auratic and serial characteristics of art, which were also important corollaries). Paolo Scirpa on the other hand studies the wholly transcendental question of \u201clight\u201d, in the sense of that idea of which real light \u2013 produced by media that he also uses \u2013 is nothing but a reflection. This means that what he is truly interested in is ideal light. In order to express this interest, and the importance of that light for himself and for the interpretation of the world mediated by an artist, he is willing to utilize the inadequate physical means available in the real world, though in the conviction that such media are nothing but the shadow, a depiction, an imitation, a reflection, of that much greater meaning.<\/p>\n<p>In this sense, Scirpa wholly belongs to the tradition, even the mediaeval tradition, according to which light is not just an optical-perceptual phenomenon, but above all a mystical experience. We could say that Scirpa is far closer to Beato Angelico than to Lazlo Moholy-Nagy! If we adopt this point of view, Scirpa\u2019s entire work can be located at different points along the same axis (and we should not forget the artist\u2019s adherence to that concept of \u201cunity\u201d, discovered for the first time during his contact with Lubich). This fully explains, for example, the peaceful coexistence of painting and neon lights, because in this case, the question is not one of replacing the \u201cobject depicted\u201d (painting that imitates light) with the \u201creal object\u201d (neon, which could be considered as real light), because both these situations just remind us of that transcendental light which is uppermost in Scirpa\u2019s thoughts. In fact both media, namely painting, and the technological medium of an excited gas that produces physical light, are nothing more than a visible, or depictable, phantom.<\/p>\n<p>On the subject of Scirpa\u2019s theme of interest, we could go so far as to suggest that his ultimate goal is not in fact light, but rather something that is hidden \u201cbehind\u201d light, in other words the concept of infinity. This would explain, for example, the artist\u2019s natural preference for mirror surfaces, both in the \u201cconsumerism\u201d cycle, and in the long series of \u201cludoscopes\u201d, and again in another of his earlier experiments, made in the early 1970s, when he painted on sheets of mirror steel. After all, the artist himself has suggested this interpretation on many occasions. For example, he stated, in a brief text explaining his \u201cludoscopes\u201d, that the \u201cinfinity of simulated space is an idea that has long stimulated my thoughts and my inner dimension.\u201d Without doubt, mankind, with the human eye and mind, is constantly fascinated by references to infinity, and this is why our thoughts often linger in that area, and in that immediately preceding it, namely that of light. Of course, the multiplication of a light source created using parallel mirrors \u2013 which unfortunately can generate only a limited number of reflections of the original source, before physical light dwindles and disappears into the inevitably dark background \u2013 is nothing but an impoverished \u2013 human \u2013 depiction of an infinity that can only be simulated and suggested. The Byzantine civilization used gold-leaf backgrounds to express the infinity of transcendent light, and Humanism translated this metaphor into something closer to everyday reality, something more physical, by replacing gold leaf with blue skies, as in Giotto. In our epoch, in order to bring the concept even closer to us, making it even more human and less absolute, the idea has been developed even further, searching for this infinity in the realm of technology. As an artist, Paolo Scirpa followed suit, but he never forgot the starting point which, in the case of infinity, could also be the final destination.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, it is important to consider Scirpa\u2019s constant and considerable production of works in a series that the artist himself catalogues using the general term \u201cprojects.\u201d They are in actual fact \u201cfantasies\u201d (though today, a magnate or an institution aiming at something spectacular could succeed in their implementation, challenging a few laws of physics and a lot of laws regulating the ancient heritage\u2026), or \u201ccaprices\u201d in the 18th century style: fantasy views in which the painter juxtaposed recognisable features with unrelated landscapes, such as Ancient Roman ruins on the Venetian lagoon. In Scirpa\u2019s case, he constructs urban or natural landscapes, and inserts luminous \u201cludoscopes\u201d into them, on a scale which in reality would be gigantic. Scirpa chooses the places dearest to him, or famous locations, such as Renaissance churches, ancient necropolises and famous piazzas, and at the centre of these locations, he positions the devastating geometry of his triangles, squares and circles. The result creates a remarkable sense of distance. He achieves it by means of the \u201cmodern\u201d montage technique, which gives each of these projects that totally artificial flavour common to all photographic montage works, from Dada to Surrealism, in which the cut-out components are clearly visible, and likewise the anomalies of scale amongst the individual components (the same result is not achieved using sophisticated electronic procedures such as Photoshop, which are paradoxically more \u201cnatural\u201d). The sense of distance is created by the obvious artifice of inserting a visibly small object at a gigantic scale. The alienating effect is also the result of a higher and different degree of artifice, as could be the case, for example, of \u00c9tienne-Louis Boull\u00e9e\u2019s \u201cextreme\u201d architecture in his Biblioth\u00e8que du Roi, or to an even greater degree, his famous C\u00e9notaphe \u00e0 Newton. At this point, a brief digression on the artist\u2019s most recent work could help provide a complete understanding of his entire model of thought and sentiment. The work in question is a large model in wood based on a doubled Greek theatre, complete with theatron and orchestra, but in which the theatron \u2013 stepped seating \u2013 both looks inwards, towards the sken\u00e9, and outwards, towards the exterior world. The result is a strange, geometrical ring-shape, a sort of regular, man-made volcanic crater, in which interior and exterior have the same significance and value. There is a clear reference to the Ancient Greek theatre, recalling archaic memories, the foundation of a culture and of a person (it is impossible not to think of Scirpa\u2019s Syracuse origins). But apart from this, the effect of the work oscillates between perfect geometrical forms and the metaphorical meaning of \u201clooking\u201d inside and outside, towards oneself and towards the world, producing a beneficial alienation, which in this case seems to be subtly even more strongly highlighted than in the projects mentioned earlier. In this case, the alienation is not due so much to the artifice of the procedure, but to the artificiality and duplicity of the result, which compares the purity of forms with the randomness of the world. When the pure forms of geometry meet the history of a location, or, to put it another way, when infinity, in this case represented by the artist\u2019s geometrically perfect forms, or again, by light, meets the stratified layers of form, time and events that accumulate in an inhabited place, the result is that dialectic interchange between the ideas of things and the reality of things. Plato had understood this, and Scirpa has put it on stage.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"w-separator size_huge\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":759,"template":"","class_list":["post-9374","testi_critici","type-testi_critici","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The optics of the infinity - Paolo Scirpa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/en\/critical_texts\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The optics of the infinity - Paolo Scirpa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/en\/critical_texts\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paolo Scirpa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/paolo.scirpa.52\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.paoloscirpa.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/gd5k2ncYDoQlw6X4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"772\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"17 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.paoloscirpa.it\\\/en\\\/critical_texts\\\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.paoloscirpa.it\\\/en\\\/critical_texts\\\/the-optics-of-the-infinity\\\/\",\"name\":\"The optics of the infinity - 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