Vittorio Vertone
Art that becomes a complement to street furniture and a supplement to landscape architecture. Grazing at these two aesthetic coordinates - in Palma di Montechiaro, in the province of Agrigento - a Lucan artist, Vittorio Vertone, has ventured into the creation of a large installation that recalls either a stele, an obelisk or a pyramid. It is a work that was not made in marble or stone, as usually happens for this type of work, but with a marine wood (used in nautical craftsmanship): of Russian-solid pine, knotty and weatherproof. Due to the type of material used, this "three-dimensional work" is not to be considered a monolith (from the Latin "monòlithus" and from the Greek "monòlytos": composed of "mono" [one] and "lithos" [stone]). If anything, it is instead an installation, with postmodern features (tending to a plurality of infinite technical languages) that investigates the "mysterious relationship of man with space" as asserted by the German philosopher, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976 ) who never failed to believe in the "continuous investigation" of reality by artists. Even the neoclassical-French painter, Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) affirmed the same principle, regarding the ability of the painter and sculptor to capture what is around him, to establish new relationships between "correspondence" and "representation" of reality.
The five blocks that are part of the "single-oblong plaque" (created by Vittorio Vertone) are mounted, one on top of the other, to form a sort of "boundary stone" arranged on an intersection, between two roads: one that goes towards Palma di Montechiaro and the other that goes towards the hamlet of Caprile. It would be reductive to define this work by Vittorio Vertone as an obelisk. It is something far more complex. It is a long and narrow "artistic product", similar to a "tapered spit" (from the Greek "obelos") which culminates with a tip called "pyramidion". Imagining something similar, let's think of the Lateran Obelisk (located in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, in Rome) which reaches a height of 32 meters and 18 centimeters. Approximately double the size of Vittorio Vertone's “pyramid installation” which reaches 15 meters. The effect of this work by Vittorio Vertone is that of a "tongue of fire" (from the ancient Greek "pyramis"): with the flame that stretches towards the sky. It is therefore a full-fledged pyramid. This is an "archetypal shape" that is found in many "semantic models" of Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica (Central America). In the archaic cultures of these countries the pyramids represented an "arcane place set up for climbing". They represented a kind of “ladder
ascendant ”to establish ideal contact with the Divine. And the installation by Vittorio Vertone also focuses on this aspect, which, not by chance, was entitled by him: “the Lighthouse of God”.
The element that makes the difference with the classic pyramid is just that. The three-dimensional work, conceived and created by this Lucan artist, rather than symbolizing the ascent of the soul towards God [as in the case of the mystical experience of the "Ascent of Mount Carmel" made by the Spanish priest, Giovanni della Croce (1542- 1591)] represents, instead, the Light of Divine Revelation, taken as a symbol of the systematic presence of God in history, through His Messengers. In Faith, this Light is represented with the image of a Lighthouse that illuminates humanity. Vittorio Vertone's work runs along the lines of this mystical interpretation. Proof of this is that in the evenings of Palma di Montechiaro it illuminates the surrounding space. This is due to the type of "fluorescent-synthetic pigments" that the artist used to paint the work. And also by virtue of the six "LED reflectors" (with ultraviolet light) arranged all around in such a way as to reflect on the forty "compacted panels": divided into five "horizontal strips".
Each of these "color bands" has a different tint. We start, at the bottom, with fuchsia which in esoteric language symbolizes the passage from a "stage of consciousness" (ed: condition of the soul) to a "field of awareness" (ed: dimension of the spirit) higher than that which preceded. The blue sky follows: a symbol of transcendence, spirituality, idealism and creativity. Centrally there is an unusual yellow, tending to "pear green". Technically it could be defined as a color halfway between Chartreuse yellow and Lime tint. Vittorio Vertone defines this "chromatic nuance" an "astral yellow". It is a color that in oriental traditions is combined with the "third chakra" of the body's energy centers: the one that is connected to the fulfillment of desires. And who oversees the control of the mind and senses. It is a symbol of sunlight and physical and psychic energy. As the hues rise vertically, a sky-blue “horizontal band” is repeated. And another, to follow, in fuchsia color. The pyramid ends with a tip in stainless zinc sheet, painted with a gold tint. In the mystical tradition - both of the East and of the West - this "golden color" represents a "semantic union" between the allegorical expression of God and the metaphorical revelation of the Divine Manifestations. In the idea of all this, Vittorio Vertone moved in the "semantic area" of those symbols that are stratified in the "genius loci" (immaterial) of collective memory, of the places that generated them. In this case Sicily. And in
particular Agrigento: homeland of Empedocles (who lived in the 5th century BC) who - in the words of Bahá'u'lláh - was a "distinguished philosopher" whose death is shrouded in the mystery of a legend that tells that he threw himself into mouth of the central crater of Etna.
Like any good installation and like any self-respecting sculpture, Vittorio Vertone's work also had its own preparatory drawing. The artist made a preliminary sketch made up of a few graphic signs: in chiaroscuro and in color. The "ornate prototype" was then entrusted, for its plastic construction, to local workers: who worked with great professionalism to install the panels and to anchor a structure to the ground that reaches the considerable height of about six residential floors . To ensure the stability of the installation, the structure was first stopped on a reinforced concrete base. Subsequently three ropes, transversal, stainless steel, were fixed to the ground. The installation of Vittorio Vertone's installation took place during the "Biennial of Contemporary Art of the Leopard" in Palma di Montechiaro (23 April - 8 May 2022). Four Lucan artists took part in the event: for figurative art: Maria Ditaranto and Pasquale Palese; for the abstract: Dino Ventura and for the informal, the same, Vittorio Vertone: who has also created a master on his pictorial "Workshop of Rapidism" in Pietragalla. The municipal administration of Palmese (mayor Stefano Castellino) has entrusted the artistic direction of the event to Michele Citro: art curator from Salerno. The theme chosen for this first edition of the Biennial of the Sicilian town was: “Homodeus. The Dilemma of the God-Man ". The artists' works have been exhibited in the spaces of the “Palazzo Ducale del Gattopardo”: an unmistakable architectural sign of the past presence, in the village, of this ancient and noble family of cardinals, saints and writers.
Rino Cardone.
