Angela Rapio’s paper creatures on display at the ArCoS in Benevento – BitontoLive.it

Nature and paper: the constants of art by Angela Rapio link the works “On nature” which will be on display at Benevento from tomorrow to June 30thto the ArCoS Museum. A tribute to the talent of the artist from Bitonto, welcomed into one of the most important cultural containers in Southern Italy. Promoted by the Province of Benevento and the ArCoS Museum in collaboration with the Baronissi-FRaC Museum, the exhibition is curated by Ferdinand Crete. «Since our first meeting – says Angela Rapio – there was immediate agreement on the direction to be given to the exhibition. The spaces are airy and very beautiful, and allow each work to be highlighted, reconstructing the evolution of my artistic path.”

The paper is stratified and gives substance to the figures mounted on panel or canvas. The subtitle of the exhibition, “dto Writing to paper inserts”, recounts the different forms in which the raw material presents itself in Rapio’s works: firstly a naked graphic sign, then in pictorial declinations and in a plastic dimension. Over thirty works including paintings, collages, graphics, engravings, sculptures and installations, from the large roundels dedicated to the olive tree to the wooden and ceramic cones of “Radici&Radice”, the exhibition brought to the Botanical Garden of the University of Siena in 2015. This is followed by the “Fossil Cards”, some large cards from the “Boschi” cycle up to the series dedicated to animals (fish, bees, ants and installations with rebellious chickens), to close with some works from the “Fragile” cycle. «A sequence of works that focus attention “on nature”, renewing the meaning that Lucretius gave in De rerum natura, that is, the desirable attention that man must pay to the universal heritage of nature»explains the curator Ferdinando Creta.

The one that emerges Massimo Bignardiprofessor of contemporary art history at the University of Siena and great admirer of Angela Rapio’s artistic work, defines “pity” towards the animal world: «An increasingly attacked world, as is the human world, torn by wars, forced by the indifference that runs along the scale of social values. The disembodied forms of fish, sometimes just dead bones corroded by events, of hens who have chosen to transform the henhouse in Place de la Bastille, charging them with revolution against stereotypes.”

The hoopoe is the symbolic image of the exhibition set up at the ArCoS in Benevento. «We chose it because it summarizes the spirit of the exhibition, explicitly highlighting the transition from writing to paper inserts», explains the artist. His works are a manifesto to the fragility of “mother nature”.”, to the increasingly clear fracture between prevaricating man and the plant and animal world in danger. “Surviving” creatures presented almost like finds, fossil maps. A warning to the risk of extinction of animals and plants that call for listening and a new awareness and assumption of responsibility, reminding us of the duty to safeguard creation of which we are guests and not masters. «We must learn from bees and ants, which when there are no longer favorable living conditions, go and colonize new spaces in a more welcoming environment. They are not satisfied with surviving but are looking for a better life, because survival has a limit and is the precursor to extinction”reflects Angela Rapio.

In addition to the anthological solo exhibition at the ArCoS Museum in Benevento, for her there is another artistic commitment in these days: participation in the collective “Schiaparelli Pink”, homage to the designer who invented shocking pink. A new color that gave pink the strength of red, powerful and clear, an emblem of femininity. The exhibition, set up In the Cloister of the Poor Clares in Noci from 5 to 30 May, is curated by Sara De Carlo with the critical contribution of Anna D’Elia, the exhibition scenography by Vera Granger and the artistic direction by Elisabetta Sbiroli. Angela Rapio is the protagonist together with thirteen other artists with her three herons installed at the center of the scene, framed in shocking pink metal profiles. «A tribute to rebirth and transformation».