michele drascek: Against the Unknowns / Sconfini (Beyond the Borders). Paintings.

A series of dyptichs for Sconfini (Beyond the Borders), a group show of five artists from five different Countries of Estern Europe curated by Giovanna Felluga, part of the exhibition Against the Unknowns in Public Space of Contemporary Art Villa Toppo Florio, Buttrio, Udine (Italia) in March 2008.
www.spacbuttrio.it/eventi/ci/ci.html

Public Space of Contemporary Art
Villa Toppo Florio

The artist presents three pictorial works, diptychs and one installation at the exhibition Sconfini - Contro Ignoti (Beyond the Borders – Against the Unknowns). Small dimensions of the paintings show the overwhelming care for the detail that the artist has been demonstrating since his early works. "The pleasure of working on small dimensions is a challenge, a clear refusal towards the art as a shock," says Drascek.
The viewer has to discover the work of art by getting closer, dedicating an adequate amount of time to perceive the energy and the message that it emanates, as if he would create an intimate and private relation with the painting. All three diptychs become small catalysers filled with preciousness and mystery. Who is the slave of corruption and the installation The Unknowns don't show themselves have been created explicitly for the exhibition. The political theme of global corruption is of great interest for the artist. Every year he confronts himself with this theme by consulting various online portals, unfortunately still not well known to a wider public, where he draws the inspiration. To convey the corruption perceptions index on a geographical level is one of the studies carried out by Transparency International (www.trasparency.org) that visually expresses the main theme of the exhibition in a clear way.
In the first painting, two images of children clash: on one hand, the malnutrition of Third World Countries compared with the obesity and the supply of “laboratory” food that is ingested daily in the western societies, on the other, two demonstrations of extreme consequences to which an inherent corruption of the global system can lead.
In other two diptychs and in the installation, moreover, all united under the same title The Unknowns don't show themselves, Michele Drascek recreated an atmosphere, a blurry environment where one can catch a glimpse of the Unknowns, perceive their presence, imagine their action, even if they stay in the twilight. The use of neon blue, as a constituent element of the installation, creates a “cooling” effect of the exhibition area that drives the observer inside a mysterious aura, in a world made of shadows and landscapes, similar to the one depicted on the panels of the work of art itself. Drascek says: "You cannot tell who is corrupted, yet one is aware of their presence that has become even habitual: known, perhaps morally condemned, but integrated, tolerated or even justified...because, like Honoré de Balzac wrote in "Father Goriot": "Corruption is the weapon of superfluous mediocrity".
Giovanna Felluga