Inadequacy
Concepts like life and art must be mixed with each other because there is no reason for maintaining a separation between the work of humans and human itself. Life is art (creative energy sexual) Who would have thought that? The most intriguing art is the one it talks about life that reveals different experiences, details, curiosities, viewpoints.
When it comes to living it is essential to disbelieve the notion of a flawlessness that is to be attained (in response to expectations of this sort, the only art we can refer to is that of cinema). Failure is the hallmark of being Human and the block into which we have all fallen at one time or another: impulsive judgment, impulsiveness, fear and anger, the constant desire for safety and control bad choices. Don't tell me you have not made one of these mistakes?
Open: a new perspective from which to look
When we fall, we injure our bodies more or less and tend to look at the cause of our fall, and to think the mistake a fault because our expectations have of ourselves and other people. The injury is the actual point from which we see the truth, from which we can no longer rely on the idea of perfection (which if it were such would not be a problem) and look at the things that are broken: we look through the wound and examine ourselves.
Fontana cut with the awareness the possibility of opening up, breaking or and tearing as destruction is often the most powerful artistic act, especially in a world that, since a very early time, we are ensconced in a strong, impregnating model of belief and values. It's not a coincidence that Fontana said in 1963 in the course of an interview Nerio Minuzzo that:
"The critics have always been a slam on me, but I have never was concerned about it. I went on regardless and I never took any kind of salute. For years they called me 'the one that has the holes', with a little pity. Today, I realize that my holes and cuts have created a taste are accepted and even find practical applications. In theatres and bars they create ceilings using holes. Because , today, even the people on the street can appreciate the latest designs. It's the artists that are the ones who know little '.
When Fontana talks about streetspeople, he is evoking the idea of imperfection where the hole is a form like any other in which the becoming of life can be seen. Fontana is not scared of dust nor the violence of his creative work: he throws tar on an artifact made of plaster of a human figure and calls it "Black Man".
The cut is transformed into the conquest of space as an attempt to overcome sculpture and painting through the creation of a new dimension that includes both of them and a break with verticality to create an open passageway.
lucio fontana that occurs, both taking in and exhaling from the canvas, is reminiscent from afar more scholarly and bourgeois form of the work Gina Pane later did on her skin. The gesture remains the eternal main character in this context, where art is destined to be destroyed. The wound and the cut represent the path, boundary and exchange. The artist herself opens the canvas in two and declares it to be finite. the holes become black holes that give depth and make us perceive the vastness that we never be able to comprehend.
Wait: we are discovering new things that we do not yet know
Fontana named the cuts "Waits," which are the openings from which new and unique things emerge which we don't have a clue about.
If we make a mistake and hurt or injure the other one, we must wait a certain period before we react. The first reaction is the shock of making a mistake and the failure overcome, after that, figuring out what steps to take to remedy the damage or avoid it Then we await the consequences of the fracture, that error, which could actually be an entirely new resource. But it's not.
Few understood (and do not comprehend) this philosophy since they constantly judge what reality and the human condition should be, too used to the two-dimensionality that is the nature of canvas. We keep fighting with all our might the right practices, the right method of presenting and being in society, so much that we turn to rules that eventually define Normativity.
There is nothing more absurd than this. Convinced that we know everything, we apply our yardstick to every other organism and ecosystem on the planet however, in reality we see it from a narrow and biased perspective which has nothing to do with reality: Anthropocentrism, but also individual interpretations of the other that are almost never the right ones.
Accept: there is no perfection in the strict sense.
The same is true of the society that demands us to be the best at all costs, without considering that perhaps, rather than improving standards, we could become more accepting of the world the way it is. Do we accept pain? Do we accept death? Accept body parts? Do we accept diversity? The most important thing is, once accepting, do we respect our differences?
In most cases, we resort to invisibilising those things that don't fit with the 'perfection' of our little world or the entire universe. This causes us to be feel angry, shocked, and disgusted to be pushed aside, or and swept under the rug and we then show our imperfections, which we really are, yet refuse to accept.
Being aware of one's limits is important as is recognizing the interconnectedness of all that is the global system. Either we are ALL placed in a position to do our best or there is no incentive or competition worth the effort to be put into it, unless for the goal of fuelling inequalities. It's great and great that some people after long hours have achieved it as a result, just like those who were so fortunate. However, in a larger context, always pushing the boundaries of what is possible the definition of 'a perfection' in an imperfect setting; there is no "perfection" in the absolute sense.
Can this be a reality?
Cut and let the truth be revealed
It is possible to say that Fontana attempted to do so, since right from the beginning he resisted the straightforward routes to success, and opted instead to explore the unknown and unpredictability, which is to say, he renounced the idea of being the one and following the research path that led him to uncover some truths.
For me, and my personal opinion, Fontana is the one who tears open the curtain and lets light through, even if the black sails are obscured behind the cuts. An artist of spatial art in the same way as the forerunners of the art that is understood not only as a work but as a gesture, which is a gesture that revolves around and as a result of action on space, performance as the activation of narrative, which is a large part of what is practised today.
To me, his cuts reveal all of these, opening new perspectives on art as well as new perspectives on the world and also new questions. The result of this wound is not just pain, the wound highlights mortality, brevity, uncertainty and fragility. A wound can make us question our existence, makes us question, and this practice is vital to stay grounded. While it can be difficult to endure and as hard as, in a perfect tale of existence it would be wonderful (and right) to learn through positive reinforcements, as long as we as a society do not want to be a part of the suffering of others as well like our own, we are condemned to the unresolved and unfulfilled reality.
So let's enjoy the cinema and its happy endings, its beauty and perfection that is taken for granted , and that we misunderstand and take as a template for our lives, because the visual arts, contrary to what they appear, are the daughters of suffering. Every artist who wants to convey a bit of truth, must traverse the pain.