Mario Borrelli - Erotica

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. The Grace of Eros by Mario Borrelli
‘’Now, you’ll agree that preferring the soft to what is hard is a demonstration of the nature of Eros’’ Plato, Symposium, 195d-e

The young painter Mario Borrelli, whom critics refer to as the last of the Romantics, places at the center of his artistic experience the body. In continuity with classical thought, which made man the measure of all things, the painter narrates himself in his first solo show through a series of figurative canvases, where the human body is the measure of all things. A genre undervalued today for fashion, but with deep roots and dwelling in every soul even if in a concealed way, as the archetypes teach. The depiction of the nude has ancient origins; one could say that the body was born before the face, before the landscape, before still life, even before writing—think of the Venus of Willendorf kept in Vienna and all prehistoric Venuses. The erotic body that Mario Borrelli tells through his works is not a “dressed” body, “perfect,” “undressed.” To better understand this perspective, it is useful to pause on a brief and fortunate intuition of Kenneth Clark, a British art historian of the 1950s. Clark introduces a distinction that would gain much traction in English: to be naked means to be without clothes, and at the same time suggests the sense of embarrassment that almost all of us feel in this condition. The word nude, on the contrary, does not imply this discomfort and is used in art. It is a reshaped body, thus harmonious, flourishing and confident. It is as if nudity were a form of attire. But of what kind? Our painter-tailor clothes bodies with Eros, evoking the desire of life through sacred epiphanies of the flesh, so the nude body slips out of the contingent to rise to an idea, a union of sacred and profane love. Freedberg writes that images operate in a way that excites desire; and it is through the eyes that the gaze on Mario Borrelli’s paintings carries other senses toward the mystical contemplation of the image. It is the flesh that becomes sacred, a earthly prayer that elevates the spirit revitalized by the images, excited by the Dionysian impulse; it is rebellion and revolution of instinct, which in turn transfigures into feeling. Therefore the mysticism of the flesh that derives from the erotic tale of the painter is powerful, poignant, and pushes to inquire what is hidden, what is concealed, almost ashamed for convenience, convention, moralizing fiction. One should never forget, it seems to suggest the artist, that the seduction of forms is sacred just as sacred are the bodies moved by Eros. Naked bodies, veiled, partly covered, sexually bind the viewer through a particular: a hand, a drapery, a lock of hair, etc... There is a transfiguration: Eros becomes a mystery and the sacred matrix emerges in all its shameless power, and it is here that the ultimate truth of existence can be glimpsed. Naked bodies, veiled, partly covered, sexually bind the viewer through a particular: a hand, a drapery, a lock of hair, etc... There is a transfiguration: Eros becomes a mystery and the sacred matrix emerges in all its shameless power, and it is here that the ultimate truth of existence can be glimpsed. Vitalism explodes, perhaps taking on the beauty of truth, the transparency of Eros asserts itself, which has no shame in showing itself because it measures all things. In the nudity represented by Mario Borrelli one perceives the veritas, that which the Romans, not by chance, equated, with contradictions, to nudity as good without flagitium; it is Klimt’s naked veritas, the naked and pure truth that does not fear to show itself. The naturalistic images tell their story in a space-non-space metastorical, outside precise spatio-temporal connotations and within boundaries that could be defined as heroic: the relationship between spaces and figures is, for the painter, an evocative necessity and does not limit the immersive suggestion; on the contrary, it amplifies it in a no-place that produces estrangement. Vitalism explodes, perhaps taking on the beauty of truth; the transparency of Eros asserts itself that it has no shame in showing itself because it is the measure of all things. In the nudity represented by Mario Borrelli one perceives the veritas, that which the Romans, not by chance, equated, with contradictions, to nudity as good without flagitium; it is Klimt’s naked veritas, the naked and pure truth that does not fear to reveal itself. The naturalistic images tell their story in a space-non-space metastorical, outside precise spatio-temporal connotations and within boundaries that could be defined as heroic: the relationship between spaces and figures is, for the painter, an evocative requirement and does not limit the immersive suggestion; rather it amplifies it in a no-place that produces estrangement. Finally the artist, favoring the female nude with soft shapes, not for vanity of gender, but because in that softness resides the victorious eros, emphasizes an erotic triumph, which translates into the tangible form of that creative force that forever struggles against Thanatos, his antagonist, bearer of destruction. Finally the artist, favoring the female nude with soft shapes, not for vanity of gender, but because in that softness resides the victorious eros, emphasizes an erotic triumph, which translates into the tangible form of that creative force that forever fights against Thanatos. But the tension between Eros and Thanatos is told with unspeakable tenderness. And perhaps, in that ecstasy in which the figures are crystallized, lies the spiritual place where the artist unexpectedly speaks of himself, of his art and his painting as prayer and poetry.

Di Daniela Marra