A hundred-year journey through art and science

Rome, Bonaparte Palace
New public value culture space
From October 31 to April 1, 2024
Escher
Rome, October 30, 2023
“Are you really sure the floor can’t be a ceiling too?” (Ms.)
The exhibition dedicated to M. C. Escher (1898-1972) was recently opened at the Bonaparte Palace. This event is an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary life and work of this artist, and to remember his important journey to Rome exactly 100 years ago, in 1923. Escher’s art is known worldwide for its connection with science and mathematics. His works are animated by impossible viewpoints, non-Euclidean geometries and mosaics, creating images that elicit unexpected, but harmless, surprise in the audience. In this dimension, simple geometric shapes come to life, tour the familiar space and then return to their original place. Surreal visions become tangible and endless action invites us to explore this wonderful world, then safely returns us to where we started. A point that, if we wanted, could become our starting point again, to make the same journey. Escher’s works are amazing, they seem to create a passage into the world of fantasy and unreality, but after an apparently adventurous journey, they return us to the starting point, in an endless cycle worthy of Wim Wenders. His work embodies the idea of confusion. This feeling is amplified by the regularity and strict geometry of the space, which leaves no empty space, except for any possible escape route. Thus, infinity, although purely mathematical and geometric, turns out to be an illusion. The maze, which seems like a fun game, becomes a trap from which one cannot escape, unless one decides to abandon the game, perhaps with a bold leap like Indiana Jones or Kierkegaard, depending on one’s preferences. The second exhibition dedicated to him is in Rome, but it is the largest ever, with more than 300 works on display. His distinctive style went through two well-defined phases and was strongly influenced by artistic and cultural movements such asModern artWhich played a vital role in the beginning of his career. However, with the passage of time, he developed an artistic approach that developed in a unique and unambiguous way, turning him into an icon in the world of art. This personal and continuous path of development has allowed his work to acquire its own identity, and to stand decisively in the panorama of the art world. The exhibition is characterized by an atmosphere that pays attention to the smallest details: soft lighting and captions written on dark backgrounds create an attractive atmosphere that envelops the viewer in Escher’s world. Interactive participation is encouraged thanks to elements placed along the exhibition path, which allow visitors to become an integral part of the exhibition itself. Optical flooring, wallpaper and winking stations Personal Photos These are just a few examples of how the curators make the exhibition attractive even to a young and enthusiastic audience social networks. But unfortunately, by doing so, one can also discover one’s weakness. This latter tendency in exhibitions, as happened several times in Chiostro del Bramante, leads the visitor to a superficial analysis of the work and to an external social expression of the self, rather than an internal reflection on the works or the artist. . After making various trips to Italy starting in 1921, visiting Tuscany, Umbria and Liguria, Escher settled in Rome for twelve years, from 1923 to 1935, at No. 122 Via Boerio, in the old quarter of Monteverde. During this period, his experience in Rome had a strong influence on his later work, which made him prolific in producing lithographs and engravings, especially of landscapes, views, architecture, and views of ancient and Baroque Rome, a subject he loved to investigate most. The intimate dimension, the nocturnal dimension, in the dim light of the lantern. Escher considered the nights he spent drawing, sitting in a folding chair with a small flashlight hanging from his jacket, to be some of his fondest memories of that period. This artist’s work has profoundly influenced the world of cinema, with graphics being applied to advertisements and record covers. His unique artistic vision found fertile ground in these fields, engaging and fascinated young hippies and reserved and shy mathematicians. His creations have touched the deepest strings of thoughtful philosophies and attracted the attention of multinational companies. His ability to combine reality and dream has captured the imagination of a wide audience, making him loved and appreciated in multiple fields. Indeed, M. C. Escher’s art responds to a broad human pleasure of exploration and discovery, but also to disorientation. Through his works, Escher creates a world of false infinity and change, which fascinates and confuses the audience at the same time. This can be interpreted as a sign of the times, perhaps reflecting a contemporary desire to lose oneself in a complex and interconnected world, but without real risks. Escher’s works offer no escape; On the contrary, it leads the visitor into a maze of pre-determined paths, where every step is reversible and the return is always guaranteed. This may explain Escher’s popularity. His works embody a common fear – fear of the unknown and change – but at the same time have a reassuring effect. Escher’s world is constantly changing, but the changes are always manageable and predictable, recalling the perspective of the Leopard, in which everything changes until nothing changes. In this sense, Escher’s art can be seen as a call to abandon uncertainty about the future and the suffering of transformation, offering instead a safe haven in the game of illusions. The exhibition is sponsored by A Municipality of Rome – Department of Culture And fromEmbassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the NetherlandsProduced and organized by Arthemisia in cooperation with M. C. Escher Foundation And Maurits It is edited by Federico Giudicandrea – One of the most important Escher experts in the world – W Mark VeldhuysenCEO MC Escher. The beautiful catalog is published by A drunkard.