Giorgio Petracci

WIND

17 Novembre - 10 December 2022

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PRESS RELEASE

WIND

17 November - 10 Decembre 2022, Place du Petit Sablon 11, 1000 Bruxelles

The Grège Gallery presents "Wind", a solo show by the Italian artist Giorgio Petracci, in the renowned architectural office Donck.Studio in Brussels.

Originally from Fermo, on the Adriatic coast, Giorgio Petracci studied in Bologna and then moved to Paris, where he currently lives and works. The environment in which he grew up shapes his work. He has a deep connection with his roots and the coastline. This stretch of seafront does not only represent his birthplace, but more deeply embodies a rare and authentic cultural basin, escaping the standardization and smoothing out that has prevailed for several decades, and which makes the most frequented tourist spots the mirror of a consumer society that relates to itself. As the artist himself says about these places: "it is as if the local population had preserved these places to give themselves the luxury of breathing".

Giorgio Petracci photographs, paints and sculpts. His photographs immortalise coastal landscapes and linger on details: buildings, boats, laundry drying in the sun or other small, simple but incredibly evocative elements, all cradled by the same wind that gives the artist a pleasant sense of belonging. He tells us:

"The wind is a vehicle of memories, images, colours and smells. Silent, it transports and makes travel all that surrounds us. Where I was born, the hills caress the sea and then quickly turn into mountains. All this happens within a few kilometers. My eyes have become accustomed to the superimposition of horizon lines that follow one another, one after the other. Sometimes the wind is king, reshuffling the cards, upsetting the landscape and playing with the light. In my painting I try to represent this moment, very particular, during which there are no more physical barriers and everything intermingles, in a timeless spectacle. The wind-driven landscape also takes the form of an inner world where our emotions often shape the landscape. I like to imagine the wind as an entity capable of mixing huge masses of memories and emotions, generating something new."

In 2011, he started to paint. His paintings are closely related his photographs. They reveal a desire to transcend the image itself, towards a more intimate and elusive dimension. The artist uses organic or mineral forms through colours that are sometimes light, sometimes vivid, which offer themselves to us in all their brilliance. This search for freedom of composition is linked to the choice of medium. Giorgio Petracci chooses wood as a support for his sculptures but also for his paintings. Trained since childhood to work with wood by his grandfather, this material is not only the support for the pictorial intervention, it becomes a living material in his hands.

Giorgio Petracci's works « are passages through which one enters his inner world »1. The landscape of his childhood, the Adriatic, thus becomes a vehicle for expressing the movements of the soul; the collective history of the place, a crossroads of cultures and memories stirred up by the sea, is inextricably intertwined with the personal history of the artist.

The opening will take place on 17th November from 5pm. The final viewing will take place on Saturday 10th December from 2pm to 6pm. The exhibition will be open every Friday and Saturday from 2-5pm and on other days of the week by appointment.