Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio presents, from Friday 22nd September 2023 to Thursday 7th December 2023, a solo exhibition by Francesco Arena, “Il fulmine governa ogni cosa”, as the second appointment from the cycle #Project Room, specifically conceived by Nicola Del Roscio for the Foundation’s space in Via Crispi 18 and curated by Davide Pellicciari and Carlotta Spinelli.

#Project Room aims to be an observatory on contemporary Italian art. The most interesting Italian artists are invited to design site-specific projects on the main issues of the present day.

Some of the characters that Francesco Arena has chosen or rediscovered in multiple contexts over the time, recur in the project "Il fulmine governa ogni cosa": from Martin Heidegger to Glenn Gould, from Jacques-Louis David to Cy Twombly, from Paul Engelmann to Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ranging from philosophy, to music, to visual arts, the range of characters embraces the whole world of knowledge.

The title refers to a famous quote by Heraclitus that was inscribed on the lintel of the entrance door of Heidegger's famous hütte in Todtnauberg, rebuilt in real dimensions inside the space of the Foundation. The hütte, ideally related to the philosopher’s memory, is a work that contains a series of sculptures specifically created for this exhibition by the artist. As the audience enters the exhibition, the works are revealed, weaving a game of continuous cross-references and exchanges between container and content, visible and invisible, individual and collective experience.

The works displayed in the hütte refer to the idea of support, assistance, help, both physical and emotional, to which all mankind recurs. The supports on which man acts every day represent in the exhibition project the stage of the existence. Each sign within the composition is connected to a symbolic meaning and has to do with human history.

The floor on which the visitor walks, consists of 210 planks in red fusion wax. The chair on which a pianist sits to perform has a newspaper wedged in the back that will be replaced daily, indicating a continuous change into something that is always apparently the same. Some papers lay down on a plinth ideally waiting to be filled out with ideas.

Every single sculpture is the transfigured portrait of an object with its own history, except then to reveal as other than itself. The viewer is invited to interact with them, but at the same time the installation appears complete even in the absence of human presence. In this sense, while "Cintura", a suspended work, can interact with two visitors, the artwork "Cartello" consumes its communicative functionality in the lighted candle that spreads over the surface. On the other side, in the work "Maniglia" human participation is just simulated. Its automatic movement leads to an elsewhere, even if no one can actually activate it to access the entrance.

Through his multidisciplinary practice, Arena implements continuous and subtle references to contemporary society, highlighting the impossibility of being totally self-sufficient and how crucial is to have a support from others. Art, just like religion, magic, philosophy and politics, is a support for human life, but also an antidote that humanity has created to give meaning to the existence and to be protected against the unknown.

The new format of #Project Room gives the opportunity to get even more into the heart of the artist’s creative process. Indeed, the exhibition will host a documentary section dedicated to all the suggestions and sources collected by the artist, his studio and the curators during the conceiving of the project.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, published by Lenz, with an unprecedented conversation between the curators and the artist including photographic documentation of the works on display.