From 27
October to 2 December 2017, Castel dell’Ovo in Naples will be hosting the
exhibition Opus Alchymicum: a personal show of work by the alchemical Latvian
artist Lolita Timofeeva, representative poet of the metaphysical dimension in
the world and of the archetypal symbolism of the surrounding reality.
Under the
aegis of the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Italy and the Honorary
Consulate of Latvia in Naples, the exhibition has been organized by Kengarags
in collaboration with Naples city council’s Office of Culture and Tourism and
the Fondazione La Verde La Malfa, jointly promoted by Touring Club Italiano di
Territorio di Bologna and curated by Giorgio Agnisola.
The
exhibition is sponsored by the Fondazione La Verde La Malfa, ITALò, Occitane
Voyages, Berengo Studio and Enhars.
The
exhibition, held to coincide with celebrations to mark 100 years of independence
of the Republic of Latvia (on 18 November 2018), will show for the first time
in Naples about 100 works of art including paintings, drawings, sculptures,
installations and a short film; they are the expression of an idea that first
came to the artist during her first visit to Naples in 2005, when she visited
the Cappella Sansevero and became interested in the Hermetic philosophy of
Raimondo di Sangro (Torremaggiore, 1710 – Naples 1771), the seventh prince of
Sansevero, inventor, alchemist, scholar, and the creative mind behind this
noble building.
Fascinated
by the esoteric aspect of the Cappella Sansevero, Lolita Timofeeva developed a
new way of creating, accompanied by deeper insights into her being, through
analysing the images of dreams, nightmares and hallucination.
Vivid
colours, dark atmospheres and evocative characters fill every work in the show.
Time and space are linked, suspended in silence, transporting the viewer to a
surrealist dimension. Labor alchymicus 29, mixed media on canvas, created in
2009, best represents the complete transfiguration of the real in parallel with
two distinct, but similar looking, realities. This is how Timofeeva manifests
an existential tension between meaning and non-meaning in life. Her quest for
mysterious models and settings, open to the silence of what lies beyond,
identifies a language of an interrogatory life, a gaze into the limits and
reasons of existence.
Although
there is a strong emotional charge and a subtle eroticism in Lolita’s work,
what emerges is not emotional but methodical, like an expression developed in
stages, in varying contexts and chapters, where the end of one trajectory leads
to the beginning of another, stimulating interpersonal communication.
In her work
– through which she develops a narrative that involves viewers in a syntactic
performance – Timofeeva variously takes on the guise of a high priestess, a
dispenser of life-force and seeker of the absolute, as in Labor alchymicus 1,
created in 2007, mixed media on canvas. There is a degree of playfulness in
this reflection of the soul: it is often provocative, but at the same time
tender and delicate, as when someone tries to cover their own deep secret with
a smile.
Opus
Alchymicum is therefore an exhibition that invites viewers to experience their
own mystical dimension, a “Nosce te ipsum” (from the Latin meaning “know
yourself”), not from a religious or mystical point of view, but an intensely
introspective one. And this is the true meaning of alchemy and Hermeticism.
Alchemy, in fact, did not set out to solve a problem of chemistry but rather a
spiritual one. In knowing herself better, Timofeeva has achieved greater
confidence and freedom enabling her to cross the many boundaries of figurative
representation.
The project
starts from a powerful stimulus – amazement at encountering outside herself
something that the artist had cultivated in her inner self, a possible answer
to the most profound questions.
As Timofeeva
says, “The term Opus Alchymicum refers to the work of the mediaeval alchemists,
the precursors of modern chemistry, regarding the final aim of their
investigations, which was to produce ‘gold from mystical enlightenment’, that
is, what urged them to delve further into the art”. A true conceptual
revolution, therefore, that arose out of a desire to find an answer to certain
stimuli in a reactive and interactive way.
This major
exhibition at Castel dell’Ovo therefore represents a significant stage in this
human and spiritual journey, from which a less visible and less well-known
dimension of the city will emerge. It will not be the sun-soaked vibrant Naples
that we know, but one that is more hidden and subterranean, as it appears in
the Cappella Sansevero.
Two events
planned to coincide with the exhibition will help visitors to understand the
oneiric dimension of Lolita Timofeeva’s work: at the Casina Pompeiana in the
Villa Comunale, on 18 November (17.30), museologist and art historian Maurizio
Vanni will give a talk on Visual Art from Esotericism to Symbolism: from
Lascaux to Dali; on 2 December (at 17.30), Martin Rua will present Schischok,
written by the Joana Karda collective (to which the artist herself belongs, as
well as the writers Claudia Mitri and Vanessa Piccoli). The Honorary Consul of Latvia in Naples
Roberto Berni Canani will also be present on this occasion.
BIOGRAPHY
Lolita Timofeeva was born in Riga, Latvia. She came to live in Italy in
1991. In 1997, she represented Latvia with a one-man show at the 47th Venice
Biennale. She currently works between Bologna, Riga and Catania. She is academy
trained. Her investigations have gone through various stages that have led her
to alchemical symbolism through the analysis of Hermetic writings. Lolita
examines the metaphysical dimension of the world; her lyricism belongs to the
world of symbols and archetypes, her investigations are interwoven with study
of analytical psychology and philosophy.
Lolita
Timofeeva’s work hangs in museums and private collections all over the world,
such as the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (Madrid), Casal Solleric (Palma de
Mallorca), Museo Internazionale di Ceramica (Faenza), Foreign Art Museum (Riga,
Latvia), Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze (Florence), Collezione Arturo Schwarz
(Milan), the All-Russia State Library for Foreign Literature, VGBIL (Moscow),
Fondazione La Verde La Malfa (Catania) and many others.
She has
contributed articles to the following periodicals: “Ogoniok” of Moscow, “LMM”
of Riga, “Zeta” of Udine, “Images Art & Life” of Modena. Her short stories
have appeared in various collections: “Scarpe sciolte”, “Casamondo” and “Intrecci”
published by Eks&Tra.
Opening
hours
From Monday to Saturday 9.00 - 18.00
Sundays and holidays 9.00 - 14.00
Information
and booking
Tel. +39 349 050 9273
Tel. +39 327 597 8850
kengarags@fastwebnet.it
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