Giuseppe Licari: The aura ‘is’ when the art ‘is’

Whether a site-specific installation in a gallery space, a public art intervention or a land art project, the works of Rotterdam-based artist Giuseppe Licari offer the audience an active role, of contributing to and actually completing the final piece by participating in a unique collective experience, related to a specific moment and location, but conveying a message that is universal and easily accessible: “In this way, the possibility of loosing the aura has been excluded – the aura ‘is’ when the art ‘is’, and the art exists only at that time when the aura is simultaneously present”.

A main interest of the artist is reflected in the intersection points and relations between nature and the built environment. In his constant explorations of this theme and similar issues, Giuseppe Licari confronts and reveals the impact of man’s interventions in natural landscapes, mostly destructive, how the natural environment transforms due to architecture, for instance, or the concept of ownership and ‘right’ to change nature.

Social, cultural and political aspects in communities, as shown in the case of the ‘Tetris Wall’, where the artist combines the world flags by color in a series of Tetris customs, is a very interesting approach to the current global structure, where groups of people that have no or less common backgrounds live together in the same space and time. There is an ironical twist added to the work: “Tetris is one of the games in which the player can only loose and never win. The inhabitants share the same place but not their traditions. In this way I tried to give to the people their personal history, condensed into a flag, shared in a collective and global history”.

Created by and for a context that manifests only here and now, the works have such a visual power and are so rich in meaning and shared emotion, that only a live interaction can offer the experience at its maximum potential, connecting all those present and perhaps opening the way towards a change in mindset.

‘Registered’ / part of the Fluid Matter project. Per Aspera ad Astra, Moneteverdi Tuscany, Val d’Orcia, Siena, Italy 2013.

Land art intervention: 70 x 90 m. Images by Giuseppe Licari.

‘The sky in a room’/ Photos: Giuseppe Licari. Dek 22 – Rotterdam 2012-13.

Castagne tree, metal connections, hair lack. Dimensions variable.

‘Humus’ / Photos: Job Janssen & Jan Adriaans. Secret Gardens, TENT Rotterdam 2012.

A site-specific installation with trees’ roots. Ceiling construction, trees’ roots, halogen lamps.

‘Humus’ / Photos: Job Janssen & Jan Adriaans. Secret Gardens, TENT Rotterdam 2012.

A site-specific installation with trees’ roots. Ceiling construction, trees’ roots, halogen lamps.

‘Tetris Wall’ / Photo: Barbara Tilbout. A project for the wall in Wolphaertstraat. Winner of the competition: Kunst op kopgevel, Wolphaertstraat, Charlois, Rotterdam 2009.

A tetris page with the 240 recognized countries in the world. Total dimensions: 720 x 1120 cm. 350 tiles: each one 40 x 40 cm. Ceramic tiles, wood, wall plugs, paint, silicon, polyurethane foam, aluminium clumps, screws.

‘Tetris Wall’ / Photo: Giuseppe Licari. A project for the wall in Wolphaertstraat. Winner of the competition: Kunst op kopgevel, Wolphaertstraat, Charlois, Rotterdam 2009.

‘Serial Swing’ / Photo: Giuseppe Licari. Kasteel van Rhoon, Rhoon, The Netherlands, 2009.

Metal chains, metal profiles and connections, Asobe wood, metal cables. Serial Swing for five people: 285 x 163 x 20 cm.
Serial Swing has adaptable number of seats and dimensions, to fit the space that is hosting it.

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Find out more on his website.