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MARCO GIANNOTTI

Direo / Direccin / Directed by


David Barro
Direccin de arte
Dardo ds
Coordinacin editorial / Editorial Coordination
?
Textos / Texts
David Barro, Ronaldo Brito
Tradues / Traducciones / Translations
?
Revisin de textos / Reviso de textos
Dardo ds (Eliana Martins)
Grafismo / Diseo Grfico / Graphic design
Dardo ds (Laura Gmez)

edio / edicin / edition: Artedardo, S.L

Impresso / Impresin / Printing


Eurogrficas

fotografas, textos e tradues / fotografas,


textos y traducciones / photographs, texts and
translations: los autores / os autores / the authors

Fotografas / Fotografas / Photographs

cortesias do artista / Gabinete


de Arte Raquel Arnaud

ISBN:
Depsito Legal:

Copyright 2010
Artedardo, S.L.
Rua Severino Riveiro Tom, n3
15702 Santiago de Compostela
T.: [+34] 881 976 986
M.: [+34] 607 491 840
dardo@dardo-ds.com

Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud


Rua Artur de Azevedo, 401
So Paulo, SP, Brasil, CEP 05404-010
Tel. +5511 3083-6322
www.raquelarnaud.com

MARCO GIANNOTTI

TEXTO PORT / David Barro

EL ABISMO DE UN TIEMPO SUSPENDIDO / David Barro


Basta una sola imagen para captar la temperatura de la pintura
de Marco Giannotti. La imagen tensa de su estudio, limpia,
calibrada. La luz, la sombra, la escala, el equilibrio y el orden
que acompaan a la espera descubren su mirada y envuelven
la nuestra. Porque entender la pintura de Marco Giannotti es
una cuestin de tiempo. El tiempo exacto que necesitamos
para ver el mundo de otra manera, el tiempo de aprehender
los que vemos de un modo reflexivo y crtico, pero sobre todo
potico. De ah que nazca del residuo, de la luz y de su sombra,
de un simple enrejado que se proyecta sobre nosotros para
imprimirse en nuestra memoria, recontextualizando todo sin
cerrar su significado. Porque la imagen de la pintura de Marco
Giannotti es una imagen presa, producto de un momento
detenido en el tiempo, de un gesto suspendido, de una
singularizacin de la experiencia de pintar, pero tambin de
vivir. Y la riqueza de su pintura radica precisamente en eso, en
cmo consigue temperar formas y colores desde lo racional, sin
dejar escapar ese lugar potico que nace de cada percepcin
nica del espacio y de cmo el tiempo se despliega en ste
a modo de pintura expandida, de fisura en la percepcin.

Un ejemplo de todo ello son sus fotos recientes de la columnata


de Bernini en Roma. La fotografa como pintura de exploracin
del estrato histrico. El tiempo, y nuestra mirada, dejan que la
pintura ocurra, que tenga lugar. La tensin calma de las curvas
de las columnas, su piel timbrada y amenazada en su lucha con
el tiempo o sus fisuras lumnicas encajan con la materialidad
dctil de la pintura de Marco Giannotti, siempre de arquitecturas
que se tornan sombras y monumentales, tensas como el
producto de una resonancia. Porque la pintura de Marco Giannotti
nace cuando el tiempo se fragmenta. Pienso, entonces, en un
estado de ruina permanente, una ruina entendida como lo hace
Derrida en un texto redactado con ocasin de una exposicin
de dibujos sobre ciegos en el Museo del Louvre: "La ruina
sobreviene como un accidente a un monumento ayer intacto. La
ruina no est ante nosotros, no es un espectculo ni un objeto
de amor. Es la experiencia misma: ni el fragmento abandonado
pero todava monumental de una totalidad, ni siquiera, como
pensaba Benjamin, un tema de la cultura barroca. No es un
tema, justamente, arruina el tema, la posicin, la presentacin o
la representacin de cualquier cosa. Ruina: ms bien memoria
abierta como un ojo o el boquete de una rbita huesuda que
nos deja ver sin mostrarnos nada en absoluto/del todo".

Es como si el tiempo se encargase de trabajar las obras, un


tiempo escultor como aquel que narra Marguerite Yourcenar,
que nos cuenta cmo nuestros padres restauraban las estatuas
para posteriormente nosotros proceder a quitarles su nariz y sus
prtesis. En sus propias palabras: "Los grandes aficionados a las
antigedades restauraban por piedad. Por piedad deshacemos
nosotros su obra. Puede que tambin nos hayamos acostumbrado
ms a las ruinas y a las heridas". Seguramente la inclinacin
que nuestra poca siente hacia lo abstracto nos lleva a amar la
ruina y potenciar el brillo esttico que se esconde en lo olvidado,
ya sea en una dbil luz o en una simple mancha de humedad.
No deja de ser curioso que uno de los ltimos encuentros
expositivos de Marco Giannotti haya sido en el Monasterio de
So Bento, conjuntamente con los artistas Jos Spaniol y Carlos
Eduardo Ucha. Hablamos de un viaje al interior, en el tiempo y
el espacio, "capaz de rescatar una relacin ms meditativa con
la imagen", segn palabras del propio artista. Esa sensacin de
prdida en lo potico tiene mucho que ver con esas fotografas
de la Columnata de Bernini de Marco Giannotti, mxime cuando
confiesa sentirse conmovido porque un arquitecto como Peter
Zumthor recibiese el Pritzker Prize por el proyecto de una
bella capilla: basta leer un texto de Zumthor para entender la
temperatura potica que Giannotti pretende para sus cuadros.

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Porque Marco Giannotti trabaja distintas sedimentaciones,


memorias, experiencias y pasos que disean en el tiempo una
figura inconcebible, una potica de lo frgil. Como si la pintura
fuese una metamorfosis detenida, como si en su expansin
dejase el resto de un lado secreto. Como una lmpara a punto
de extinguirse que desobedece la potencia potica de lo ms
oscuro, de la materia infinita que absorbe la luz del fondo no
visible. Parece que Marco Giannotti ama ese sentido de ruina,
en los objetos y en las pinturas, poetizando ese murmullo.
En cierto modo, dira que pinta lo que desborda su lugar,
lo que reverbera. Pero no lo espectacular, sino el pequeo
acontecimiento que le acerca, otra vez, al placer del objeto, de
la vida. Su bsqueda se inclina al placer del encuentro y a cmo
el paisaje, el escenario, soporta ese suave acontecimiento.
Porque ver poesa en el desgaste de la vida conduce a la difcil
misin de escuchar las resonancias de un objeto, de un paisaje.
Y esa aprehensin de lo efmero resulta clave en su pintura.
En el fondo, la pintura de Marco Giannotti es el resultado de un
anhelo que se desdibuja en fragmentos capaces de suspender la
realidad, procurando lo inabarcable de la imagen natural como
un aroma entendido a modo de refugio inaccesible de la memoria
involuntaria. Porque es verdad que el reconocimiento de un
aroma, ms que cualquier otro recuerdo, adormece la conciencia

del paso del tiempo. Y ah radica la dificultad de la pintura


de Marco Giannotti, que trata de atrapar ese distanciamiento
como quien tiene la seguridad de que slo recogindose para
pensar el mundo uno podr cosechar la verdadera belleza. De
ah que, en muchos casos, y como seala Ronaldo Brito, "el
cuadro se gira sobre s mismo, mezcla tiempos dispares y con
eso nos retiene, mirando, desconfiando, volviendo a mirar".
Es como si la pintura estuviese all pero no brotase
definitivamente. O como si fuese arrancada dejando sus restos.
Como aquella baba de caracol que Bacon pretenda como efecto
de sus cuadros; esa sensacin de haber dejado el rastro. Cierto
es que en Bacon todo el cuerpo tiende a escaparse y la figura
coquetea con su desaparicin. Por eso Deleuze llega a encontrarlo
con Lewis Carroll en una suerte de disipacin de la sonrisa y
cita un fragmento de su Alicia en el pas de las maravillas: "se
borr muy lentamente terminando por la sonrisa, que persisti
algn tiempo despus de que el resto del animal hubiera
desaparecido". Y esa sensacin de no permanencia es idntica
a las capas de pintura de Giannotti que ms que capas son
memorias negativas de lo que sera una suerte de palimpsesto.
Ms que acciones pictricas son desocultamientos, porque lo
que vemos en sus pinturas es ese resto invisible del que nos
habla Derrida, ese residuo o huella que puede desaparecer

radicalmente. Insistiendo en Deleuze, ste nos recuerda como


Bacon no deja de decir que la sensacin es lo que pasa de un
'orden' a otro, de un 'nivel' a otro, de un 'dominio' a otro. De ah
las deformaciones, provocadas por la sensacin; pero tambin las
expresiones recurridas por Bacon en sus entrevistas: 'secuencias
movedizas', 'niveles sensitivos', 'rdenes de sensaciones',
'dominios sensibles'. Naturalmente poco podemos encontrar
formalmente de Bacon en una obra como la de Giannotti pero s
que podramos aprehender esas expresiones deleuzianas para
catalogar el sentido sereno y tenso al tiempo de su pintura.
Podramos pensar en cmo algunas de sus ltimas pinturas
semejan haber sido cegadas por la luz de una vela. No
resulta gratuito pensar en la relacin que se establece con su
videoinstalacin Vigila, donde la vela es argumento predominante.
Como aquella vela de Gerhardt Richter, alegora sublime de
la pintura, Giannotti se asoma as a un mundo barroco, que
refuerza una potica que siempre ha buscado y encontrado en
la luz su principal aliado para llegar a lo inclasificable, para
revelar lo oculto. Como en un poema, nos interesa la memoria
congelada de los objetos, un conjunto de imgenes que parecen
vivir agnicamente suspendidas en el tiempo, como quien hace
equilibrios entre la vida y la muerte, entre lo que existe y lo
inexistente. La luz acaricia y templa las formas, y emerge como

lmite, como frontera, como prlogo de la sombra. Lo seala


Victor I. Stoichita de un modo certero: "la pintura nace bajo el
signo de una ausencia / presencia (ausencia de cuerpo / presencia
de su proyeccin)". De ah la atraccin que en Giannotti ejerce la
sombra, casi de un modo germinal, como cuando fotografa sus
manos sobre las protuberancias del paisaje. Pienso entonces
en lo que puede ser la primera imagen: el gesto de amor de
Vernica, que limpi el sudor de Jess camino del Calvario y su
imagen qued fijada sobre la tela, una metfora perfecta del
proceso fotogrfico, un trasplante, un fundido, una veladura, que
nos conduce a ese estado transitorio de los trabajos de Marco
Giannotti, algo que en los ttulos nos queda claro: Contraluz,
Oleodutos, Passagens, Travessia, etc Marco Giannotti busca la
fisura, ya sea desde lo mnimo de un faro veneciano que evoca
los paisajes romnticos de un Friedrich o desde el horror vacui
piranesiano de trabajos como los de su serie Quadrante.
De ah su atraccin tambin por el pliegue en sus Passagens.
Como esa sombra geomtrica distorsionada y manierista
que nace de una puerta entreabierta o de una ventana que se
despliega al espacio, Giannotti condensa algunas zonas para
potenciar otras. Todo cobra peso y densidad, aunque la escena
sea leve. Como seal Nelson Brissac Peixoto, "en contraposicin
a las escenas leves y difanas de la pintura tradicional, tenemos

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la acentuacin de la densidad y de la materialidad del panorama".


Lo deca a propsito de sus Fachadas (1993), un paisaje sin
informaciones, propio de un lenguaje saturado, ese producido por
una ciudad que en el cuerpo a cuerpo con nuestra mirada se ha
tornado invisible, sin horizonte. Nelson Brissac Peixoto hablaba
entonces del poder anamnsico de la fotografa y de cmo la
pintura se ocupaba de revelarlo. Efectivamente, como en artistas
como Gerhard Richter en Giannotti el lienzo ya no est vaco de
antemano y la pintura no sirve para producir la imagen sino que
es la imagen la que nos sirve para producir pintura, aunque esa
imagen sea mental. As, es la imagen, o su dislocacin, la que
genera otra nueva imagen. Richter lo deja claro en unas notas
datadas en 1964 y 1965. "Cuando pinto a partir de una fotografa,
el pensamiento consciente queda suprimido. No s lo que hago.
Mi trabajo se asemeja ms a lo informal que a cualquier tipo de
'realismo'. La fotografa tiene una abstraccin propia que no es
nada fcil de penetrar". Para Richter la fotografa es una forma
de ganar distancia a la hora de penetrar en lo real y asume una
funcin religiosa en el momento en que todo el mundo elabora
sus propios recordatorios a partir de ella. Y eso tiene mucho que
ver con aquello que Nelson Brissac Peixoto anunciaba a propsito
de Marco Giannotti, aseverando que su pintura tiene que luchar
permanentemente con la ausencia de horizonte y su sentido de
'hacer': pegar, pintar, rasgar, quemar Los lienzos de Giannotti

dejan efectivamente entrever las varias capas que en ellos se


fueron acumulando, en el caso de sus fachadas evocando toques
de Matisse o Morris Louis, como si la pintura de un Peter Halley
hubiese salido desteida de la lavadora. As, es fcil entender lo
vibrante de su Sala Vermelha (1994) o los posteriores goteos que
construirn sus Templos (1995) primero, y mezclas cromticas
que conformarn sus Crcere (1996) y su serie Cubato (1996).
Ms tarde, su serie Cromo (1997) revela ms claramente cmo
para Giannotti las formas emergen sobre todo para suscitar el
color. Fiel al nuevo sentido del espacio contemporneo como
desdoblamiento, las formas que flotan en el espacio donde
evidentemente vemos a Halley pero tambin vemos a una
referencia ms cercana geogrficamente que an hoy contina
siendo irrenunciable para su pintura como es Volpi acompaan
al color en esa nueva misin de generar una atmsfera, de ser
parte de ella en su condicin estructural capaz de tornarse
efectivo en el espacio real, convirtiendo su luz en vibrante
ejercicio ambiental. El color, o ms concretamente su percepcin,
conduce a otras percepciones y a un ejercicio fenomenolgico.
La forma, definitivamente al servicio del color, proyecta el
espacio interior del cuadro en fragmento del mundo real.
Todas estas razones y procesos convergen, casi a modo de
sntesis, en series ms recientes como Estructuras Espaciais I

(1999), Relevos (2000), Estructuras Espaciais II (2001), Passagens


I (2003), Oleodutos (2005), Passagens II (2006) o Contraluz
(2009). Una pintura en muchos casos reticular que huye del
fro para buscar una contemplacin ms calida y exttica,
emocional y rtmica, buscando la vibracin cromtica y ese tipo
de abstraccin impura que esconde la aprehensin de algo,
tan sutil como fundamental. Seguramente sea una cuestin de
piel, de textura que transforma la pintura casi en un ser vivo.
Hablamos de un tipo de pintura desteida, desganada. Como si
quisiese morir. Y es verdad que antes reconocamos la posibilidad
de que una vela cegara el centro de sus ltimas pinturas; la
luz de una vela podra entenderse como conexin ertica con
la muerte, como en la filosofa de Bataille; una muerte que es,
paradjicamente, el aroma de la existencia. De ah que Marco
Giannotti confiese su atraccin por el abismo de exponer en una
capilla, como Matisse, como Rothko, como Volpi. Porque la propia
actitud consciente de Marco Giannotti tiene mucho que ver con
la histrica relacin de la pintura y el espacio arquitectnico.
Giannotti sabe y valora que Rothko tras visitar las ruinas griegas
de Paestum confes que sin saberlo llevaba pintando templos
griegos toda su vida. Hablamos de proporciones, s, pero sobre
todo, de luz y de cmo sta se manifiesta. La intensidad de las
descripciones cromticas de Giannotti permite entender esa

condicin potica que acta a modo de toma de decisiones de


un artista que, por otro lado, siempre ha mantenido un slido
halo conceptual y dimensin crtica. Como quien otorga el
poder a la memoria, la pintura de Marco Giannotti nace en el
presente sin olvidar el pasado, como quien limpia un espacio
para repensar su lugar. Porque detrs de todo siempre estar
la pregunta de qu es pintar y por qu seguir hacindolo.
Es como si Marco Giannotti procurara darle a la luz una
sensacin fsica, como si fuese una suerte de cuerpo que
permitiese a la pintura despojarse de lo ajeno, de lo superfluo,
de lo accesorio. La piel, sera entonces, el tono, la vibracin, el
color como emocin, y la forma, por otro lado inseparable, sera
lo racional de la existencia. En la pintura de Marco Giannotti
la quietud es la anamnesis de lo clsico, de lo resuelto en
perfecto orden, pero la exgesis de su trabajo se desvela en
lo contrario, en la emocin que se confronta como condicin
de lo no resuelto, de ese lugar capaz de vibrar en la mirada.
Lo seal Jos ngel Valente en conversacin con Antoni Tpies,
"crear es generar un estado de disponibilidad, en el que la
primera cosa creada es el vaco, un espacio vaco". Encontrar ese
camino en la pintura slo est al alcance de quien la entiende
en clave potica. Pero tambin de quien conoce la historia y

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la borra para otorgarle nuevas formas, como en aquel gesto


de Rauchenberg sobre el dibujo de De Kooning. La pintura de
Marco Giannotti se configura as como un palimpsesto invisible,
aunque no seamos capaces de advertirlo en nuestra primera
mirada. Pienso en el techo de la pintura Innenraum de Kiefer y
me es inevitable asociar esa mirada con los ltimos trabajos de
Giannotti. Porque Giannotti se guarda la ventaja de no intentar
esconder las referencias, desde Brice Marden a Sean Scully,
desde Piero della Francesca a Rothko, desde Peter Halley a Ian
Davenport. Sabe que las soluciones son otras pero los problemas
son los mismos: la luz, el espacio, el tiempo, el color, el ritmo.
Ante la ltima exposicin de Marco Giannotti en el Gabinete de
Arte Raquel Arnaud tuve la sensacin de que una extraa luz
baaba los cuadros. Ms tarde advert que esa luz ya haba sido
absorbida por los propios cuadros. Sent como si esa suerte de
belleza se hubiese precipitado al vaco, como aquella situacin
que escriba Borges en Los conjurados, "s que he perdido tantas
cosas que no podra contarlas y que esas perdiciones, ahora,
son lo que es mo". Un tipo de sentimiento condensado, como si
experimentsemos una especie de miopa que nos velara para
conducirnos a lo ambiguo de esa inmensidad que, como seala
Rafael Argullol al respecto del Romanticismo, causa una nostalgia
indescriptible al tiempo que un vaco asfixiante. Pero tambin

podramos pensar en cmo Deleuze advirti que el barroco no es


un arte de las estructuras sino de las texturas, una proliferacin
de pliegues. Un mundo de capturas ms que de clausuras.
La obra de Marco Giannotti juega con los mrgenes y los
fragmentos, con desrdenes y perversiones, hasta llegar a
un interesante estado de 'suspensin'. Pienso, por ejemplo,
en cmo estas obras se podran comparar con los relatos de
Maurice Blanchot, desorientndonos en su variabilidad porque
albergan un otro tiempo, no ficticio, sino el de la narracin
pictrica, o si se prefiere de la experiencia de conformacin
de unas formas volcadas a lo desconocido. Porque el tiempo
aqu se experimenta. En Blanchot es el tiempo de lo inaudito
y lo impensable, de lo oscuro o, ms concretamente, de la
ausencia de tiempo o presente sin presencia. El texto domina,
el discurso vence y se impone al sujeto. Como en las formas
de apariencia fractal de Marco Giannotti, todo se desborda,
hasta el propio margen, y el artista trata de tatuar esa realidad
insistiendo en el fragmento potico, sumando otro tiempo ms,
virtual, imaginario como el tiempo de la escritura, aportico
como el inherente a esa escritura de Blanchot, incapaz de
tornarse presente definitivamente. Como toda pintura culta.

Hablamos, en definitiva, de deseo cristalizado en pintura. En sus


ltimos trabajos, de una serie de verjas encontradas en la ciudad
de So Paulo que son impresas en el lienzo, la imaginacin abre
los ms imprevisibles caminos. En cierto modo, sus paisajes y
retratos son una suerte de no lugar, en tanto que lugar imaginario
o realidad deformada que slo existe en la mente del artista.
Algo as como un viaje que habita nuestra propia vida. Pienso en
todos los lugares que imagin un Ren Magritte que nunca lleg
a salir de su pas. O en la reticencia a viajar de Morandi. O en
cmo el pensamiento de Kant empap el mundo de una nueva
filosofa sin salir de Knigsberg. Las estructuras esterilizadas de
Marco Giannotti semejan vibrar an estando quietas. Atendamos
sino a la poesa con forma de naturaleza muerta de un Giorgio
Morandi, de quien el mismo De Chirico dir que su mirada nos
reserva lo ms ntimo, la estructura de estas cosas muertas
que nos parecen ms reconfortantes en su inmovilismo. Porque
el intimismo de Morandi es ms elegancia sencilla, producto
de una mirada tranquila, discreta, que un entorno cargado de
metafsica o piscologas literarias. Lo incgnito de las naturalezas
muertas de Morandi tiene ms que ver con la tranquilidad que
emana de un Corot, un Vermeer o, sobre todo, un Chardin, ya
que para Morandi el arte no serva a otro propsito ajeno a lo que
resulta implcito en el propio cuadro, a una particular manera
de proyectar su realidad. Y esa realidad en Marco Giannotti se

destila a partir de una trama, a veces sutil y a veces densa, a


veces adelgazada y a veces gruesa, pero siempre a punto de
expirar, en un momento determinante. Es como si pensamiento
e imagen se hubieran fundido, producto de una sntesis.
Pero si algo es fundamental, como decamos, en las obras de
Maco Giannotti es la importancia de la luz. Mxime en sus ltimas
obras, heridas como nunca. Pienso en Turner y en cmo John
Berger nos habla de una violencia que est expresada por el
agua, el viento y el fuego, que en algunas ocasiones se dira que
es una cualidad que pertenece tan slo a la luz. La luz devora el
mundo visible y hace vibrar y brillar cada una de las pinceladas de
Giannotti. Su capacidad para temperar el cuadro, como si fuese un
piano nos aboca a un abismo de la mirada, como aquel descenso
al Maelstrm narrado por Edgar Allan Poe: "Al principio me sent
demasiado confundido para poder observar nada con precisin.
Todo lo que alcanzaba era ese estallido general de espantosa
grandeza". Y esa confusin se da en la pintura de Giannotti, donde
nada es definitivo y el color reverbera, resuena, tamizando ese
tiempo de misterio como el de un poema todava sin iluminar.

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UM OLHAR LENTO, OUTRO FLUIDO / Ronaldo Brito

O que vemos, de incio, mais parece um negativo fotogrfico: a


imagem ainda no foi revelada. Por isto mesmo, somos levados
a nos aproximar da tela, examin-la, interrog-la, na expectativa
talvez de que nesse meio tempo a imagem se mostre por
completo. Mas a manobra ser recorrente, interminvel, pois a
ao esttica da pintura de Marco Giannotti consiste justamente
em sustentar um poder de atrao indefinido, a reclamar uma
percepo que no cesse de corrigir e refazer o seu percurso.
Assim como as mltiplas investidas da tmpera acrlica so
volteis, nem chegam a formar camadas, no agem enfim
maneira das velaturas do leo tradicional estranhamente,
elas ficam na tela mas no sob o regime da permanncia
tambm a nossa ateno demorada no ganha consistncia com
o tempo. Ela sempre chamada, de novo, pela primeira vez.
Essa pintura que no entrega a imagem que, de sada, promete,
tampouco desvela a interioridade sedutora que deixa entrever.
A essa altura, pode-se muito bem argumentar, nenhuma
qumica explosiva. Ainda assim, uma linguagem de pintura
contempornea que se move sincera, consciente, quase
compulsivamente entre dois polos to antagnicos quanto Mark
Rothko e Andy Warhol, pelo menos declara com franqueza sua
origem problemtica, assume desde logo o dilema de seu vir a
ser. E, no entanto, do ponto de vista de um pintor culto, vocacional,

nada mais lgico. Como escapar a Rothko, ao fascnio irresistvel,


que se quer perene, da mais intransigente entre todas as ltimas
das altas pinturas da tradio ocidental? E como permanecer
imune a Andy Warhol, o soberano falso dem iurgo das aparncias,
e isto at os nossos dias, depois de meio sculo? Seria um pouco
como ignorar, sua poca, a tenso entre Plato e Protgoras.
verdade que a releitura de Marco Giannotti j comea por se
especificar, passa ao largo das ideologias de produo dos dois
artistas e de suas conflitantes recepes crticas, concentra-se
inteira no problema da cor. E mesmo a, opera um recorte: tratase muito mais do tardio e sombrio Rothko, muito mais do Warhol
das Shadows do que de qualquer outro. O que, de pronto, remete
tudo, ou quase tudo, prtica material da pintura. Traduzindo
em termos crticos, discursivos, o que certamente ocorre no
plano intuitivo, no prprio imaginrio do artista, a questo da
cor redefine e singulariza o conflito. Depois de Warhol, ser
vivel ou factvel a busca da cor intrnseca, a cor por ela mesma,
com seu impacto esttico autnomo? A iluminao extrnseca,
mundana, de Warhol sbia pardia do teatro da mdia deteria
semelhante alcance, de golpe resumiria dois sculos de livre
e exaltada aventura cromtica moderna? A resposta do pintor
vem e s pode vir pelo trabalho reiterado de investigao da cor,

pela interrogao sobre as suas atuais condies de exerccio, a


resposta vir em suma pelo processo de repetio da pergunta.
E a tarefa no , em definitivo, a simples conciliao entre
opostos e contrrios. O desafio dessa pintura mostrar-se
altura de suas intuies dspares, tensionar-se, flexionarse, tornar-se contempornea de si mesma. Por exemplo, na
questo do tempo. Visivelmente, dentro da mesma srie, os
quadros de Marco Giannotti tendem a se particularizar, cada
um deles, por assim dizer, subjetiva-se. Da o tempo esttico
que exigem, algo lento, meditativo, que jamais termina porm
no puro xtase de Rothko porque trazem sempre de volta o seu
problema de incio. Em todo caso, a eles tampouco se aplica
a suspenso ctica, a annima ironia repetitiva, que distingue
as sries de Warhol. Todo quadro encerra aqui o seu destino,
embora j no o possa faz-lo sob o modelo da unidade ntegra.
Ou ainda, o crucial problema da luz. Das telas de Giannotti parece
emanar uma luz substantiva, que elas quase destilam, ao mesmo
tempo em que exibem uma fosforecncia suspeita, como se
uma iluminao artificial viesse, de fora, a ating-las. As cores,
s vezes graves, profundas, remanescentes do ltimo Rothko,
resultam um tanto enganosas, a um passo da pardia, descrentes
em epifanias. No to rasas e rpidas, certo, quanto as cores

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estrategicamente frvolas das Shadows cores que, quanto mais


contemplamos, querendo decifr-las, menos sentimos. Mas, la
Warhol, os quadros de Giannotti guardam a memria de imagens
difusas, meio fora de foco, como se despedissem da aura extinta.
E, de fato, nessas telas se imprimem e reimprimem, deixam
marcas visveis, as grades de ferro que o artista recolhe ao
acaso numa cidade (S. Paulo) onde grades tm uma presena
ostensiva. H, sim, uma ponta de ironia nessa aluso a um
significante conspcuo no jargo da Histria da Arte Moderna:
a legendria grade (grid) cubista. Fiquemos por aqui, contudo,
pois a ironia uma espcie de estranha-ntima ao esprito do
trabalho. De qualquer modo, um elemento urbano comum,
extra-estdio, ingressa na qumica da pintura e indica, no
mnimo, certo desconforto com sua condio reclusa. As
imagens dispersas dessas grades, em superposices que se
confundem e virtualmente se auto-anulam, funcionam assim
como as estruturas fracas do trabalho. Em tom coloquial,
exprimem uma profisso de f do artista acerca da pintura
contempornea: nem janela a propiciar uma vista, nem uma
autodemonstrao conceitual, distanciada, que logo se esteriliza.
Resta tela reinventar-se, redescobrir-se, agir com eficcia em
meio ao All-Over inexorvel, manter-se em aberto, intrigante

mas esquiva. E sintomtico, nesse sentido, o retorno do leo,


sria contrapartida ligeira tmpera acrlica. At pela demora
da secagem, o leo introduz um segundo momento, denso e
dubitativo, que se contrape s aes volveis do acrlico: o
quadro volta-se sobre si mesmo, mistura tempos dspares, e
com isso nos retm, olhando, desconfiando, tornando a olhar.

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20

UNA MIRADA LENTA, OTRA FLUIDA / Ronaldo Brito

Lo que vemos, de entrada, parece ms un negativo fotogrfico:


la imagen todava no ha sido revelada. Por esto mismo, se
nos lleva a acercarnos al lienzo, a examinarlo, a interrogarlo,
con la expectativa quizs de que en ese medio tiempo la
imagen se muestre por completo. Pero la maniobra ser
recurrente, interminable, pues la accin esttica de la pintura
de Marco Giannotti consiste justamente en mantener un
poder de atraccin indefinido, reclamando una percepcin
que no deje de corregir y rehacer su recorrido. As como las
mltiples embestidas de la tmpera acrlica son voltiles,
ni llegan a formar capas, no actan finalmente como las
veladuras del leo tradicional extraamente, quedan en el
lienzo pero no bajo el rgimen de permanencia, tampoco
nuestra pausada atencin gana consistencia con el tiempo.
Siempre es llamada, de nuevo, por primera vez. Esa pintura
que no entrega la imagen que, antes de nada, promete,
tampoco desvela la interioridad seductora que deja entrever.
En este momento, se puede argumentar muy bien que
ninguna qumica es explosiva. An as, un lenguaje de pintura
contemporneo que se mueve sincera, consciente, casi
compulsivamente entre dos polos tan antagnicos como Mark
Rothko y Andy Warhol, por lo menos declara con franqueza
su origen problemtico, asume desde luego el dilema de su

surgimiento. Y sin embargo, desde el punto de vista de un pintor


culto, vocacional, nada ms lgico. Cmo escapar a Rothko,
a la fascinacin irresistible, que si quiere perenne, de la ms
intransigente entre todas las ltimas de las altas pinturas de
la tradicin occidental? Y cmo permanecer inmune a Andy
Warhol, el falso soberano demiurgo de las apariencias, y esto
hasta nuestros das, despus de medio siglo? Sera un poco
como ignorar, en su poca, la tensin entre Platn y Protgoras.
Es cierto que la relectura de Marco Giannotti empieza ya
especificndose, pasa lejos de las ideologas de produccin
de los dos artistas y de sus encontradas recepciones crticas,
se concentra al completo en el problema del color. E incluso
ah, acta un rasgo: se trata mucho ms del tardo y sombro
Rothko, mucho ms del Warhol de las Shadows, que de
cualquier otro. Lo que, de pronto, remite todo, o casi todo,
a la prctica material de la pintura. Traducido en trminos
crticos, discursivos, lo que ciertamente ocurre en el plano
intuitivo, en el propio imaginario del artista, la cuestin del color
redefine y singulariza el conflicto. Despus de Warhol, ser
viable o factible la bsqueda del color intrnseco, el color en s
mismo, con su impacto esttico autnomo? La iluminacin
extrnseca, mundana, de Warhol sabia parodia del teatro de
los medios de masas detendra semejante alcance, resumira

de golpe dos siglos de libre y exaltada aventura cromtica


moderna? La respuesta del pintor viene y slo puede venir del
trabajo reiterado de investigacin del color, de la interrogacin
sobre sus actuales condiciones de ejercicio, la respuesta
vendr en suma del proceso de repeticin de la pregunta.
Y la tarea no es, en definitiva, la simple conciliacin entre
opuestos y contrarios. El desafo de esa pintura es mostrase a
la altura de sus intuiciones dispares, tensionarse, flexionarse,
volverse contempornea de s misma. Por ejemplo, en la cuestin
del tiempo. Visiblemente, dentro de la misma serie, los cuadros
de Marco Giannotti tienden a particularizarse, cada uno de ellos,
por decirlo as, se subjetivizan. De ah el tiempo esttico que
exigen, algo lento, meditativo, que jams termina en cambio
en el puro xtasis de Rothko porque traen siempre de vuela su
problema de inicio. En todo caso, a ellos tampoco se les aplica
la suspensin ctica, la annima irona repetitiva, que distingue
las series de Warhol. Todo cuadro encierra aqu a su destino,
aunque ya no pueda hacerlo bajo el modelo de la unidad ntegra.
O incluso, el crucial problema de la luz. De los lienzos de
Giannotti parece emanar una luz sustantiva, que casi destilan,
al mismo tiempo que exhiben una fosforescencia sospechosa,
como si una iluminacin artificial viniese, desde fuera, a

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alcanzarlos. Los colores, a veces graves, profundos, remanente


del ltimo Rothko, resultan un tanto engaosos, a un paso de
la parodia, descredos de epifanas. No tan rasos y rpidos,
es cierto, como los colores estratgicamente frvolos de las
Shadows colores que, cuanto ms los miramos, queriendo
descifrarlos, menos sentimos. Pero, a la Warhol, los cuadros
de Giannotti guardan la memoria de imgenes difusas, medio
desenfocadas, como si fuesen despedidas del aura extinta.
Y, de hecho, en esos lienzos se imprimen y reimprimen, dejan
marcas visibles, las rejillas de hierro que el artista recoge al
azar en una ciudad (S. Paulo) donde las rejillas tienen una
presencia ostensiva. Hay, s, una pizca de irona en esa alusin
a un significante conspicuo en la jerga de la Historia del Arte
Moderno: la legendaria rejilla (grid) cubista. Dejmoslo aqu, an
as, pues la irona es una especie de extraa-ntima al espritu
del trabajo. De cualquier modo, un elemento urbano comn,
extra-estudio, entra en la qumica de la pintura e indica, en
lo mnimo, cierta incomodidad con su condicin reclusa. Las
imgenes dispersas de esas rejillas, en superposiciones que se
confunden y virtualmente se autoanulan, funcionan as como
las estructuras dbiles del trabajo. En tono coloquial, expresan
una profesin de fe del artista sobre la pintura contempornea:

ni ventana que propicie una vista, ni una autodemostracin


conceptual, distanciada, que luego se esteriliza.
Le queda al lienzo reinventarse, redescubrirse, actuar con
eficacia en medio del All-Over inexorable, mantenerse en
abierto, intrigante pero esquivo. Y es sintomtico, en ese
sentido, el retorno del leo, seria contrapartida a la ligera
tmpera acrlica. Hasta por la demora de secado, el leo
introduce un segundo momento, denso y dubitativo, que se
contrapone a las acciones volubles del acrlico: el cuadro se
vuelve sobre s mismo, mezcla tiempos dispares, y con eso
nos retiene, mirando, desconfiando, volviendo a mirar.

23

QUADRANTES / 2010
Quadrante # 7, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante A, 40x100 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante B, 40x100 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante # 2, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante # 3, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante # 4, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante #, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante #6, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante # 5, 170x150 cm, tcnica mista

QUADRANTES / 2010
Quadrante 2, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 5, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 3, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 6, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 4, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 10, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 2, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 5, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 6, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 7, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista
Quadrante 8, 170x170 cm, tcnica mista

ARTE E ESPIRITUALIDADE / 2009

Bernini, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta


Bernini, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta
Bernini, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta

ARTE E ESPIRITUALIDADE / 2009


Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta
Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta
Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta
Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta
Travessia, 40x60 cm, impresso a jato de tinta

ARTE E ESPIRITUALIDADE / 2009


Limbo, 120x160 cm, leo sobre lienzo
Porta do inferno, 240x170 cm, leo sobre lienzo
Porta do paraiso, 230x170 cm, leo sobre lienzo
Vigilia, video instalao
Vigilia, video instalao

VIA CRUCIS / 2009


1 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
2 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
3 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
4 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
5 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
6 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
7 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
8 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
9 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
10 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
11 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
12 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
13 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela
14 estao, 1x1 m, tmpera e esmalte sobre tela

CONTRALUZ / 2009
S/T, 80x100 cm, tmpera sobre tela
S/T, 170 x 250, tmpera sobre tela
Purgatrio, 170 x 320
S/T, 80 x100 cm, leo sobre tela
S/T, 100x200 cm, leo sobre tela
S/T, 190 x120 cm, leo sobre tela
S/T, 80x100 cm, leo sobre tela
S/T, 80 x100 cm, leo sobre tela

PASSAGENS II / 2006

Vista do ateli
Passagem, ?, leo sobre tela
Passagem em dois vermelhos, 250x200 cm, leo sobre tela

OLEODUTOS / 2004-2005
Sem ttulo, 260 x 210 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela
Oleoduto verde musgo e bordeaux, 170x150 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela
Triptico cinza, 160x360 cm, leo e tmpera sobre tela

94

THE ABYSS OF A SUSPENDED TIME / David Barro

One picture is enough to capture the Marco


Giannottis painting. The tense image of a clean,
calibrated studio. The light, the shade, the scale,
the balance and the order that accompany the
waiting discover their gaze and return our own.
Because understanding Marco Giannottis painting
is a question of time. The exact time we need
to see the world in a different way, the time of
apprehending what we see in a manner that is
reflective and critical, but above all poetic. Thus
it arises from the residue, from light and from its
shade, from a simple network that is projected
upon us and is then impressed on our memory,
recontextualising everything without closing
down its meaning. Because the image of Marco
Giannottis painting is a captured image, the
product of a moment that is stopped in time, of
a suspended gesture, of a singularisation of the
experience of painting, but also of living. And the
wealth of his painting lies precisely in this fact,
in how to manage to achieve forms and colours
from the rational, without allowing the escaping
of that poetic place that is born out of each unique
perception of space, and of how time unfolds within
it like expanded painting, like a gap in perception.

strata. Time, and our gaze, let the painting


happen and take place. The calm tension of
the curves of the columns, their marked skin,
threatened in its struggle against time, or its
fissures of light, fit in with the ductile luminous
nature of Marco Giannottis painting, always
made up of architectures that become sombre
and monumental, as tense as the product of a
resonance. Because Marco Giannottis painting is
born when time is fragmented. I am thus thinking
about a state of permanent ruin, a ruin understood
as Derrida does so in a text of his on the occasion
of a drawing exhibition about the blind in the
Louvre Museum: the ruin survives as an accident
of a monument that was intact yesterday. The ruin
does not stand before us, it is not a spectacle nor
an object of love. It is experience itself: neither
the abandoned yet still monumental fragment
of a wholeness, nor even, as Benjamin thought,
a subject of baroque culture. It is not a subject;
indeed, it ruins the subject, the position, the
presentation or the representation of something.
Ruin: rather a memory that is open like an eye or
the opening in a bony orbit that allows us to see
without showing anything at all/of the whole.

One example of all this are his recent photos of


the Bernini Columnata in Rome. Photography
as a painting of the exploration of historical

It is as if the time took charge of these works,


a sculpting time, like that told of by Marguerite
Yourcenar, who tells us about how our parents

restored statues so that we could later cut their


noses and their false limbs off. In her own words:
The great lovers of antiques restored out of
mercy. Out of mercy we ourselves undo their
work. We may have become more used to ruins
and wounds. No doubt the inclination our period
feels towards the abstract leads us to love the ruin
and empower the aesthetic shine that is hidden in
what is forgotten, whether this is a faint light or a
simple mark of humidity. It is indeed curious that
one of Marco Giannottis last exhibition encounters
was in the Sao Bento Monastery, along with the
artists Jos Spaniol and Carlos Eduardo Ucha.
We are talking about a journey to the interior, in
time and space, capable of summoning up a
more meditative relationship with the image,
in the artists own words. That feeling of loss in
the poetic has a lot to do with these photographs
of the Bernini Columnata by Marco Giannotti,
especially when he confesses that he is moved
by the fact that an architect like Peter Zumthor
received the Pritzker Prize for the Project for a
beautiful chapel: it is enough to read a text by
Zumthor to understand the poetic temperature
that Giannotti intends his paintings to have.
Because Marco Giannotti works on different
sedimentations, memories, experiences and
steps that draw an unconceivable figure in time,

a poetics of the fragile. As if the painting were a


stopped metamorphosis, as if in its expansion
it left the remains of a secret side. Light a light
bulb about to go out that disobeys the poetic
potential of the darkness, of the infinite matter
that absorbs the light in the invisible depths. It
seems like Marco Giannotti loves that sense of
ruin in objects and paintings, bringing poetry to
this whisper. In a certain way I would state that he
paints what overflows, what reverberates. But not
the spectacular; instead the small event coming
close to the pleasure of the object, of life. His
search tends towards the pleasure of encounter
and to how the landscape, the setting, supports
this soft happening. Because seeing poetry in the
difficult wearing down of life leads to the difficult
mission of listening to the resonances of an
object, of a landscape. And this apprehending of
the ephemeral is a key element in his painting.
Deep down, Marco Giannottis painting is the
result of a longing that is set out in fragments
capable of suspending reality, seeking out the
unapproachable of the natural image as an
aroma understood as an inaccessible refuge of
involuntary memory. Because it is true that the
recognition of an aroma, more than any other
memory, lulls awareness of the passage of
time. And here is where the difficulty of Marco

Giannottis painting lies, in that it deals with


capturing that distancing like someone who is
sure that only in withdrawing in order to think of
the world can one be able to reap the true rewards
of true beauty. So in many cases, and as Ronaldo
Brito points out, the painting turns around on
itself, mixing disparate times, and thus keeps us
watching, looking in distrust, and looking again.
It is as if the painting were there but had not
definitively broken out. Or as if it had been pulled
up, leaving its remains. Like that snail slime
that Bacon wanted to leave as the effect of his
paintings; that sensation of having left a trail. It
is clear that for Bacon all of the body tries to flee
and the figure flirts with its own disappearance.
For this reason Deleuze manages to find him with
Lewis Carroll in a sort of dissipation of the smile,
and quotes a fragment of his Alices Adventures in
Wonderland: this time it vanished quite slowly
ending with the grin, which remained some time
after the rest of it had gone. And this feeling of
non-permanence is identical to that of the layers
of painting by Giannotti that, more than being
layers, are negative memories of what would be
a sort of palimpsest. More than being pictorial
actions, they are uncoverings, because what
we see in his paintings is that invisible remains
that Derrida speaks to us about, that residue or

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mark that might radically disappear. Insisting


on Deleuze, he reminds us how Bacon keeps
on stating that feeling is what goes from one
order to another, from one domain to another.
Thus there are the deformations provoked by
feeling; but also the expression used by Bacon
in his interviews: shifting sequences, sensitive
levels, orders of sensations, sensitive domains.
Naturally, we can find very little formally of Bacon
in a work such as that of Giannotti, but we can
take on board these Deleuzean expressions
in order to catalogue the simultaneously
serene and tense sense of his painting.
We might think about how some of his paintings
seem to have been struck blind by the light of
a candle. It is not gratuitous to think about the
relationship that is established with his video
installation Vigila [Vigil], where the candle is
the predominant argument. Like that candle by
Gerhardt Richter, a sublime allegory of painting,
Giannotti thus approaches a baroque world,
that reinforces a poetics that has always sought
and found its main ally in light for reaching the
unclassifiable, for revealing the occulted. Like a
poem, we are interested in the frozen memory
of objects, a set of images that seem to live in
agony, suspended in time, like someone balancing
between life and death, between what exists and

what does not. The light caresses and tempers


the forms, and emerges as a limit, as a frontier,
as a prologue to the shadow. This is clearly
pointed out by Victor I. Stoichita: painting is
born under the sign of an absence / presence
(absence of body / presence of its projection).
Thus there is the attraction that the shadow
exerts in Giannotti, almost in a germinating
manner, like when he photographs his hands
on the outcrops of the landscape. I then think
about what the first image might be: Veronica
gesture of love, wiping Jesus sweat on the walk
to Calvary and his image was set into the cloth, a
perfect metaphor for the photographic process,
a transplant, a fusing, a veiling, that leads us
into that transitory state of the works of Marco
Giannotti, something that is clear to us in their
titles: Against the Light, Oleoducts, Passages,
Crossing, etc Marco Giannotti seeks out the
gap, whether this is from the mnimum aspect
of a Venetian lighthouse evoking the landscapes
of a Friedrich or the Piranesian horror vacui
of Works like those in his Quadrante series.
This is the reason for his attraction for the fold
in his Passages. Like that distorted, mannerist
geometric shadow that is born out of a slightly
opened door or from a window that unfolds from
the space, Giannotti condenses some zones

in order to empower others. Everything gains


weight and density, although the setting is light.
As Nelson Brissac Peixoto stated, in opposition
to the light and diaphanous settings of traditional
painting, we have the stressing of the density and
material nature of the view. He said this about
his Fachadas [Faades] (1993), a landscape with
no information, suited to a saturated language,
which is produced by a city that, in a face-off
struggle with our gaze, has become invisible, with
no horizons. Nelson Brissac Peixoto was talking
about the anamnesic power of photography and
about how painting dealt with showing it. Indeed,
like in artists such as Gerhard Richter, in Giannotti
the canvas is no longer empty from the outset and
the painting does not serve to produce the image,
but the image serves in order for us to produce
painting, although this image is mental. So it is
the image, or its shifting, that generates another
new image. Richter makes this clear in some
notes dated 1964 and 1965. When I paint from a
photograph the conscious thought is suppressed.
I dont know what Im doing. My work is more
like the informal than any type of realism.
Photography has an abstraction of its own that
is not at all easy to penetrate. For Richter
photography is a way of gaining distance at the
time of penetrating the real, and has a religious

function at the time when everyone draws up their


own memories from it. And this has a lot to do with
that which Nelson Brissac Peixoto stated about
Marco Giannotti, asserting that his painting had to
permanently fight against an absence of horizons
and its sense of making: taking, painting, tearing,
burning Giannottis canvases clearly allow
one to see the several different layers that have
accumulated on them, in the case of his faades
evoking touches of Matisse or Morris Louis, as
if the painting of someone like Peter Halley had
come out of the wash and the colours had run.
So it is easy to understand the vibrant nature of
his Sala Vermelha [Red Room] (1994) or the later
drippings that will make up his Templos [Temples]
(1995) first, and chromatic mixes that will form
his Crcere [Jail] (1996) and his series Cubato
[Hut] (1996). Later on, his series Cromo (1997)
more clearly reveals how for Giannotti the shapes
emerge above all in order to summon up colour.
Being faithful to the new sense of contemporary
space as an unfolding, the forms that float in
the space where we obviously see Halley but
we also see a reference that is geographically
closer which even today is still indispensable to
his painting as is Volpi accompany the colour on
this new mission to generate an atmosphere, to
be a part of it in its structural condition capable of

becoming effective in the real space, converting


its light into a vibrant environmental exercise. The
colour, or more specifically its perception, leads
to other perceptions and to a phenomenological
exercise. The form, definitively at the service
of the colour, projects the inner space of the
painting into being a fragment of the real world.
All of these reasons and processes converge,
almost like in a synthesis, in more recent series
like Estructuras Espaciais I [Spatial Structures
I] (1999), Relevos [Reliefs] (2000), Estructuras
Espaciais II [Spatial Structures II] (2001),
Passagens I [Passages I] (2003), Oleodutos
[Oleoducts] (2005), Passagens II [Passages II]
(2006) and Contraluz [Against the Light] (2009).
A painting that is often reticular and flees
from the cold in order to seek a warmer and
ecstatic, emotional and rhythmic contemplation,
seeking the chromatic vibration and that type
of impure abstraction that hides apprehension
of something, as subtle as it is fundamental.
It is certainly a question of skin, of texture that
almost turns the painting into a living being.
We are talking about a type of faded, lethargic
painting. As if it wished to die. And the truth is that
we have noted the possibility that a candle would
blind the centre of his latest paintings; the light

of a candle might be seen as an erotic connection


to death, like in Batailles philosophy; a death
that is paradoxically the aroma of existence. Thus
Marco Giannotti confesses his attraction for the
abyss of exhibiting in a chapel, like Matisse, like
Rothko, like Volpi. Because Marco Giannottis
attitude itself has a lot to do with the historical
relationship between painting and the architectural
space. Giannotti knows and valorises the fact that
Rothko, after visiting the Greek ruins of Paestum,
confessed that he had been painting Greek temples
all his life without realising it. We are talking about
proportions, but above all about light and how it
is revealed. The intensity of Giannottis chromatic
descriptions allows one to understand that poetic
condition that acts as a method of decisionmaking by an artist who, on the other hand, has
always maintained a solid conceptual aura and
critical dimension. Like someone granting power
to memory, Marco Giannottis painting is born
in the present without forgetting the past, like
someone cleaning out a space in order to rethink its place. Because behind everything there
will always be the question about what painting
means and why one should carry on doing it.
It is as if Marco Giannotti were attempting to
grant the light a physical feeling, as if it were
a sort of body that allowed the painting to cast

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of what is alien, superfluous and unnecessary


to it. The skin would then be the tone, the
vibration, colour as emotion and the form,
inseparable on the other hand, would be the
rational element in existence. In Marco Giannottis
painting the stillness is the anamnesis of the
classical, of that turns out in perfect order,
but the exegesis of his work is revealed in the
opposite, in the emotion that is confronted as
a condition of that which is not resolved, of
that place capable of vibrating in ones gaze.
Jos ngel Valente stated in a conversation with
Antoni Tpies, creating means generating a state
of availability, in which the first thing created is
emptiness, an empty space. Finding that path
in painting is only within the reach of those who
understand it in a poetic code. But also those who
know history and erase it in order to grant it new
forms, like that gesture by Rauschenberg on De
Koonings drawing. Marco Giannottis painting
thus stands as an invisible palimpsest, although
we are not able to see this at first glance. I am
thinking of the ceiling in the painting Innenraum
by Kiefer, and it is inevitable for me to associate
this gaze to the latest works by Giannotti. Because
Giannotti has the advantage of not trying to hide
his references, from Brice Marden to Sean Scully,
from Piero della Francesca to Rothko, from

Peter Halley to Ian Davenport. He knows that


the solutions are different but the problems are
the same: light, space, time, colour, rhythm.
In the last exhibition by Marco Giannotti at the
Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud I had the feeling
that a strange light bathed the paintings. Later
I noticed that the light had been absorbed by
the paintings themselves. I felt as if that sort
of beauty had been hurled into the emptiness,
like that situation described by Borges in Los
conjurados, I know that I have lost so many
things that I could not count them all, and those
losses, now, are all that is left to me. A type of
condensed feeling, as if we felt a sort of myopia
that veiled us in order to lead us to the ambiguity
of the vastness that, as Rafael Argullol stated in
relation to Romanticism, causes an indescribable
nostalgia and at the same time an asphyxiating
emptiness. But we could also think about how
Deleuze pointed out that the baroque is not an
art of structures but of textures, a proliferation of
folds. A world of capturing rather than enclosing.
Marco Giannottis work plays with edges and
fragments, with disorders and perversions, until
it reaches an interesting state of suspension.
I am thinking, for example, about how these
works might compare to the stories of Maurice

Blanchot, disorientating them in their variability


because they house an other time, not a
fictional one, but that of pictorial narration, or,
if one prefers, of the experience of conforming
of norms destined to the unknown. Because
time is experienced here. In Blanchot it is the
time of the unheard-of and the unthinkable, of
the dark, or, more specifically, of the absence
of time or present without presence. The text
dominates, the discourse wins and is imposed
upon the subject. Like in Marco Giannottis
seemingly fractal forms, everything overflows,
even the edge itself, and the artist tattoos that
reality, insisting on the poetic fragment, adding
up another time, a virtual, imaginary one like
the time of writing, aporetic as what is inherent
to Blanchots writing, incapable of becoming
definitively present. Like all educated painting.
In short we are talking about desire crystallised
into painting. In his latest works, a series of
railings found in the city of Sao Paulo that are
printed on the canvas, imagination opens up the
most unforeseeable paths. In a certain manner
his landscapes and portraits are a sort of nonplace, insofar as being an imaginary place or a
deformed reality that only exists in the artists
mind. Something like a journey that inhabits
our life itself. I am thinking of all the places that

someone like Ren Magritte may have imagined,


even without ever leaving his own country. Or
about Morandis refusal to travel. Or about how
Kant gave the world a new philosophy without ever
leaving Knigsberg. Marco Giannottis sterilised
structures seem to vibrate even though they are
still. Let us consider only the poetry as a form
of still life by a Giorgio Morandi, of whom De
Chirico himself will state that his gaze reserves
the most intimate aspect for us, the structure
of these dead things that seem to us to be more
comforting in their stillness. Because Morandis
intimate approach is more simple elegance,
the product of a tranquil, discreet gaze, than an
environment charged with literary metaphysics or
psychologies. The unknown aspect of Morandis
still-lifes has more to do with the tranquillity
coming out of a Corot, a Vermeer or, particularly,
a Chardin, given that for Morandi art had no
other purpose than that which is implicit in the
painting itself to a particular manner of projecting
its reality. And in Marco Giannotti that reality is
distilled from a network, which is sometimes
subtle and sometimes dense, sometimes fine
and sometimes thick, but always on the point of
expiring at a given moment. It is as if thought and
image had fused, as the product of a synthesis.

But if something is fundamental, as we were


saying, in Marco Giannottis work, it is the
importance of the light. Above all in his latest
works, which are more wounded than ever. I am
thinking of Turner, and of how John Berger tells
us about a violence that is expressed by water,
wind and fire, which on some occasions one would
say is a quality that only belongs to light. Light
devours the visible world and makes each one
of Giannottis brush strokes vibrate and shine.
His capacity to temper the painting as if it were a
piano leads us into an abyss of the gaze, like that
descent into the Maelstrm narrated by Edgar
Allan Poe: At first I was too much confused to
observe anything accurately. The general burst of
terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. And that
confusion takes place in Giannottis painting, where
nothing is definitive and the colour reverberates,
resounds, sifting through that time of mystery like
that of a poem that has still to be illuminated.

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A SLOW GAZE, AND A FLUID ONE / Ronaldo Brito

At first, what we see looks like an incompletely


developed photographic negative: the image
is not fully revealed. This draws us closer to
the canvas in order to examine it, question it,
in the hope that the image will be shown in its
entirety. But this maneuver must be endlessly
repeated, since the aesthetic action of Marco
Giannottis painting consists precisely in
sustaining an indefinite power of attraction that
requires the perception to unceasingly correct
and rechart its way. Just as the multiple forays
of acrylic tempera are volatile, not managing
to form layers, and therefore not acting as the
glazings of traditional oil painting strangely,
they are on the canvas but somehow lacking
permanent status nor does our continuing
attention gain consistency as it lingers. Rather,
it is continuously called again, over and over, as
though for the first time. Just as this painting does
not yield up the image that it initially betokens,
neither does it unveil the seductive interiority
that can be glimpsed beneath its surface.
At this point it can be argued that no aspect of
this chemistry is explosive. Even so, a language
of contemporary painting that moves sincerely,
consciously, almost compulsively between
two poles as antagonistic as Mark Rothko and
Andy Warhol is at least frankly assertive of its

problematic origin, assuming from the start


the dilemma of its own becoming. And, from
the standpoint of a cultured artist, a painter by
vocation, there is nothing more logical. How
to escape from Rothko, from the irresistible,
perennial fascination of the most intransigent
among the last high paintings of the Western
tradition? And how to remain immune from
Andy Warhol, the sovereign false demiurge of
appearances, even until today, after half a century?
It would be a little like ignoring, in their time,
the tension between Plato and Protagoras.
It is true that Marco Giannottis rereading
disregards the ideologies of the two artists
production and their conflicting critical receptions,
and is concentrated entirely on the problem of
color. And even here the scope is restricted: it
has more to do with the late and somber Rothko,
much more to do with the Warhol of the Shadows
series than any other. Which has everything, or
nearly everything, to do with the material practice
of painting. Translating into critical, discursive
terms what takes place on the intuitive plane,
in the artists own imagination, the question of
color redefines and singularizes the conflict. After
Warhol, is it still viable or feasible to seek for
intrinsic color, color per se, with its autonomous
aesthetic impact? Does Warhols down-to-

earth, extrinsic lightning a wise parody of the


theater of the media achieve a similar reach,
at one stroke summarizing two centuries of the
free and eager modern chromatic adventure?
The painters response comes, and can only
come, through the reiterated investigation of
color, through an investigation into the current
conditions of its exercise; the response will come
through the reiterated posing of the question.
And the task does not consist definitively in the
simple conciliation of opposites and contraries.
The challenge of this painting is to show itself
at par with its disparate intuitions, to tense and
bend, becoming contemporary with itself. For
example, in the question of time. Visibly, within
the same series, Marco Giannottis paintings
tend to be particularized, that is, each one of
them is subjectivized, thus demanding time to be
approached aesthetically, requiring a slow and
meditative gaze, which would never, however,
end in the pure ecstasy of Rothko because they
always come back around to posing the same
initial question. In any case, neither do they involve
skeptical suspension, the repetitive anonymous
irony seen in Warhols series. Each painting
fulfills its destiny here, even though it cannot
fulfill it under the model of the whole unit.

There is moreover the crucial problem of light.


Giannottis canvases seemed to emanate a
substantive light, which they nearly distill,
at the same time that they display a suspect
phosphorescence, as though lit by some external,
artificial lighting. The colors at times solemn
and deep, recalling Rothkos last phase wind
up being a bit deceiving, one step from parody,
not believing in epiphanies. They are not so
shallow and quick, certainly, as the strategically
frivolous colors of Shadows colors which, the
more we contemplate them, wishing to decipher
them, the less we feel them. However, la
Warhol, Giannottis paintings retain the memory
of diffuse, somewhat out-of-focus images,
as though taking leave of the extinct aura.
And, in fact, these canvases are printed and
reprinted with the visible marks of the iron grids
that the artist gathers at random in a city (So
Paulo) where grids are ostensibly present. There
is an irony in this allusion to a conspicuous idea
in the jargon of the history of modern art: the
legendary cubist grid. This is as far as we can
take this line, however, since this irony is a kind
of intimate stranger to the spirit of the work.
In any case, a common urban element, from
outside the studio, comes into the chemistry
of the painting and indicates, at least, a certain

discomfort with its reclusive condition. The


disperse images of these grids, overlain in ways
by which they are blended and virtually selfnullified, thus function as weak structures in
the artwork. In a colloquial tone, they express
a profession of faith by the artist concerning
contemporary painting: not even a window to
offer a view, not even a conceptual, distanced
autodemonstration, which is soon sterilized.
It is up to the canvas to reinvent itself, to
rediscover itself, to act effectively amidst the
inexorable all-over painting, to maintain itself
open, intriguing yet elusive. And in this sense the
return to oil is symptomatic, as a counterpart
to the quicker acrylic tempera. Due to its delay
in drying, the oil introduces a second, dense
and doubtful moment, which is counterpoised
to the volatile actions of the acrylic: the canvas
returns back onto itself, mixing disparate times,
thus retaining us, beckoning our dubious gaze.

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MARCO GARAUDE GIANNOTTI / So Paulo, 1966

EXPOSIES INDIVIDUAIS
1988

Galeria Paulo Figueiredo, So Paulo.


FUNARTE, Rio de Janeiro.

1990

Passrgada Arte Contempornea, Recife.


Os sete dias da Criao, I.C.I., Buenos Aires.

1991

Galeria Paulo Figueiredo, So Paulo


Fundao Cultural de Curitiba.

1993

Fachadas, MASP, So Paulo.

1994

Fachadas, Casa de Cultura Mrio Quintana, Porto Alegre.

1995

Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro


Galeria Camargo-Vilaa, So Paulo.

1996

Crcere, Pao Imperial, Rio de Janeiro


Crcere, Marina Potrich galeria, Goinia.

1997

Cromos, Galeria So Paulo.

1998

Circuitos, Pao das Artes, So Paulo.


Circuitos, Galeria Anna Maria Niemeyer, Rio de Janeiro.

1999

Pinturas, Galeria So Paulo.

2000

Relevos, Centro Universitrio Maria Antnia, So Paulo.

2001

Pinturas, Galeria So Paulo.

2003

Nenhuma distncia, nenhum


Infinito. Espao Virglio, So Paulo.

2005

Oleodutos, Galeria Virgilio, So Paulo.

I. Salo de Braslia.

2007

Passagens, Pinacoteca do Estado

2009

Quadrante, Centro Universitrio Maria Antnia, So Paulo

Panorama da Arte Atual


Brasileira-Desenho, MAM, So Paulo.

EXPOSIES COLETIVAS
1986

IX. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro.

1987

II. Bienal de Cuenca, Equador.

1990

1991

X. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro.

1989

10 Artistas, Rua Fortunato, So Paulo.


6 X Brasil, Galerie Raue, Bonn.
Panorama da Arte Atua
Brasileira-Pintura, MAM, So Paulo.
O Pequeno Infinito e o Grande
Circunscrito, Galeria ARCO, S.P.

Arte Contempornea Brasileira,


Liljevalchs Konsthall, Estocolmo.
BR/80 Ita galeria, So Paulo

1992

Arte Brasileira: A nova gerao.


Fundacin Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.
Programa de Exposio Arte
Contempornea. Centro Cultural So Paulo.

III. Salo Paulista.


1988

Brazil Projects 90, Municipal Art


Gallery, Los Angeles / MASP.

13 Artistas Paulistas. Museu de


Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro.
1993

Panorama de Pintura. MAM, So Paulo.

1994

Arte-Cidade: Cidade sem Janelas.


Matadouro da Vila Mariana. So Paulo
4. Bienal de Cuenca. Equador.

1996

XI. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas, Rio de Janeiro.

Des-ex-plognio, exposio
conjunta com Haroldo de Campos.

Arte Contempornea So Paulo:


Centro Cultural So Paulo.

Doao Paulo Figueiredo. MAM, So Paulo.

Casa das Rosas. So Paulo

103

104

1997

Artista convidado para o programa de


exposies do Centro Cultural S. Paulo.

1998

Terra e mar vista. Instituto Ita cultural, So Paulo.

2005

Br 2005, Galeria Virgilio, So Paulo.

Remetente. Espao Ulbra, Porto Alegre.

2006

Ciccillo Acervo Mac USP.

1999

Casa: uma potica do espao,


Museu da Vale do Rio Doce, Vitria.

City Canibal, Pao das Artes, So Paulo.

Ao mesmo tempo nosso tempo. Museu de Arte. S.P.

Quase nada. Nassauicher


Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Alemanha.

Galeria Casa da Imagem. Curitiba.

Galeria Casa da Imagem, Curitiba.


II Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre.

Paralela, Pavilho do Prodan/Ibirapuera, So Paulo.


2007

Acervo do Mam na Oca, So Paulo.

2008

Entre o plano e o espao. Galeria


Raquel Arnaud. So Paulo

2000

Os anjos esto de volta, Pinacoteca de So Paulo.

2001

III Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre.

60 anos do MAM. Oca, So Paul

2002

Amlcar de Castro / Tangncias,


Espao Santander. Porto Alegre.

Olhares cruzados, Galeria Casa da Imagem, Curitiba.

ArteCidadeZonaLeste, Santurio
So Jos do Belm, So Paulo.
28(+) Pintura, Espao Virglio, So Paulo
2003

Aria galeria de arte, Recife.


Marcantnio Vilaa Interfaces. Museu
de Arte Contempornea de So Paulo.

2004

Outro lugar. Espao Virglio, So Paulo


Heterodoxia, Memorial da Amrica
Latina, So Paulo.

Ano 01. Anita Schwartz Galeria de arte, Rio de Janeiro


2009

Experincias Contemporneas
Coleo MAC USP Coleo Vilaa.
Espao Cultural Marcantonio Vilaa Braslia.

PRMIOS
1986

Aquisio, 9. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas

1987

Prmio Ivan Serpa. FUNARTE.

1988

Aquisio, 10. Salo Nacional de Artes Plsticas.


Aquisio, 2. Salo da Bahia.

1990

Aquisio1. Salo de Braslia.

1997

Prmio APCA Pintura.


Obras em colees Pblicas
Pinacoteca do Estado, So Paulo
Museu de Arte de So Paulo.
Museu de Arte Moderna de So Paulo.
Museu de Arte Contempornea, So Paulo
Fundao Armando Alvares Penteado, So Paulo.
Museu de Braslia, DF.
Casa de Cultura Mrio Quintana, Porto Alegre.
Museu de Arte de Niteri (Coleo Joo Satamini)
Instituto Cultural Ita, So Paulo.

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