Stardust, By Stefano Curto

Renovatio Splendor: by Stefano Cecchetto

Extract from the catalogue published for the Renovatio Splendor exhibition, held at the Venissa Fondamenta Santa Caterina, 3 Bugno Art Gallery in 2013 curated by Stefano Cecchetto.

The byzantine itinerary that Stefano Curto undertakes to show his new works begins in Venice. Venice, the city where everything began in 2010 with a wonderful show at the appropriate premises of 'Batioro and Tiraoro' 01 was where Stefano introduced himself of cially to the art world and has become the stage of his personal expressive language. From there, he worked to establish international recognition: from London to Australia; from the Venice Biennale to Caffè Florian; from Paris to Turin. He has always been present at the most prestigious shows, which con rms his complete originality and the undeniable fascination his works command.

He now returns to Venice. This time the stage is grander with the widespread presence of his works - which investigate the times of a sensitive reality. It is the enduring testimony of an inventory of knowledge, af rmed in the documentation of his epic transitions that he is still working on today. His works narrate - like stories of an ancient fresco - the human and artistic journey like windows; they open onto the world of his vast and poetic iconographic research. The impenetrable crystals that the artist uses in his works are precious stones that re ect ashes of the in nite; with the gems set in the space of his inner universe. In Stefano Curto's works, time is not only daily experience but is also the indelible cipher of a memory of places and things; a travel diary full of autobiographical references and an informed testimony of his own times.

Stefano Curto's artistic venture is destined to go great distances. His various journeys characterised by an eternal search for awareness or for 'different light', in order to give these works, not just diversifying expressive tones, but the concrete reality of a speci c point of view. Each space in which the gems lie is a space of the soul.

Let us try to follow this itinerary starting with the concept, which is more or less a storyline that unfolds. Collectively his Venetian exhibitions are like chapters of a human story that Stefano Curto unravels in order to investigate the symbiosis of opposites, and to create a composed and harmonic balance of revelation and accusation. Looking at Stefano Curto's work, EVOLUTION INVOLUTION, I am reminded of a quote from Goethe: 'It is not always needful for truth to take a de nite shape; it is enough if it hovers about us like a spirit.'

Those aspects of transformation and alchemy that occur in life and the universe that most interest me are those which I feel in harmony with. Like those of Ora del Tramonto 02 and Aurora,03 where imaginary light emerges from the twilight and then re-emerges into the world. This birth or better yet, the philosophy of re-birth seems to me the main concept which informs all of Stefano Curto's works. They start from the man-made object whose natural development is like an extension of the spirit: the image ows out of the material like an apparition that is not always understandable immediately, but that slowly becomes identi able due to a process of artistic identification.

The cosmic basis for his new spiral that develops in tones of white to become purple is a chromatic convergence that shakes up the shapes of an apparent reality. Although alchemy is a very ancient practice, it still fascinates many contemporary artists who nd a perfect fusion between the spirit, the mind and the divine within this process. As such all the elements of the world are intimately related to each other and nd their perfect position in the universe. Stefano Curto is an 'experimental' artist in the genuine sense of the word. He starts from a thought, which he elaborates on through experimentation, in order to nd perfection that recalls the ideogram of the circle that represents the Cosmos.

The concentric circles and spirals draw on the past in order to project the dimension of a 'sustainable' future, because to create is also to create one self, so as to be able to nd oneself in the work and its transformation.

The artist is a medium that tries to capture a message; the principle analogy that commands it and prompts it to reveal this message is the same one that resists the reveal. The secret of perception is hidden or concealed within the work itself, like the Tibetan symbol of the cosmic union, the yantra, which remains camou aged in a background of colours, it is discovered only by those who are able to recognise it.

In all of Stefano's works, the past and the future are intimately connected at the mysterious point where they meet. The precious stones are not a symbol of wealth in this case, or of vain luxury and appearances; instead they are the apparent forms of precise and constant research that the artist carries out on 'the road of wonders.' We look for 'awareness' every day in the things that surround us, in a spiritual process - sometimes unconsciously - which allows us to follow a path that is aimed at the 'Evolution- Involution' of our consciousness. In each of his new works and also in his numerous trips to the Far East, Stefano Curto carries on his exploration of his labyrinth trying not to lose the delicate thread of Ariadne that guides him in his untiring search of the 'beyond'. That subtle force, that fundamental vibration, is a trace that leads him back from the multiplicity of things unknown to the most profound meaning of existence. The baggage that he brings home every time is always a little lighter.

Stefano Cecchetto is an Italian curator and art critic based in Venice.