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2018
New Horizon
Curation
The Sundown of Disquiet draws from both ‘La città del sole’ (The City of the Sun) a philosophical work from 1602 by Calabrian Dominican friar, Tommaso Campanella, and the ‘Book of Disquiet’, one of the Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa’s major works of prose, first published in 1982. In the former, we consider an illuminated city. A polis, characterised by perfect laws and habits; whose foundational values consist of erudition, creativity, wisdom, and both theoretical and practical knowledge. In the latter case, we find ourselves before a book of "confessions," an existential thesis of sorts, or so-called diary of the soul. The text subjects his own streams of consciousness to rigorous examination, then ruminates upon the universe of dark obscurity held by the subconscious. An unknowable depth which, in turn, shapes and defines the tumultuous ways that each of us relates to the external world, also known as the sensible reality.
Based on these premises, and with a clear rearrangement of an Aristotelian perspective, the primary intention of 'The Sundown of Disquiet' is to harmoniously synthesise these conflicting hemispheres. This text takes a phenomenological route of inquiry in its aspiration to a new condition of life, within a novel universal order. This order disregards the concept of evil, but only to the extent that the idea of good is necessarily considered the ultimate goal towards which human action must strive. This pursuit leads to a life dedicated to knowledge, conceived as a solemn state of perpetual and invulnerable happiness.
To navigate the boundless complexity of the inner world – which in turn reflects upon the external and vice versa – and in order to achieve the aforementioned state of tranquillity, or plication of the soul, one must surrender to the realm of obliviousness. This is the realm that Pessoa himself extensively faced, referred to as the 'Book of Disquiet.' A realm that arises from an undeniable and tormented emotional depth, often confronted by the colossal dilemma encapsulated in "I know not what tomorrow will bring." So, how better not to let yourself be dragged into the silent darkness of uncertainty than to completely entrust oneself to the intimate magic of imagination?
Perhaps it is only through such imaginings one can gradually thrash out and inexhaustibly stimulate themes of indisputable importance – those of identity, existence, life, and death – without any fear. Such an approach seeks new expressive languages, and shifting morphologies that whisper of our imperfect world. Where no sunset is so beautiful that it cannot become even more so. At what intensity does the light blaze when the sun takes a position between the aforementioned hemispheres of meaning? What fragments of meaning rest in the dim light at the edges of the penumbra, to whisper gently from a gradient of light that threatens to shine in all its brilliance?
And so, the involved artists—Isabella Benshimol Toro, Kim Farkas, Daniel Spivakov, and Uchercie —work to generate a liberal and indefinitely evocative art that operates for culture. It embodies a poetics that consistently promotes new and astonishing stylistic precepts and rules, dedicated to the celebration of beauty, understood as the pure science of feeling. It's a knowledge that is both sensory and emotionally bound, emblematic of the perfection of phenomenal knowledge.
Exhibition co-curated with Domenico de Chirico
2023
09/09 - 07/10/2023
09/09 - 07/10/2023
Exhibition Documentation
The Sundown of Disquiet
Isabella Benshimol Toro
Kim Farkas
Daniel Spivakov
Uchercie
Isabella Benshimol Toro
Kim Farkas
Daniel Spivakov
Uchercie
Location
zerui gallery, London
zerui gallery, London