Study / render for Acheron I, Trienale Brugge 2018 - Renato Nicolodi
- Medium: photopaper
- Size: 70 x 50 cm
With ACHERON I, Renato Nicolodi has suggested a link between our contemporary society and the mythological underworld. Acheron, derived from the Greek word achos, symbolizes in mythology the “river of pain”. The mythical river is the road to the underworld, which the dead cross under the guidance of Charon. The Acheron is also a real river in north-western Greece, flowing partly underground. This natural phenomenon could be the origin of the myth. In Bruges, Nicolodi’s work embodied this transition, forming a link between life and death. The surface of the water serves as a boundary. The sculpture was a port, a bridge, a doorway between the present, the future and the past.
THE ARTIST: Renato Nicolodi
Nicolodi attempts to evoke a universal sacredness in his work. His sculptures and paintings depict spaces with corridors and staircases leading to closed passageways. Light and sha-dow draw the viewer’s gaze towards the interior of the structure, which remains invisible. The heart of the work seems to preserve a kind of emptiness. The artist refers to archetypal buildings from past eras and cultures, stripping them of their original function, ornament and dogma. He creates monuments, relics and sanctuaries that preserve both the memory and thought of their creator and that of the viewer. Nicolodi’s sculptures and paintings are mental beacons for people living in an age of social change, a time when everything is being called into question: science, technology, nature, culture and man’s position in it all. The works are visual anchors that invite the viewer to meditate and reflect. They are the physical and mental access points through which viewers can wander into their own mental space.