An investigator of images
Insideart #118, Talent Prize 2019
Talent Prize 2019 shortlisted Francesco Ciavaglioli could be defined as an investigator of images. His art delves deep into the relationship between images and technique, using languages which are inspired by the digital world, mass communication, and the serial, fragile nature of our time, in order to «render a profoundly human essence of existence, the need to reconstruct the world starting from its pieces». Since his studies, Ciavaglioli has been fascinated by philosophical theories which deeply investigate images as an issue. Suddenly a new horizon, way broader than the perimeter of art, broadens before his eyes. Images, considered as a symptom of humanity of sorts, reveal themselves as the appearance, although minimal, of every human being’s identity. «I think there is a powerful connection, somewhere, between the images shooting literally at light speed through fiber-optic cables and the hand impressions in the Lascaux cave».
Some artists find inspiration in the context they grow up in, as an act of rebellion or a proof of belonging. Like everyone else, Ciavaglioli also has in his home area a key element. «That imagery can be latent or subconscious, but stays in your mind forever. Abruzzo, and the Marsica area in particular, always has something eremitic, isolated to it. I was born in a small town, deep in the countryside, which was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1915. It’s near a ghost lake, the existence of which is proven just by some canals, fields for miles. It’s not exactly the Upper East Side of New York City. And yet, after my teenage angst, my running away and coming back home, I think I’m still trying to have some kind of pressurized void in my art, something to remind me of the empty spaces I grew up in, which I find so moving».
From Abruzzo, the land where his deep awareness of his desires and ambition was born, to the years in the Academy, where he got his methodical training: «I made big breakthroughs in those years: although it was a small school on the margins of the art system, I have to say I got an excellent training, maybe just a little thorough». After that period, many projects came to life, each of them loaded with stimuli and satisfaction. Among them, his exhibition at the Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, which coincided with the moment his personal research was finally getting somewhere, and allowed him, Saverio Verini and Cecilia Canziani, to go deeper into elements which were going to become central in his art.
In his recollection, Ciavaglioli also mentions Kilow’art, the visual art residency part of the Kilowatt contemporary theater festival in Sansepolcro. On that occasion, Ciavaglioli presented his participatory work Adunanza, whose final result was to become a pivotal moment in his artistic training: «hundreds of people joined, it really was a moment of profound harmony with the community, which is something any artist would hope for in a residency worthy of its name. The final work is part of the permanent exhibition of the Teatro della Misericordia, which is the event’s main location, but most importantly the place for which Piero Della Francesca conceived his Polittico della Misericordia, which my project is inspired by».
In his art, Ciavaglioli aims less at consistency than at being stylistically recognizable in his research field. His works show recurring elements, such as empty spaces, the evanescence of shapes and colors, or repetition, but they are never there for their own sake. An example is the Respice Finem manifesto, written for the Straperetana 2017. In that document, Ciavaglioli aimed to establish an immediate re-connection with the territory through something open, public, sincerely site-specific.
Among his latest works, Klon was shortlisted for this year’s Talent Prize. «In 2018 I started working with repetition of images, after studying the combination between texture and landscape. I started elaborating subjects inspired by ancient Roman culture, like flocks of birds, or rushes, and surely spurred from an epiphany I had while watching the cycle of frescoes of Villa Livia, exhibited at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome. Basically, I’m very interested in the relationship Romans had with realism, their attitude to collect the world through art, thus making art an archive for nature».