Mario Arlati

Donated by Contini Art Gallery and artist Mario Arlati.

The iconic “Incomplete Flags” by Italian artist Mario Arlati recall feelings and images of the past, and reconnect thoughts before the viewer's eyes. His flags are meant to evoke ideas, memories and passions of individuals and communities in constant confrontation and change. They can be made up of worn and disconnected remnants of cloth or alternatively in firm and glossy ceramic. Ceramic, so full of soul and feeling, becomes a code, a key to interpretation, a secret word to gain access to the visual process, to unveil it. The ceramic flags become an evolution of the earliest concept of the “virtuous recycling” of salvaged materials, due to Arlatis' consideration of matter as an inner reflection made up of feelings and evocations.

These artwork’s colors overload themselves with experiences and reveal echoes of history, literature, music and poetry. Colour and its conception are understood as the symbolic decision, tearing and dramatic, on the action of time and memory which has become an interior experience and which has felt inside the coming to life of the color itself.

His flags represent pieces of pop inspiration which are full of social value, an homage to the painting of Jasper Johns and to the vision of Richard Rauschenberg.

Arlati emphasizes the term ‘incomplete’, highlighting the active role of the spectator - who becomes an emancipated spectator, according to the definition of Jacques Rancière – where the spectator is being invited, to complete the work with his own eyes and intuition, behind the artist's input.

Mario Arlati’s artworks are always influenced by the surrounding environment, particularly by its colors, its materials and light, reconnecting with the ideals of Arte Povera.