From 5 to 29 March 2022, the Irpino Museum hosts the “MEFITIS” exhibition by Gennaro Vallifuoco curated by Generoso Bruno and Augusto Ozzella. Not only a personal artistic conception, but also local culture and traditions, cultured literary quotes, myths and legends that have crossed history and continue to challenge time.

“We European artists of the Mediterranean area have a great responsibility: belonging to an important history and an ancestral memory – declares Gennaro Vallifuoco – And when the artist fails to act within this responsibility, he risks being superficial , while paying attention to the reality and language of the era in which he lives. I think that “MEFITIS” is a multilingual exhibition, because it has the ability to bring together ancient history and new media “.

Mefitis was an Italic goddess, historically associated with the sulphurous lake in the Ansanto Valley, a place shrouded in mysterious charm. This small lake, which boils from the emissions of sulfur gas, is indicated by Virgil in the Aeneid as one of the entrances to the Underworld. The strong link between the works on display and the territory that hosts it is also made clear by the choice of materials. The artist combines the mud and clay, obtained from the Ansanto Valley, with the white thread of the Pizzillare embroidery of the Santa Paolina School of Tombolo. Vallifuoco experiments with new artistic paths, using woods, jute and linen cloth, asphalt and liquid sheath, enamels, majolica terracotta and gold leaf.

“The artist, identifying in Mefite the connecting door between the sensitive and the beyond mundane, moves his elaboration through contrasting lines of light and shadow – declares Generoso Bruno, art critic and curator of the exhibition – Plus the sign the closer to the truth of matter, the more difficult its codification appears in the infinite decomposition of the pictorial planes “.

The exhibition itinerary consists of about 70 unpublished works, created between 2007 and 2022. The visit is marked by the sound composition created by Marco Messina and Sacha Vinci, based on the noise of the wooden spindles used for the pillow and the audio recordings made near the mephitic spring.

“MEFITIS represents for CosmoArt the first event of the year after a long phase in which the art world has been stopped due to the pandemic – declares Augusto Ozzella, organizer of the event – I hope that MEFITIS can also mark the end of a dark period, in which restrictions prevented the enjoyment of live art. I think this exhibition adds a further step to Gennaro Vallifuoco’s artistic research, to which a relationship of friendship and professional collaboration that has continued for years binds me ”.

Press office: Germana Grasso – germana.grasso@hotmail.it
“MEFITIS” with free admission with the obligation of a Green pass
Tuesday-Saturday: 9.00-13.00 / 16: 00-19: 00
info@associazionecosmoart.com

MEFITIS represents the most recent portion of Gennaro Vallifuoco’s research. The artist, identifying in Mefite the connecting door between the sensitive and the otherworldly, moves his elaboration through contrasting lines of light and shadow.
The closer the sign gets to the truth of the material, the more difficult its codification appears in the infinite decomposition of the pictorial planes. During the long production process, Vallifuoco progressively moves away from the metaphysical idea, from the play of symmetry and from the limit determined by the representation of the work that ends in itself. It is the flow of painting, in its possibility of completion, which opens up to the observer’s gaze as a continuous negotiating redefinition of a perimeter of relationship. As an irreducible nucleus of truth, the research moves from the Xoana kept at the Archaeological Museum of Avellino. In the representation of forms, the artist finds the mud and clay collected in the Ansanto Valley as primordial elements of the molded material and the white thread of the embroidery as a very thin line of connection between the alternation of life cycles. In some episodes – as a poor support – the woods welcome the burnt tones of a painting stirred by elementary signs where even gold degrades, due to an inverse alchemy, to its native state. The more mature works of the MEFITIS cycle, on the other hand, deliver Vallifuoco to a brand new analytical tension where the artist proceeds towards the redefinition of his own procedural action and deconstructing his own pictorial syntax, tracing unprecedented trajectories of sign and meaning.
The archaeological element refounded beyond any chronology, which has become the object of the present, is at the service of its potential transformation. Vallifuoco, in the post-media era of artistic production, conceptually crosses the locus as a “singular relationship; yet, universal “(A. Rossi, 1966) in which the entire research – its elaboration and its production – while operating in conjunction with the context, goes beyond its geolocation.
The matrilineal substance leads the artist from Campania to approach Mefite with the primitive cult of the Great Mother, seeking in weaving and embroidery that practice that in all cultures preserves and supervises the ritual occasions of the life cycle and its renewal.
With MEFITIS, going beyond the more conventional forms of representation, Vallifuoco works on a direct production of reality. For the artist, it is the human interaction itself that becomes the material of the work; on this premise he shapes the relationship with the teachers and pupils of the Scuola del Tombolo di Santa Paolina. Each of the Pizzillare has donated at least seventy hours of work to the work. In a compositional process lasting over four hundred hours, the understanding on production choices and the degree of autonomy of the creative contribution support the relationship between the artist and the community of embroiderers. The work, embodied in its constituent relationship, finds its cartography in the Cartoons of work and its synthetic manifestation in the threads of the Tombolo. The noise of the spindles – the wooden tools necessary for the intertwining of the wires – together with the audio recordings made at the mephitic source, transmuted into a sound composition by Marco Messina and Sacha Vinci, in addition to hinging on the repetition of the video frames installed, constitutes the soundtrack of the entire exhibition itinerary.
Throughout the elaboration of the MEFITIS cycle, Gennaro Vallifuoco’s work is identified in his process. The work lives in its premise as well as in its perception, crossing the sign and its narration as a universal fact.

* Generous Bruno

* Independent critic and curator. Graduated in History and Art Criticism. He has written, dealing with cinema and visual arts in newspapers and periodicals with national diffusion. Currently he collaborates with some scientific and sector magazines. He has published, in the catalog of the EtruSchifano exhibition (2018) at the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia (Rome), the study Mater Matuta: Rediscovery of a cycle. At the Imago Museum (Pescara) in the catalog of the Warhol / Schifano exhibition between pop art and classicism (2021) he is the author of the text Schifano / Warhol. Approximately and – currently out – for the Joseph Beuys Defense of Nature exhibition. Let’s do it soon! (2022) the essay Ich glaube an Joseph Beuys [I believe in Joseph Beuys].

Life and Works

Gennaro Vallifuoco since 1990, the year in which he graduated in Scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, has been a set designer, painter and illustrator.
He has produced prestigious editorial publications including: “Fiabe Campane” and “Lo Cunto de li cunti”, in the “I Millenni” series, of the Einaudi publishing house, illustrated by his pictorial and graphic works.
He is the author of numerous stage productions, including the opera “Il Re Bello” by Roberto De Simone, staged at the La Pergola theater in Florence in 2004, and numerous other stage productions in various theaters and events. In 2008 he created the painted curtain of the “Carlo Gesualdo” Municipal Theater in Avellino and is the author of numerous personal and collective painting exhibitions that have led him to have national and international recognition.
He works as a set designer at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, for the National Academy of Santa Cecilia where, since 2010, he has curated the sets for the operas: “Lo Scoiattolo in gamba”, music by Nino Rota and libretto by Eduardo De Filippo, “Who kidnapped the mouse Costanza?”, Music by Roberta Vacca, “Cosi ‘fan tutti”, music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “The cunning little fox”, music by Leos Janàcek, “L’heure espagnole”, music by Maurice Ravel, “Gianni Schicchi”, music by Giacomo Puccini.
In 2012 he also signed the scenes for the Opera “Adina”, by Gioacchino Rossini, staged at the Reate Festival and the scenes for “L’elisir d’amore”, a comic opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti, staged at the Theater Marruccino of Chieti.
His scenes for: “La Bohème”, music by Giacomo Puccini, staged in 2013 at the “Carlo Gesualdo” Theater in Avellino. He also continues his activity as a Painter with numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: the collective painting at the Giffoni Film Festival, the exhibition “Homage to De Chirico”, curated by the Cà d’Oro Art Gallery in Rome in collaboration with the Giorgio and Isa De Chirico Foundation in Rome, personal exhibitions: at the Olympic Theater in Rome, at the Banca Carige headquarters in Rome, at the Carlo Gesualdo Theater in Avellino and in numerous other galleries and public and private exhibition spaces.
He currently lives between Avellino and Naples where he teaches scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts.