MARCELLO BROTTO
The lessons of Henri-Louis Bergson teach us that in addition to chronological time marked by the hands of the clock, there is an unlimited and non-measurable interior time where everything, memories, emotions and perceptions, coexists in an enduring present state. Both these temporal dimensions coexist in Marcello Brotto's work, which act as a mirror to a world where nothing is as it seems. By employing leitmotif, recurring themes such as watches, numbers, cars, oil drums and old factories, the artist creates the idea of unstoppable time in constant evolution, time that escapes us, consuming everything in its path as it flees, and leaving behind nothing but relics. On the contrary, the natural backdrops, dotted with mountains, clouds and deserted roads, indicate the transformation of time into matter, memory, of concrete things that last beyond what we experience in a passing moment. In what might seem a paralyzed, immobile world, abandoned by man, we can, instead, discover one of art's greatest callings: to challenge time. Time, travelling along its relentless and irreversable course, capturing fragments of life that are destined to last forever in a painted fictional world. The work can therefore be considered a sharp and refined reflection on the perception of time, our internal and external notion of it, and one which throws light on what we are and what we would like to be, of the meaning that constantly eludes us in our everyday lives. Art which strives towards one goal: the eternal.
[Daniela Pronestì]