My first meeting with Anish Kapoor 

I discovered the sculptor Anish Kapoor many years ago, during one of my weekends in London to visit my twin brother and stay with him for a few days.

It was Ranieri himself who introduced me to him, sure that he would have struck me for his intensity and expressive power.

He was right.

The illusions created by the mix of materials, pigments and reflective surfaces used in his works and installations fascinated me from the very first moment.

Getting close to them and walking around them for the first time was an engaging, alienating and extraordinarily “physical” experience.

Abstract and conceptual works, enigmatic and destabilizing that leave you breathless at first glance, playing with the observer’s senses and altering the very perception of reality.

Touching the living flesh of art

The sensations just described, of Anish Kapoor’s artistic evolution, have become increasingly strong and violent.

In fact, I remember the “emotional shock” I felt during his exhibition in Rome organized in 2016 at the Macro in Via Nizza when I found myself in front of his series of “organic” works: pieces of living matter, impregnated with vermilion red silicone like blood.

A real blow to the heart and at the same time a punch in the stomach that shook me violently from sleep and numbness for their extreme crudeness and brutality.

At first I felt a certain sense of discomfort in looking at them, but after the first phase of bewilderment I was able to perceive the suffering contained in the material torn by open wounds.

Venice turns to red

I thought I had recovered from this profound shock until I got back in touch with Anish Kapoor at the Biennale, with a double exhibition at the Accademia Galleries and Palazzo Manfrin.

Places of incredible beauty bathed in blood and transformed into film sets on the border between horror and science fiction.

The images speak for themselves.

Discovering the Doge’s Palace and Anselm Kiefer

If attending Kapoor’s exhibition was an emotional trauma, entering the Doge’s Palace for the first time to visit Kiefer‘s exhibition, was an extraordinary double discovery.

The singular title of the exhibition “These writings, when burned, will finally give some light” was deliberately taken from a phrase by the Venetian philosopher Andrea Emo to make visitors reflect on their common vision that “nothing lasts forever”, theme of his personal artistic journey exhibited in the wonderful “Sala dello Scrutinio and Quarantia Civil Nova” of Palazzo Ducale.

Nothing lasts forever

The reflection on art is expressed in all its conceptual strength in a prestigious context through a series of contemporary site-specific frescoes of very large dimensions, worn by time and in the process of unraveling, which have been positioned on the walls and paintings of the room. to dialogue with the works of the past, showing the public that there is no masterpiece that lasts forever.

Paintings that Keifer left to rot for years in containers or outdoor exposed to the surrounding environments to undergo these transformations, convinced that the ultimate goal of art has always been self-destruction and that “whatever force the attack has, even if extreme, Art will survive its ruins ”.

This weekend we give space to our emotions

If you have an iron stomach and don’t let yourself be frightened by the sight of blood or apocalyptic scenes, the performances of Anish Kapoor and Keifer will leave you speechless.

Works difficult to digest, but full of powerful food for thought.

For those who want and have time to learn more, I have prepared a photo tour on my Instagram and Facebook channels.

Write to me, I am very curious to know your opinion.

Keep getting excited. Today is FRAday.