Marco Bagnoli

MARCO BAGNOLI (Florence, 1949)

After having completed his studies of chemistry, in the 1970s Marco Bagnoli turned to art and developed a ‘practice’ that wove between drawing, painting, sculpture and environmental installation art. His research is based on deep-seated knowledge of mathematics, philosophy and spiritual beliefs that range from West to East, from the past to contemporary times. In 1975, he was one of the founders of the journal Spazio x Tempo, the title itself a conceptual synthesis destined to find its way into many of Bagnoli’s future works and projects.
Ideally referencing the figure of the Renaissance artist, in whom creative intuition cohabits with philosophy and alchemy, in his works Bagnoli searches for a union of the aesthetic datum, the scientific proposition and a certain spiritual tension. Driven by his errant curiosity, the artist moves from the roots of Western rationalism to the rituals and mythologies of the Oriental cultures (Islamic, Hindu, Taoist).
The work of art is conceived as a threshold, an ideal channel for communication directed toward a superior and transcendental vision that would otherwise be of difficult perception. In this connection, Bagnoli considers the immaterial element of light to be of primary importance – and indeed it recurs in many of his works. ‘The work of art,’ in Bagnoli’s words, ‘is always a miracle – because it comes about in the world and for the world, and it is produced despite all that exists in the world . . . The work of art comes about in the void, and this ‘coming’, by excess,  makes an offering of itself; it is then agape [the highest form of love or charity], it holds within itself the world in the void of its representational act, it fills with the world. Making it, the artist abandons the work and the work abandons him.’