“2nd Life (collector’s edition)”

“2nd Life (collector’s edition)” is the first solo show by fabio22. Curated by Andrea Ceresa and hosted by Riccardo Bellelli in Bologna in November 2024. Remember: after the storm, calm always arrives. If you notice that darkness starts to cloud your heart, you must open your eyes, listen to your soul, and immediately find a solution so that the light can make every particle of your being shine. With these words, one of the many spiritual inspirational websites online shows the way to those trying to “find the light” in front of a screen, searching for it on Google. And here it is, the light, crystal clear, on the bright screen right in front of you, its path marked by the neat constellation of lights on the modem. Immersed in the sea of the web, life flows calmly in the scroll, marked by the exchange of good morning and good night images. Finally, far from any hardware, the soul shines, bathed only by the rays of Wi-Fi. One must imagine Fabio with his easel in front of his subject, like the most traditional painter copying from life. His subject, however, is not a nude model, but that virtual universe full of hope. His painting process is like a reverse rendering, shaping images from the digital world into real life. One can easily imagine the problems of this type of painting: the subject is two-dimensional, and therefore lacks any logic of light and shadow; then there is the brilliance: backlighting is an effect that is impossible to achieve in painting, not even by the best luminists. His painting is a failure, but also a statement of awareness: true light is not found in the network, true light cannot be represented. The ugliness serves to dispel the illusion, to draw attention to the real goal, like Moses calling his disciples away from the worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32:4): it is not the image, the painting, the representation, but the soul that must shine. It is a much more difficult path than that of the meta-verse, but the solemn words of the digital aura from motivational websites resonate:
You know what? You can do it, you just need to remember why you started, and then you will succeed. Keep walking, and you will reach your goal, and the mere fact of making it will fill you with satisfaction.