OCTOBER 2016

IndexENERGY IN MOTION.Anthroposophically Alberto di Fabio GONKAR GYATSO. Family album NIGHT FALL. Dutch National Ballet WACAW. Warsaw AsianContemporary Art Week PROTEST. Victoria Mirò Gallery ANN HAMILTON. Habitus KEHINDE WILEY. A New Republic ARCANGELO SASSOLINO. Canto V STEFANO CAGOL. The People AreUnderage Story, Identity and Metaphor of theCommon in Raphaelle De Groot's LePoids des Object RICHARD LEAROYD. In the Studio SISLEJ XHAFA. Fireworks in mycloset BERTOZZI & CASONI. Il capitaleumano tra consolazioni edesolazioni DELIVERING OBSOLESCENCE. ArtBank, Data Bank, Food Bank REALE ACADEMIA DE ESPANA. 143Years of Successes ZHANNA KADYROVA. Mia Casa,Mia Fortezza HARMONIZING DIFFERENCES JOSE ANTONIO SUAREZLONDONO. A New Larousse Art and Pedagogy

Sociology and Contemporary Art On the occasion of this third issue of our magazine, the cover storyis focused on Alberto Di Fabio's solo show at Luca Tommasi Galleryin Milan. With his artistic practice Alberto Di Fabio has educated usto the "occult" simply understood as something that is there but thatwe do not see for various reasons. His works strike us immediatelyfor the beauty, the shape, the colors. And for this reason they are oftenseen as an expression of a research based primarily on form. Howeverthe artistic research of Di Fabio more than a problem of form aims acontent problem. Therefore, any reflection on the work of Di Fabiocannot ignore the systemic analysis of the various parts involved. Ihope my article can help to introduce readers to different level ofanalysis in experiencing Alberto Di Fabio's artworks because theyare really great artworks.

Raffaele QuattroneManaging Editor

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The entire contents of this magazine are protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. The publishers do not accept responsibility for any of the views or opinionsexpressed in the magazine.

Published and distributed withJoomag, Digital Publishing Solutions, 440 N Wolfe RdSunnyvale, CA 94085 USA - www.joomag.com Director:Raffaele Quattrone Contributors to this issue:Camilla Boemio, Fulvio Chimento,David Goldenberg,Veronique Leblanc, Alessia Siligardi A special thanks to:Bertozzi & Casoni, Stefano Cagol, Raphaelle De Groot,Alberto Di Fabio, Dutch National Ballet, Galleria AntonioVerolino, Galleria Continua (Silvia Pichini), Gonkar Gyatso,Ann Hamilton studio, Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea,Michael C. Carlos Museum (Priyanka Sinha), Paul GettyMuseum, Rees & Company (Phoebe Cripps), RealeAcademia de Espana (Jorge Conde, Alberto Diaz, InakiGracenea, Jose Guerrero, Jesus Mandrinan, Clara Montoya,David Munoz, Josep Tornero, Juan Zamora), Sedition Art,Victoria Mirò Gallery (Anja Ziegler), Wacaw (DenisBelkevich), Kehinde Wiley studio Website: www.raffaelequattrone.com

ENERGY IN MOTIONanthroposophically Alberto Di Fabio

ENERGY IN MOTIONanthroposophically Alberto Di Fabio

Alberto Di Fabio, Aura e Fosfenismo, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 150x230 cm. Courtesy Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea

Over the years Alberto Di Fabio get us used to pay attention tothe different levels of perception enlarging what is small andinvisible but that for this reason is not less important in ourexistence. Indeed quite the opposite. A "game" of perspectivereversal that becomes the basis of a spiritual and moral growth.Yet the practice of Di Fabio is not only this.

by

Raffaele

Quattrone

We are living in a period in which the religious,cultural, economic, geographical, physical,political differences get us used to considerourselves as "individuals" i.e. subjects with aspecificity irreducible to that of other people soit becomes increasingly important, also in orderto save our species understood as consisting of"social animals", to find the points we have incommon with others as parts of a commonuniversality. Contrary to a scientific andmaterialistic vision methodically based on theconcepts of space and time (a prevailing viewsince Descartes, "guilty" of having separate resextensa and res cogitans), in almost all religionsthe body is considered only the matter thatcovers the true essence of a being that through

religious practices must free from the constantattention given to the materiality reaching ratherhigh degree of spirituality and freedom.According to the Western tradition, with whichwe are more familiar and in which we move easily,the man is body, soul and spirit. According toother Western visions as the Steineranthroposophy the spiritual world isintellectually understandable and accessible byan inner growth. For Chinese medicine a livingentity is energy; the body is energy as well as thethoughts, the emotions, the spirit; the onlydifference is the degree of density.Over the years Alberto Di Fabio get us used to payattention to the different levels of perceptionenlarging what is small and invisible but that for

Alberto Di Fabio, Spazi paralleli, 2011, acrylic and varnish on canvas, diptych, 120x120 cm each. Blue diptych.Courtesy the artist

this reason is not less important in our existence.Indeed quite the opposite. A "game" of perspectivereversal that becomes the basis of a spiritual andmoral growth. Yet the practice of Di Fabio is not onlythis. Already in the Renaissance within somealchemical-Christian circles it had regained strengthan esoteric view of human being conceived as amicrocosm in which the macrocosm reflects itself, aset of parts that form an organic and systemic whole.

Those were the years of the Neo-Platonism of Ficinothat had an important success and appeal in theRenaissance courts. Homo copula mundi. Man as theonly being provided with an intellect that allows himto fall to the animal world, to rise to the divine worldthrough love and beauty or keep to a balancedequidistance from both. Remember the VitruvianMan? Leonardo’s famous drawing inscribing a humanfigure in a circle and a square represented the symbolic

“Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us and then we’ll need no other light”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities, 1809

Alberto Di Fabio, Energia Fosfenica, 2016 acrylic on canvas, 100x100cmCourtesy the artist and Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea

symbolic connection between the human and thedivine. In any case it is an analysis that whilerepresenting that particular historical period is distantfrom commonly held vision and in this sense anexpression of something that is hidden. With hisartistic practice Alberto Di Fabio has educated us tothe "occult" simply understood as something that isthere but that we do not see for various reasons. Hisworks strike us immediately for the beauty, the shape,

the colors. And for this reason they are often seen asan expression of a research based primarily on form.Kandinsky had already expressed a very closeconnection between art and spiritual dimension."Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, thesoul is the piano with many strings. The artist is thehand that plays, touching one key or another, to causevibrations in the soul." (Kandinsky, The Spiritual in art,1911) Therefore it is clear that the artistic research of

“Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us and then we’ll need no other light”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities, 1809

Alberto Di Fabio, Viaggio Astrale in argento, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 60x60 cmCourtesy the artist

Alberto Di Fabio, Brain Stone, 2016, acrilico su tela, 150 x 220. cmCourtesy the artist

Alberto Di Fabio, Aurico, 2016, acrilico su tela, 150x150 cmCourtesy the artist and Luca Tommasi Arte Contemporanea

research of Di Fabio more than a problem of formaims a content problem. Therefore, any reflection onthe work of Di Fabio cannot ignore the systemicanalysis of the various parts involved.In the new group of artworks on display at LucaTommasi Arte Contemporanea in Milan, Alberto DiFabio further elaborates this theme by giving newimpetus and energy to his artistic research. “Corpo diluce” (Body of Light), “corpo denso” (dense body),

“corpo astrale” (astral body), “corpo aurico” (auricbody), “energia fosfenica” (phosphenic energy),“veicoli di coscienza” (vehicles of consciousness),“individuo magnetico” (magnetic individual) ... aresome of the names of the works and introduce us ina world of beauty, energy, spirituality. We humanbeings are more complex than we appear. Not onlymatter. We are not only physical. We are also energyand spirituality. We are energy in motion. Maybe

contrary to what we are accustomed to think, is everybeing a being of energy that guides, directs andcontrols an external physical body? Are we lightbodies consisting of several layers that permeate andrevolve around the physical body? It would seem thatthese layers vibrate at different levels of frequencyand intensity and radiate up to a certain distance fromthe physical body depending on the style of life, thephysical, emotional, mental state as records of ourpresent and past life, of our thoughts, fears, joys,feelings, emotions, desires. Each light body wouldreflect the distinctive note of every person that is thespecific part of the universal energy field we callindividuality and that is interconnected and part ofthe only universal life.Proceeding in this analysis the physical or dense bodyis only one of the seven energy components of thelight body (physical body, etheric or vital body,emotional body, mental body, astral body, ethericbody matrix, celestial body, causal body) and it is inthis way because generated in the physical world inwhich we live, that is composed of substances presentin this world. If we were born and raised on anotherplanet we would have been composed in anotherway, with the substances present in that environment.This means that the physical body should notmonopolize our attention as it is only the physicalform that we perceive through our five senses. It islike an iceberg: the part you see on the surface is justa small part of what is hidden below the water surface.In this sense, invisible to normal perception is the auraor halo that surround all living beings as a kind ofcocoon capable of reflecting the soul of the individualand to survive the decay of their biological life. Wecan find something about this in Vedas descriptionsof Aryan peoples who invaded India in the twentiethcentury A.C. or in Egyptian hieroglyphics. But alsosome paintings of the Christian era did not resist itscharm. For example Titian and Raphael often inserted

a luminous halo around sacred characters. Have youever observed a light source for a few seconds? Is ithappened to you see luminous balls? According toPhosphenism these are called phosphenes, they havea duration of three minutes and represent a kind ofportal; that is the light energy can become mentalenergy: it calls concentration, memory, creativity, itreduces stress and anxiety. In other words they leadus to be a magnetic individual that is an individualwho controls emotions without getting carried awayby them. So the beauty of Alberto Di Fabio’s artworksis a tool to create a mental energy. According to RudolfSteiner we have mentioned several times "tocontemplate artworks works on the etheric body. Infront of an artwork man feels something higher andnobler than what comes from the sensitiveenvironment and this feeling transforms his vitalbody.” Art is therefore a bridge between materialityand spirituality that gives life to higher forms ofknowledge with the aim of achieving higher levels ofconsciousness through concentration, meditationand contemplation. With reference to this I wish toremember Vladimir S. Solov’ev who considered thebeauty of art a "light materialized" or "matterenlightened". In this sense the artistic practice ofAlberto Di Fabio opens up to new considerations andawareness, be they inner or outer, philosophical orreligious, social or ontological. An analysis thatstarting from shapes and colors stimulates the mindand spirit, feeds growth and development, subvertsthe hierarchy between matter and spirit. In amaterialistic world as the contemporary one thesubversion of values of Di Fabio becomes intimate,whispered never displayed. The matter no longercauses the spirit but becomes the means, the bridgeby which we reach the spirit. Schumann said "sendlight into the darkness of men's hearts. This is theartist's duty. "

ALBERTO DI FABIO (Avezzano, 1966) lives and works in Rome and New York. After studying at the Accademia delle Belle Arti inRome, he underwent further training by attending Cy Twombly's and Alighiero Boetti's ateliers. In USA he isrepresented by Gagosian galleries. He has taken part in many prestigious group shows and has held soloshows in important institutions. To mention just a few: 2012 Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome; 2013Estorick Collection, London; 2014 CERN, Geneva; 2015 MART Rovereto; 2015 MACRO, Rome.