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Places of memory: Abandons by Manuela Micelli

How can that which was abandoned constitute a place of memory? Abandonment implies
absence, separation, renunciation, and also a state of desolation, neglect, degradation ….
The title, at first sight paradoxical, that Titian Bertacco wanted to give to his shows, invites
to careful reflection, although the immediate visual impact is already in itself of extraordinary effectiveness
expressive.
Are left breathless in front of such beauty and depth look.
But I do not dwell on the technical and formal aspects of his paintings (the refinement of strokes,
the accuracy of the hyper-realistic details, the ‘delicate combination of colors in the alternation wise
chiaroscuro, the use of quotation learned as a tribute to the great masters or subtle reference
ironic …), on which others will know much better than I speak.
I will only observe, in about 50 paintings that make up the exhibition, the ‘absence is not random
the human figure (who clothed, in previous works, a decisive role if not unique),
the state of advanced disintegration of objects, furnishings, the “houses” (not just buildings but
place that we form, origin, source), the insistent recurrence of breaking glass and debris scattered, the
presence – often central – books among abandoned objects, along with a few sparse
survival: a dove that hovers around a semi open window, the creepers
still green that surround it, the fruit still lifes sometimes still “fresh” and inviting,
… almost edible. In other words: a tenuous thread of hope, if not humanity, at least in the strength of
regeneration of nature.
The objects and environments as emblems essentially what remains of memory,
inevitable loss of the past, the lack of meaning of life? A real
transliteration of pictorial poetry Montalian de “The house of the customs officers” (“… the horizon
on the run … do not know who goes and who stays “…)?
Yes and no, I would say. Montale sang the failure to find salvation in the memory.
In the works of Titian Bertacco instead the “remnants” of the past assume, I think, shades
different.
Protagonists of these works, says the ‘author, are “things, objects, and environments which, although in
degradation, have their own history and their poetry: poetry I find it even in a simple
… …… ..entri rubble in an abandoned house and discover a magical world of lights and shadows,
and especially of memories. ”
The state of neglect, therefore, not only or not so much as evidence of decadence, lack of
or loss of sense: it translates to the painter in attention to the places, forgotten or
unknown, which subtracts them to the limbo of oblivion. Yes a strong reminder of the transience of things, but also to the persistence and the value of memory, which combines in a single field time and space,
thickness restoring to life, beyond everything. Because the memories held in the remains of objects
abandoned represent images and absences most significant in our history. in this
sense both are significant gaps that filled both the attendance that the failures.
Upload feelings and magic, memory feeds on hazy memories, in what almost assuming a
sacred character.
L ‘abandonment and memory, in this sense, refer to each other: more than a state,
abandonment is proposed by Titian as a surrender, a letting oneself, giving oneself.
Almost one – one might say – that the German philosopher Heidegger, in his lecture
“L ‘Abandonment” of 1955, was the opening to the mystery, the thought meditator, understood as unique
possibility of new growth for Humanity, in ‘current age of technology that sees the absolute
devastating dominance of calculative thinking.
The power of painting by Titian is in his ability to convey not only emotions, but
thought. To grasp and interpret deep anxieties of the present, while offering a
perspective disenchanted hope in the future.

Article wrote by Manuela Micelli

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