FIUU with Michele Cesaratto

Presented in collaboration with Galleria Acappella and meticulously produced together with Fondazione Le Costantine using the ancient fiocco leccese technique, FIUU brings together painting, tapestry and storytelling through five handwoven works by Michele Cesaratto. Realized in wool and cotton and woven by hand on slow looms, the works measure between 30 × 70 cm and 50 × 70 cm.

Populated by ironic, deceitful characters, FIUU tells simultaneously stories of tenderness and monstrosity. Michele Cesaratto creates a semi legendary bestiary that exists somewhere between heraldic banners and a constellation of video game figures. Where madness and reflection coexist, FIUU offers the possibility of getting lost, of walking while whistling (fiuuu fiuuu fiuu). Crossing becomes a way of thinking.

Each time we heard Cesaratto speak about the river, and about this bend of the Tagliamento, we imagined it floating. The medium is the pixel, a return to childhood through a form of digital primitivism. His painterly practice proves, unexpectedly, to be at ease with thread. The encounter with an almost mathematical device, reminiscent of coloring notebooks, enabled a clear and open dialogue with Fondazione Le Costantine, who meticulously produced these tapestries using the ancient fiocco leccese technique.

The project is connected to Cesaratto’s upcoming solo exhibition opening on May 20 in New York at 56 Henry, where a painting derived from one of the rug designs will also be presented. The theme of the journey, understood as an exploration of lands by sea, runs through both bodies of work, expanding their imaginary.

Five works are presented. Il Presente di Bebè, the cat, is a faithful everyday companion, beautiful and gentle yet marked by murderous ferocity. Bobi il Saggio, the dog, embodies instinctive kindness and a form of consciousness capable of bringing calm in difficult moments. The Bird of Prey, Il Regalo del Grifone, is a foolish yet cruel being that represents power. Franci Oltremare, the ostrich, belongs to the realm of discovery and to journeys that pursue and trace new stories.

Finally, L’isola del Tagliamento is the largest piece, taking the form of the Friuli region crossed by the Tagliamento river. The animal, joyful and leaping, becomes the archetype of a creature not yet identified and that will likely always escape itself. We do not quite know what it is, but we know how to inhabit that island, and so it might be best not to disturb it in its kingdom.

I imagine Michele walking. I imagine him whistling. I imagine him in his dreams, creating his animals along the banks of the Tagliamento. I imagine these animals imagining the lives of human beings.

cover image: Fondazione Le Costantine 

event images: Alberto Bernardo Maria Spagnol