Buonanotte Giorno

The project, developed during the artistic residency at Casa degli Artisti in Milan from June to September 2024, is an immersive installation dedicated to the half-sleep, the space preceding deep sleep.

From the critical text by Rosa Cascone
“In the half-light of the moon my body lies, slowed down. The deep breath is released inside and outside, I inhale - I enrich, I exhale - I give back. I let go of the thoughts that chase each other in my mind and little by little a sensation of lightness pervades me, leading my body to float, light, a distant observer of the world. In which dimension am I entering? What does my mind see? The eyes, by now, are embraced by the eyelids. And with sleep try to put an end to the worries of the soul and the other infinite miseries inherited from the flesh.”

"It's precisely in this moment of transition that Roberto Rup Paolini moves and creates. The gaze moves away from the forms of the world and turns to the forms of the mind that can finally manifest themselves and in which language interrupts rational logical connections, and becomes symbolic. In the twilight the artist recognizes the magic moment in which the temperatures are inverted, the birds are silent, and the sun and the moon look at each other. In the border between day and night Roberto Rup Paolini finds the space to access deep emotions, the kingdom of darkness, in which the dream is reality and the imagination emerges, spontaneous as a source. This is the investigation that fascinates the artist, referring to images linked to popular culture and common language, to awaken a shared process of consciousness and awareness."

“In Rup's paintings you can find the same intensity of a blanket of stars and the wonder of light at sunset. His canvases are inhabited by skies and stars, planets and clouds, created by a gesture that the artist leaves as spontaneous as possible, finding in his works that tonal painting of juxtapositions and contamination of colors. From these skies sometimes emerge figures of anthropomorphic animals or personifications of the sun and the moon, always silhouetted against deep and nuanced backgrounds.”

“A returning animal presence is the bird, the living being closest to the sky, which in the trajectories of its flight reveals the mysteries of the world. The bird here takes on a symbolic value of a profound search, a need for the absolute in which the terrestrial world becomes increasingly distant, leaving its rational logic and social conventions to the earth, to get ever closer to freedom.”

“In this sensation of free magic Rup brings to consciousness another element of passage that is linked to the world of childhood through fables, games, myths and stories. With the immersive installation created during the residency, words, actions and images transform with the invitation to physically enter another dimension thanks to a refuge of sheets, bringing the user to the dimension of childhood. Inside there is an ancient object skillfully constructed by the artist: an optical theatre, a device created at the end of the 19th century to project images and which preceded the optical bench of the Lumière brothers, recreating that sensation of wonder and magic.”

“The artist’s constant invitation is to explore the deep areas of consciousness, savoring the moments of transition, of half-light and uncertainty in which many anxieties come to the surface and move away. The opposition of darkness to light falls in Rup’s work to leave an open space and potential discovery, recalling that moment in which the imagination is experienced as in childhood or in a state of half-sleep.”

I would like to thank Casa degli Artisti, Giulia Restifo, That's Contemporary, the staff, the curators and the artists present during the residency for the welcome, the kindness and the help they gave me.

LA DANZA DELLA MORA

"La Danza della Mora" is a performance performed by Stefano Guidetti in dialogue with the installation Buonanotte Giorno. The Mora, a nocturnal spirit of Slovenian origin, at the time called Kikimora, is neither good nor bad but depends on who lives in the house.

Together we rethought her as a spirit of twilight, a border soul, who is neither here nor there. Those present were given objects and it was suggested to load them with meaning, a memory or a feeling, so that they could possess a personal and profound value.

The mischievous brunette, having left her refuge, wandered among the people: she stole the memory of some, she gave back the feeling to others, and she broke it to others still.

She took care of her house and reassured herself that no one wanted to hurt her.

Thanks in particular to Stefano Guidetti who curated and created the costume and who gave everyone, especially me, this performance.

Thanks to Davide De Santis for the filming and to Simone Panzeri for the photos.