La poetica dell'incontro
27.01.2025, h 18.30
Talk with
Fabrizio Ajello, Francesco Lauretta, Luigi Presicce
Moderator
Serena Vanzaghi
Careof presents “La poetica dell'incontro”, an open dialogue that brings together Fabrizio Ajello, Francesco Lauretta, and Luigi Presicce in a conversation moderated by Serena Vanzaghi. The event draws inspiration from their shared experience at La Scuola di Santa Rosa, offering an opportunity to reflect on themes that intertwine art, culture, and interdisciplinary dialogue.
The event also celebrates the publication of “L’immagine leggera”, the first essay by Fabrizio Ajello, published by Castelvecchi Editore. In this volume, the artist and researcher explores contemporary culture through an analysis that merges anthropology, sociology, and visual arts, tracing a path from prehistoric art to new technologies, through literature, music, and cultural phenomena. As Ajello writes in his essay: “The image is a battlefield of signs and emergencies. We have fed on images for millennia, used and abused them. We have been shaped by an imaginary that today must contend with new suggestions and incidents.”
“La poetica dell'incontro” thus becomes fertile ground for the exchange between these two experiences, which present themselves as physical and virtual spaces for dialogue among artists, ideas, inspirations, and disciplinary intersections.
La Scuola di Santa Rosa, founded in 2017 in Florence, is a free drawing school open to all, established by Francesco Lauretta (Ispica, Ragusa, 1964) and Luigi Presicce (Porto Cesareo, Lecce, 1976). The two artists felt the urgency to create a space and time where anyone interested could come together, draw, and share ideas, opinions, and inspirations. Over the years, the school has traveled through cities such as Rome, Milan, Bologna, Syracuse, Lecce, Palermo, New York, and Porto Cesareo, hosted by prestigious cultural institutions including Museo Novecento in Florence, Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Biennolo in Milan, FBI Fondazione Jacopo Benassi in La Spezia, Padiglione Congo at the 60th Venice Art Biennale, and Sala Guttuso at MAMbo.
“L’immagine leggera” marks the literary debut of Fabrizio Ajello, a teacher, artist, and independent researcher living and working in Florence. In his essay, Ajello analyzes the imaginary of contemporary culture, exploring the complex interplay between image making, new technologies, and visual culture. Through an approach that blends art, music, literature, and philosophy, the author connects the work of artists such as Anne Imhof, Adrian Villar Rojas, Miriam Cahn, and Mark Manders with TV series like Westworld, The Terror, and Black Mirror, and music by Radiohead, Xiu Xiu, and Nine Inch Nails. These connections generate a critical reflection on the shared imaginary we live in, offering a new perspective on the lightness and density of the contemporary world.
Fabrizio Ajello
Born in Palermo in 1973, Fabrizio Ajello is an artist, researcher, and teacher based in Florence. His artistic practice focuses on the analysis and intervention on cultural models, addressing themes such as the sacred, collective and individual memory, and the relationship between material and virtual, public and private space. In 2005–2006, he developed the public art project Progetto Isole. In 2008, together with artist Christian Costa, he co-founded Spazi Docili, a public art project based in Florence that gave rise to territorial investigations, interventions, workshops, talks, exhibitions, and artist residencies at public and private institutions.
Ajello has exhibited his work in galleries and museums both in Italy and abroad, participating in events such as Berlin Biennale 7, Break 2.4 Festival in Ljubljana, Synthetic Zero at BronxArtSpace in New York, Moving Sculpture In The Public Realm in Cardiff, Hosted in Athens in Athens, and The Entropy of Art in Wroclaw, Poland. In the past, he collaborated with the magazines Music Line and Succoacido.net, and he currently writes for MEMECULT, MADE IN MIND, and L’Indiscreto. He has also published articles for Roots and Routes and the platform NESXT.
Francesco Lauretta
Born in Ispica, Sicily, in 1964, Francesco Lauretta lives and works in Florence. A multifaceted artist, his work spans from painting to installations, often using found materials and following the thread of projects that extend beyond the traditional boundaries of the canvas. He is known for his ability to interpret the world through works that surpass two-dimensionality, exploring three-dimensional space through multisensory installations.
His production is distinguished by attention to formal detail, vibrant use of color, and unusual framing. His subjects, often tied to Sicilian folklore and popular traditions, include processions, village festivals, and funerals. Although portraits are rare, Lauretta frequently explores self-portraiture, assuming different identities in his works.
Luigi Presicce
Luigi Presicce, born in Porto Cesareo, studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Lecce, with a path strongly influenced by independent studies. In 2007, he participated in the Corso Superiore di Arti Visive (CSAV) at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, under the guidance of Joan Jonas, and in 2008 he took part in workshops led by Kim Jones at Viafarini, Milan.
Presicce co-founded Brownmagazine and its related exhibition space Brown Project Space, curating its programming. In 2011, he created Archiviazioni, a research platform on contemporary culture in Southern Italy, and since 2010 he has been involved in the project Lu Cafausu, which includes the annual celebration La festa dei vivi (che riflettono sulla morte).
Since 2017, together with Francesco Lauretta, he coordinates La Scuola di Santa Rosa, a drawing school based in Florence and New York. Among his recent projects is the Simposio di pittura (2018–2022), organized at Fondazione Lac o le Mon, which explores contemporary Italian painting.
Presicce has taken part in numerous performances and exhibitions, including Thessaloniki Performance Festival, Biennale 3 in Greece, and projects at Museo MADRE in Naples, MAMbo in Bologna, and Museo Marino Marini in Florence. He has received awards such as the Epson Art Prize and the Talenti Emergenti Prize from CCC Strozzina.