"ANTONIO PAPASSO: IN PRAISE OF LIGHTNESS"

The power of the human eye can make out clearly defined forms and figures that people the vastness of the world. In his work, Antonio Papasso points exclusively to signs, imprints and wrinkles. Why? His vision is tactile, only tactile, and shifts our perception from the inferno of reality to the paradise of pure sensibility. For the Greeks the soul indicated the vital breath, ànemos. And Papasso goes straight to the soul, where he lives out his split seconds of ecstatic illumination.
          There are some wonderful words of Leonardo da Vinci: "Among all the great things that are to be found among us, the existence of nothingness is truly great&qout;. The existence of nothingness is the rare neutrino - magically produced by and "in" the human psyche - that Papasso seeks out and bears witness to. So small and sensitive and so fleeting that it is close to nothingness. To Leonardo’s "truly great nothingness". And he, Antonio Papasso - this monk on the Mount Athos of perception - patiently extracts it. Poor means, delicate colours, thin voices, humble and touching transparencies.
          Brittle marginalia, like sighs and breaths. Papasso’s activity seems weak and understated, but what meaning does it have in the end? First of all, let’s give it a name: In praise of lightness. To explain its content better, let’s add a sub-title: In search of the tactile unconscious. And only then let’s analyse it, entering into its hidden meanings. The operation may seem banal to the superficial, but its half-light illuminates important things.
          The Italian word for "light" derives from Vulgar Latin. Weighing little, imperceptible, and so anything that is delicate. But the Latin levis means "lighten". The word still remains in Italian in the term for a midwife - levatrice - the person who lightens the mother of the new-born baby. Turning to the paintings, this praise of lightness is made up of works that are a mixture of etching and collage. If we think about it, they lighten those who look at them.
          One after another, Papasso’s icons are an exercise in penetration. As we look at them we leave the shop-soiled world of things and are gradually lightened of the weight of daily life and its repeated density. And just as the midwife delivers something living, the etchings and collages deliver one emotion after another in us. to be continued...

Riccardo Barletta
Milan, September 24, 2006