The exhibition Il respiro del mondo (The Breath of the World ) by Emilio Leofreddi, promoted by Fabio Falsaperla and curated by Barbara Tosi, will be inaugurated on Wednesday 9 September 2009 at 6 p.m. in the central hall on the first floor of the Complesso del Vittoriano. It is the result of the “Dreams (Travel Diary)” project, started in 2005, which saw the artist engaged in a six-month journey to India. Leofreddi’s poetic investigation culminates in the presentation of fifteen large paintings, made on Canadian camping tents, sewn in the Indian continent.
On each of them stands the phrase ‘Come up with full inhalation’, the breath necessary to perform the Vedic rite ‘Surya namaskar’, (sun salutation). “You are here” is the symbolic point marked on the maps to indicate where the viewer is at that moment, at the same time suggesting the awareness not to get lost on the journey. Among the fifteen works on display, five of them depict continents and, for each of them, the most significant figures who have contributed to their individual history: from Martin Luther King for North America, to Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi for Asia, to Nelson Mandela for Africa.
Le tende in India, comunemente utilizzate come abitazioni o per coprire i materiali da lavoro, si dispongono nelle sale del Vittoriano, come un accampamento, un villaggio globale. L’installazione di un grande globo di tre metri di diametro, realizzato in collaborazione con gli studenti dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma (Corso di Costume per lo Spettacolo), costituirà una simbolica ‘’pangea’’ contemporanea, nella quale i continenti si riavvicineranno.
Catalogo: “Emilio Leofreddi. Il Respiro del mondo”. Christian Maretti Editore, 2009. Testi in catalogo di Barbara Tosi (Storico dell’arte), Tulia Baldassarri (Studiosa di popoli e costumi), Francesco Carchedi (Sociologo), Giuseppe Cederna (Attore) e Sheila Mara Da Silva Conceição (Mediatrice interculturale).
