The space of intimacy

What does the word home evoke in the mind? I believe many would answer with private place, intimacy: in fact, the home, for every human being, establishes a boundary both visible and metaphorical between the self and the rest of the world, between inside and outside, between us and others. It is the point where bonds intertwine and where relationships take shape.

Antonella Vitali's reflection on people, the connections they create, and the spaces they cross, first and foremost that of the home – which she interprets as essentially positive and protective – has materialized in the Casamatita project. Each work is characterized by great simplicity and is the result of meticulous study: on a solid, compact background of color stands out a clear and decisive graphic line that outlines the stylized shape of a house, created with extraordinary purity of line, as if by an apparently naive hand, where the roof becomes sharp and reaches toward the sky.

The outline of the "Casamatita" manages to contain only a part of a large rectangle of color, because the remaining area of the frame overflows from the black or white border of the house to float on the surface of the dense background color. This part of uncontainable abundance is not only attributable to the affections and feelings that move the spirits inside "Casamatita," but is also the result of what happens outside it and, in fact, the house on the canvas is endowed, thanks to human emotions, with a vibrant heart, which is symbolized by the rectangle never the same as itself. The colors and artistic techniques that "Casamatita" knows are different: these variations are linked to emotional causes, which cannot be classified with scientific rigor, but only observed in their diversity.

Thus, there can be clear and bright experiences where a regular polygon of light, in Casamatita g1, stands out in contrast on a serene blue; other times – as in Casamatita mb1 – signs of nostalgia can be found where, on a calm and gray background, a material element, like a net, tries to immobilize a large white rectangle, which dangerously wants to slip beyond the boundaries of the house. At other times, the house is a place of encounters and openings and exchanges with others: emblematic in this is Casamatita rs1, marked by a huge pink rectangle on the left, which – unlike others – does not appear compact, but frayed in the application of color and characterized by small dark gaps, which interrupt the fluidity of the color and are configured as the opening of a window, which allows communication between inside and outside.

Sometimes, especially in the latest production, emotions become even more overwhelming, thus unable to stay within boundaries: polymaterial fragments push out from the pictorial surface. These "cutouts" come from old canvases and have been specifically selected by Antonella, based on a strong evocative value drawn from the past that today becomes suggestion on the canvas. In Casamatita xn1 it can be seen, again, how on the background of a "Casamatita," already split between an ethereal pink and a lively dark purple, a horizontal rectangle stands out – almost to close it like a latch – marked by quick, heavy, and nervous brushstrokes: on the other hand, can't "home" also be a "cage" one wants to escape from?