The fear, the fear of the unknown represented by the irrational, which has always been present in the artistic sphere, has often led free artistic expression to be reduced to a discipline able to lead to a predictable and usable result following precise rules of behavior. Or the artist has been left wondering about the origins of his imagination and creativity with the anguish of not knowing how to answer….
Ideation, the foundation of artistic activity, with the writing of “Death Instinct and Knowledge” has found a new perspective, no longer obscure but comprehensible, on the basis of a new theory on the birth of thought in human beings, knowable in its physiological and evolutionary dynamics and in the manifestation of verbal and image language.
Alongside the theoretical formulation of the development of the human mind contained in “Death Instinct and Knowledge”, as an indispensable complement Massimo Fagioli has constantly placed himself in relation to the various expressions of human thought, and particularly to images.
This is because mental illness, which is a disease of thought, can also be found in rational cultural thought, that tries to propose a view of human nature as originally diseased and unchangeable.
Artistic images, but more generally the whole of what is defined as the world of visual communication, constitute an area in which the exchange of ideas is energized through seductive and immediate forms of language beyond verbal language.
It was therefore inevitable that Massimo Fagioli should be interested in these various forms of communication, being themselves significant and conditioning elements of the cultural context and thus the thinking of individuals.
Also inevitable was the research regarding artistic ideation that is related to dream thinking, about which Massimo Fagioli emphasized how the true artist actually produces non-dream artistic images that are precisely language for images.
Obviously, the artistic images that Massimo Fagioli produced are not psychiatric interpretations but perhaps communication and relationship with society, manifestation of another possible human identity.
Therefore, starting from the formulation of ‘disappearance fantasy’ contained in “Death Instinct and Knowledge” as a reference to the theory of birth and the origin of images, we would like to highlight and deepen how Massimo Fagioli, in the numerous artistic works that over time on various occasions were solicited from him, always proposed to those who asked for an “idea-imagine” in which there was a particularly profound and original relationship with history and society.
This attention to the relationship of communication with the outside world, with society, is visible on the covers of books with the image of Cupid and Psyche, summarizing a new thought also made through images. Many other times this praxis has emerged, always proposing the overcoming of rational thought through the irrational one as a proposal we could say social, to be used to give a face, a visibility, a quality of beauty to the always demonized unconscious, thereby constituting an integrating and constitutive part of the theoretical assumption formulated in “Death Instinct and Knowledge.”
The works created stand as direct evidence of what has been stated, some of which will be explored in their complex relationship to the social in the final version of the paper:
The Black Woman, a very tall sculpture created in 1991 for the inner courtyard of a two-family house, which talks about a private dimension of personal histories that, without a new theory, can only reproduce, generation after generation, a destiny of life without fulfillment.
The Blue Sculpture, now in the atrium of the Institute of Oriental Languages at La Sapienza University in Rome, alludes to an affair of which there is almost no direct historical memory, but which suggests a dynamics between men and women that had multiple consequences and conditioned social and personal relationships.
The image of the Giant, a sculpture created in the center of the Nicola Cavalieri Square in Rome, tells us of a structure of thought and a practice of life that proposes care, training and research.
The Yellow Sculpture, a design for a fountain in Ettore Rolli Square made by the City of Rome in September 2000 and recently restored, proposes two stylized figures of a man and a woman connected by four pools of water. Although it may recall the image of the Capitoline she-wolf, it actually proposes a completely opposite image on which to found the life of a city, with a perspective of relationship between human beings quite different from that of many ideologies and beliefs.
“…è la teoria della nascita, che mette in crisi una norma basata sull’identità umana come razionalità della veglia e della coscienza e del linguaggio verbale”. (Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2009” L’Asino d’oro edizioni)
“…it is the birth theory, which undermines a norm based on human identity as the rationality of wakefulness and consciousness and verbal language”. (Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2009 L’Asino d’oro edizioni)
Bibliografia
- Massimo Fagioli: “Istinto di morte e conoscenza” (1972) L’ Asino d’oro edizioni, aprile 2017
- Massimo Fagioli. “Bambino donna e trasformazione dell’uomo” (1980), L’ Asino d’oro edizioni, aprile 2013
- “Arte informazione e trasformazione degli esseri umani” ‘Aula Magna della Facoltà di Magistero dell’Università di Firenze, dibattito con Massimo Fagioli organizzato da Pio Baldelli, docente di Storia del cinema, 15 marzo 1980, pubblicato in “Il sogno della farfalla” 4/2002
- “Realtà umana dell’artista e opera d’arte”, Dibattito pubblico con Massimo Fagioli, all’interno del festival nazionale dell’Unità di Bologna, 6 settembre 1980 pubblicato in “Il sogno della farfalla” 4/2001
- “WWN Wood Window News” n°6/1986 Intervista a Massimo Fagioli e dibattito.
- Conversazione tra Massimo Fagioli e un gruppo di architetti in via Roma Libera 23, per Convegno a Tunisi, 23 ottobre 1994. Video prodotto e distribuito da Harvey Produzioni Multimediali.
- “Il coraggio delle immagini” Progetti realizzati da un gruppo di architetti italiani su idee e disegni di Massimo Fagioli 1986 – 1995, Catalogo della mostra, 2° edizione, Roma, N.E.R. 1995
- Le forme del linguaggio”, Incontro con Valerio Caprara, Massimo Fagioli e Marco Bellocchio Francesca Fagioli, Marcella Fagioli 12 Maggio 1995, Napoli, Università Orientale, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Cattedra di Storia del Cinema. Pubblicato in “Il sogno della farfalla” 4/1995,
- “L’architettura e la morte dell’arte, un secolo di crisi” atti del convegno. Roma, teatro Eliseo, 26/27 gennaio 1996. N.E.R. 1996
- “Fantasia di sparizione, formazione dell’immagine e idea della cura”. Atti del convegno, Napoli 7-9 giugno1996 Convegno a Napoli, Palazzo Corigliano e Teatro Mercadante in occasione dei 25 anni di “Istinto di morte e conoscenza”. N.E.R. 1997
- Dibattito con Massimo Fagioli, Valerio Caprara e Vincenzo Trione Napoli, teatro Augusteo, 10 ottobre 1999 Video prodotto e distribuito da Harvey Produzioni Multimediali.
- CLASS CNBC: Video intervista a Massimo Fagioli sull’architettura all’interno della libreria Amore e Psiche da lui ideata. 18 e 19 ottobre 2008.
- Conferenza stampa di Massimo Fagioli presso l’Istituto di Lingue Orientali di Roma per la presentazione dell’opera “La scultura blu”, posta nel cortile, 22 novembre 2005. Pubblicato in “Il sogno della farfalla” 1/2006
- Massimo Fagioli: “Il pensiero nuovo. Lezioni 2004” L’ Asino d’ oro edizioni 2011
- Massimo Fagioli: “Una vita irrazionale, Lezioni 2006” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2007
- Massimo Fagioli “Settimo anno, Lezioni 2008” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2013
- Massimo Fagioli: “Conoscenza dell’Istinto di morte, Lezioni 2012” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2017
- Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2008” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2011
- Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2009” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2012
- Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2010” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2013
- Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2012” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2015
- Massimo Fagioli: “Left 2016/2017” L’Asino d’oro edizioni 2019
- TV Arturo, trasmissione: “Passepartout ospite a sorpresa” a cura di Laura Lattuada intervista a Massimo Fagioli “Materia energia pensiero”. 22 novembre 2011. in “Il sogno della farfalla” 3/2017
