Being the uniqueness that we are Always the soul of Ivo Cotani has been nourished by the sacred fire of art. When the passion is well rooted and present in the state of mind of the person who lives it, there is no kind of spatial and temporal limit that can extinguish it because in those moments the artist allows himself to be crossed by emotions so great that they absorb him completely. Words, for Ivo Cotani, are not enough to give shape to his thoughts and painting becomes his simultaneous translator. Through the universal language of art he manages to be truth, without any fear of being labeled a non-common person. The artist once he finishes a work no longer perceives it as his own (they no longer belong to me) but observes it and is amazed by what it provokes in him. Ivo Cotani, in the exhibition Hedonism, presents thirteen unpublished pictorial works. They are inspired by the misunderstanding, incompatibility and dissociation that the artist feels toward contemporary society. A society in which the personality of the individual gives way to the behavioral system of the majority. A society, unreal and inauthentic, in which everyone is others and no one is himself. A society that capillarily controls individuals, leaving them in the illusion of being free but, in reality, they are guarded and directed by the strategies of religion, the stereotypes of fashion... which impose the attainment of perfection, pushing them to modify themselves by depersonalizing themselves. All this generates in the artist a feeling of inner exile, voluntary and forced, which leads him to reflect and want to communicate that we must simply be ourselves: dissimilar and unique. Ivo Cotani makes these works as an invitation to pleasure (hedonè), joy, lightness, fun and the personal power of having the courage to be the uniqueness that we are. The artist, in this series of works, experiments with a new way of working that is different from his usual one, placing all the supports "on the ground." This gives him the opportunity to experiment with a new point of view and challenge himself, as while making the works he finds himself assuming unusual but challenging physical positions. In addition, the works joined together with scotch tape give Ivo Cotani the opportunity both to move seamlessly from one to the other and to walk on them barefoot or dance on them, also thanks to the use of quick-setting colors. All this gives the artist the feeling of walking on his imagination. Once he has finished all the works he revises them vertically and puts the finishing touches on them. Observing these works, gesturality emerges, the elimination of three-dimensionality, the pictorial autonomy given to the image, and the spontaneity that leads him to dialogue with an art without artifice, authentic and pure. Transparency as a characteristic: immediate and genuine signs. Outlines are marked and firm brushstrokes communicate not harmony but strength and energy. All this gives a great sense of rhythm, movement and dynamism. Ivo Cotani demonstrates mastery of painting technique, also using very fast-drying, almost momentary colors, without any possibility of error or even better using afterthought-error as a new formal possibility. The sign, the color and the artist's hand come together to create works in which the immediate, sometimes violent instinct of the gesture prevails. Everything seems suspended in a space-time dimension far from the conflicts and anxieties of everyday reality.

 

Dr. Federica Fabrizi