Hands of Expression: Matteo Pugliese at Palazzo Merulana

Palazzo Merulana will welcome its visitors on Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, and also on April 25th and May 1st. The Permanent Collection of the Elena and Claudio Cerasi Foundation and the exhibition 'In Your Hands. Gesture, Art, Matter,' a solo show by the artist Matteo Pugliese, will be open for visits. In the museum halls on Via Merulana, a fascinating journey unfolds with more than fifty works. The narrative is divided into four sections (Extra Moenia. Contemporary, therefore ancient; The Guardians. Guardians of memory; Scarabs, Guardians of joy; and Pachamama. The Great Mother and the Sacredness of the feminine), all expressions of a research and creative freedom that never submits to stylistic labels. With this exhibition project curated by Carmen Sabbatini, the artist, one of the most interesting and recognized sculptors internationally, shares during the jubilee year his reflection on the relationship between art and sacredness, between what is visible and tangible and the aspiration to a higher and universal dimension. The exhibition is born from a profound and pre-existing bond between Palazzo Merulana and Matteo Pugliese, who is, in fact, the author of one of the most beloved works that are part of the permanent collection. It is 'Gravitas,' an iconic sculpture that the public always captures in representative shots of their visiting experience. The opportunity to deepen this relationship comes now, not coincidentally during the Jubilee and the Easter period. The work that gives the exhibition its title, 'In Your Hands,' is a large installation of incredible pathos, part of the first section and inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, housed in Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Pugliese makes the apostles and Christ dialogue with their hands at the moment when Jesus pronounces the words: 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.' The characters are depicted with an essential outline, but it is to the hands, the only sculptural element of the entire work, that the artist entrusts the enormous narrative and emotional charge of the reactions to the announcement of the betrayal. Outside of the four sections, the work 'A Matter of Trust' particularly dialogues with 'The Man Who Directs the Stars' by Jan Fabre, complementing each other harmoniously with the space: two enormous men face each other, one in a golden cloak, the other in a silver cloak. One directs the stars, the other lets himself fall backward, entrusting himself to his destiny, his faith. Which of the two will the visitor side with?