Fabio Perino | GOLDEN TEARS FLOWING DOWN MY FACE
From 10/02/2022 To 04/03/2022
For souls it is death to become water, for water death to become earth, but from earth water is born, and from water soul.
Heraclitus, (B36)
From the dawn of Greek philosophy, water has irrefutably been considered the founding element of the macrocosm and its entire vital impulse. From Aristotle onwards, the ancient Greek philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Thales of Miletus, a figure of indisputable wisdom and evident versatility, has been indicated as the first philosopher in the history of western thought, introducing the search for the archè (ἀρχή), that is the “principle”, considered excessive by some, empirically identified with water, chosen from among the four elements that constitute both natural reality and the sensitive world. Water provided the origin of all things as it permitted life, thus becoming the artificer of a robust link between the human and natural microcosms. Moreover, water often appears in the various digressions of the ancient cosmologists: for example, in the oracle theories enunciated by the “obscure” Heraclitus of Ephesus, the philosopher par excellence of the so- called becoming, the river becomes the axiomatic symbol of the eternal flow of things. Moreover, because of his pessimism, in the Middle Age, following an antique tradition enunciated in the Dialogues of Lucian of Samosata, Heraclitus was defined the “weeping philosopher ”. In fact, he is generally represented in artworks with a serious expression, cheerless and often in complete solitude. It is according to these precepts that the young Turinese artist Fabio Perino, born in 1990, structures his heterogeneous and poetical artistic research, focusing with a distinctly metaphorical slant on sensitive matters associated with the notorious “blue gold ”, central theme of this new chapter in his artistic career entitled "Golden tears flowing down my face". Here, through the bright flow and the vibrant intensity of the light, reality expands towards new horizons, ecstatic oblivions characterized by an intense and intimist lyricism and by conflicting but brilliant revelations, probably destined to vanish, in which the gilded reflections donated by the sun, reflect in the drops of water generated by the tumultuous sea to dress human faces. Attention now turns discreetly towards incoherence and the “hunger for air” typical of human nature. The dialogic and syntactic sequence of Perino’s works underlines the relationship between that which is shared, creating a delicate symphony, chromatically tenuous but vivid and levelling, transcending that which is real, as far as possible, the interaction between imagination and knowledge and vice versa. This musical symbolism is harmoniously composed of video, installation and photography, which rhythmically wrap themselves around one another, the prelude to which, as managed by Fabio Perino, lays the foundations for the birth of a new and profound logos in which unusual melodies coexist, innovations looking towards a new and refined harmony, beauty, expressions founded on the search for equilibrium and exactness and a solid compositional construct. "Golden tears flowing down my face" thus offers us a multi- sensorial, immersive and particularly delicate proscenium.