Ten years have passed since his first solo exhibition at Careof. Back then, Francesco Lauretta, originally from Ispica, a small town in southeastern Sicily, saturated the space with 10,000 toy soldiers made of wax and das, all featuring a hand-crafted pregnant belly, one by one. Mimetic, evocative, essential, voyeuristic, sharp, and ironic, Lauretta continues to reflect on the power of art and, today in particular, on the power of painting. As Roberto Pinto, curator of the exhibition, points out, what fascinates in his work is the ability to maintain a balance between the transcription of reality and his Sicilian identity, while also being seduced by the infinite possibilities of representation, whether in the immateriality of the video image or in the physicality and preciousness of the pictorial one.

Francesco Lauretta describes the exhibition: “I will exhibit two large paintings, a crucifix titled Epitaffio and a painting of ducks etc... titled Pensa cos’è, questo il punto... The titles of the two paintings will be reproduced in my handwriting in neon and installed above the respective paintings like advertising signs. For the Christ, I used yellow neon, a burning yellow, while for the other I opted for pink which, at first, I liked to call a faggot pink, but then I chose a pink, how shall I say, a rose... pink, perfumed – can one fall in love with pink neon? – beautiful, inviting just as the title itself invites. Then. I will use a white bin where I will deposit the scraps produced during the design phase, in short, my waste. All of this will be placed in the two available spaces at the entrance of Careof. In the space dedicated to video, I will present a selection of works. Here is the lineup: Interviù, Geometrile, Gli omertosi, Sexx Laws, Alice, Gran Madre, Cassate, Illuminata, Americana, Americano, Dovrai starci per sempre, Crolly, Noi global, Zoo, Gela, Sicilia tout court, Condizioni Marginali, Sentimental Journey. Condizioni Marginali is the leading video, the one made for the occasion, while the last one – Viaggio sentimentale – is a journey inside my painting and sounds like a requiem, and Amen!”