2005 Understudio, Rome
Materials: ceramic, water, flowers, incense
Dimensions: m 1,8 x 1,8
(9 basins cm 60 x 60 x h 8)
In the microcosm of Understudio, the spatial incursions of Maria Dompè become “domestic landscapes”: not just a physical place but spiritual as well. Scanning them, the nine basins full of water and flowers, the perfume of the flowers merges with the incense. This garden of the senses needs daily care; the same dedication we should give to ourselves.
As always, in Maria Dompè’s work, nature is the mediator towards everything, infinite cycles of which man is part, without limits or hierarchy. Therefore, the private sphere is invaded by natural elements that, even though domesticated, escape the architectural frame in the magical flow of sensations; in the same way, the colours, the odours, and the sounds of the world fill the atmosphere. Here, Dompè doesn’t place the natural elements for decorative reasons; on the contrary they are the soul, the beating heart, the genius of the place. As the fireplace, the traditional centre of the house, the ephemeral structure conceived by the artist is the spatial fulcrum where you can reflect, reconcile yourself with others, finding, in this way, peace. A sign that, for seven days, accompanied by the simple rite of pouring water, changing flowers, burning incense, invites you to put yourself in harmony with the cosmos. Emerging yourself in nature helps, in fact, to not listen only to the voice our egoism, remaining deaf to the surrounding stimulus.
“It’s the behaviour of the heart – the master Huang Huang told me – that allows the birth or not of the landscape. If calm and free, it will become the limpid mirror of inspiration itself; with his restraint and humility which will give voce to the inexpressible, and the elements of the landscape find their place in the motion of the composition with absolute clarity.” (Fabienne Verdier).
The staging is a metaphor for the osmosis between outside and inside, close and far, public and private, that must be established so as not to fall into the trap of individualism.
Art, after all, has always had this mission: to open a window on the unknown, to materialize a thought, to satisfy the dream of new possible worlds, pushing the sight to see beyond.
Maria Egizia Fiaschetti