Götter wandelten einst bei Menschen, Hölderlin
“Once there were Gods, on earth, with people” reminds Hölderlin, by mentioning this principle. There are still echoes of it within our inner side. This is witnessed by Roberto Perotti’s work.
The spirit is the element that represents his paintings. The spirit is what in Greek is referred as Pneuma while in Latin it is referred as Spiritus. These words evoke the idea of the breath and of the flowing wind. The spirit is not catchable. The word spirit has not disappeared since the “experience” has not disappeared. The experience of the spirit needs change and detachment. This means the end of selfishness and the removal of the ego. These are all elements that can be found in the last art pieces of Roberto Perotti. Through the spirit, the artist brings us close to the Logos which is the primary essence that rules over everything: the human reason together with the sacred madness.
To get closer to the sacred does not mean to find peace and quietness. It would look like covering the deep wound, that anybody has. To get closer to the sacred does not mean to be saved; it rather means to rely on the complexity of the subsoil to which the deep wound leads. The subsoil is the place where the signs stop, break and then interlace with each other. Moreover, the subsoil is the place where the image of the dome imposes itself as a refuge in the dark night of the soul, by witnessing a weak and tenuous emotion. The dome moves toward the unreachable blue sky and it represents the impossibility to know who we really are.
The connection between the history and this principle seems to identify with the soul itself when it chooses something new or when it suffers for a loss. Close to the sacred there are both victory and loss. This is why nothing is left out in Roberto Perotti’s work. The aim is to experiment the belonging of the spirit with the dust and to find conciliation between the highness of the angels and the heaviness of the reason.
The art works of Roberto Perotti express, in an artistic way, the spiritual emancipation where the search of the self takes place. He addresses to something that is more sacred and ancient than divinities. He addresses to the original essence which is the foundation of anything: the ancient world that besides atrocities and roughness can still be considered as being the place where there is freedom of action and where both destiny and time are suspended.
The heideggerian Geviert finds here his place. Staying on earth (between things that grow and mature) means being under the sky (close to the light and the darkness). Being on earth already implies being under the sky and it is here where the divinities (those who carry out a life that reaches the sacred) and humans (those who are able to know the death) are combined together.
The dome represents the meeting point between humans and divinities. The dome, located between the earth and the sky defines the limit that none of the four elements (Earth, Sky, Humans and Divinities) can cross. Beyond that limit there is the sacred. This has to be seen with its extreme consequences: the earth would not exist without the sky and vice versa.
Perotti shows us what the role of the present times artist is, when divinities can be close only by being far away and when humans and divinities encounter each other because of their unfaithfulness.
The art pieces of Roberto Perotti witness that such unfaithfulness became an escape for divinities. The task of the human being is to learn and to look at the traces left on the sand by the divinities and to see the absence that they have left behind. This is not it. In fact, the human being, looking towards himself is the decisive act that establishes the boundaries of the real world. It is a revealing gesture that is not aimed at the embellishment of the reality. This rises several questions like: Are the humans ready, in all their traditional essence, to take on such responsibility? and then, are they ready to accept the request of abandoning themselves at the emptiness of the sacred?
Flavio Ermini
traduzione di Alessanda Di Falco