giampaolo parrilla - S.Caterina da Siena

BIO ITA:

Praca Giampaolo Parrilli (1997) bada rolę obrazów w odniesieniu do geopolityki, przemocy, władzy, danych i bada nowe estetyki, nowoczesną ikonografię oraz współczesne zmiany społeczne.

Dzieła reinterpretują globalne wiadomości, obrazy wojny, mapy, filmy propagandowe, trendy w mediach społecznościowych, technologie militarne i raporty NGO, które stają się urządzeniami modyfikującymi obraz, narzędziami badania percepcji wydarzeń, dominujących trendów kulturowych oraz napięć między społecznościami, tożsamością a reprezentacją.

Jej badania analizują związek między nowymi symbolizmami a procesami społecznymi. Ponadto bada narracje zbiorowe, dziedzictwa kryzysów historycznych i rewolucyjny potencjał wyobraźni.

BIO ENG:

The work of Giampaolo Parrilla (1997) explores the role of images in relation to geopolitics, violence, power, and data, and examines new aesthetics, modern iconography, and contemporary social changes.

His works rework global news, images of war, maps, propaganda videos, social media trends, military technologies, and NGO reports, transforming them into devices that alter the image—tools for investigating perceptions of events, prevailing cultural trends, and tensions between communities, identities, and representation.

Her research explores the connection between new forms of symbolism and social processes. She also examines collective narratives, the legacies of historical crises, and the revolutionary potential of the imagination.

ENG:
Ek-stasis: The Flesh and the Algorithm

Conceived as two monumental vertical altarpieces, the canvases establish a tense and profound dialogue with the iconographic tradition of the great Christian mystical saints: Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Angela of Foligno. The exploration draws on hagiographic accounts that describe these figures as individuals teetering on the edge of mental stability: women capable of extreme acts—from washing the sores of lepers to prolonged periods of abstinence, to spiritual visions characterized by a disturbing and subterranean erotic tension. These manifestations, historically interpreted as the pinnacles of spiritual ascent, are recontextualized in the contemporary world through an iconographic superimposition.

The visual starting point is always archival images of women found unconscious in urban settings, victims of the effects of fentanyl. The “fainted” and abandoned body resulting from an overdose becomes the mold upon which the posture of the saint in ecstasy reemerges: two forms of “stepping outside oneself” (ek-stasis) that are chronologically distant yet biologically close, united by a total loss of control, vulnerability, and the mortification of the flesh.

While in the Middle Ages ecstasy was a bridge to the divine, today the experience of the beyond is consumed within the digital realm. Emerging from a deep black background, the figures are surrounded and violated by algorithmic visualizations of wounds, leprosy, and stigmata. This technological deconstruction is combined with painterly screenshots taken from TikTok profiles of young girls with eating disorders, tracing a modern form of asceticism and bodily control within the short-circuit of social media.

Through graphic renderings translated into painting, the artist depicts the burns on the saints’ skin, the atomic fragmentation of the body, and the visual representation of delirium, immersing the figures in the vibrant backdrops of a dramatically embodied Christian mystery.

ITA:
Ek-stasis: La carne e l’algoritmo

Concepite come due monumentali pale d’altare verticali, le tele instaurano un dialogo intenso e profondo con la tradizione iconografica delle grandi sante mistiche cristiane: Santa Caterina da Siena e Sant’Angela da Foligno. L’esplorazione attinge ai racconti agiografici che descrivono queste figure come individui in bilico sull’orlo della stabilità mentale: donne capaci di atti estremi — dal lavaggio delle piaghe dei lebbrosi a periodi prolungati di astinenza, fino a visioni spirituali caratterizzate da una tensione erotica inquietante e sotterranea. Queste manifestazioni, storicamente interpretate come l’apice dell’ascesa spirituale, vengono ricontestualizzate nel mondo contemporaneo attraverso una sovrapposizione iconografica.

Il punto di partenza visivo è sempre costituito da immagini d’archivio di donne ritrovate prive di sensi in contesti urbani, vittime degli effetti del fentanil. Il corpo «svenuto» e abbandonato, conseguenza di un’overdose, diventa lo stampo su cui riemerge la postura della santa in estasi: due forme di «uscita da sé» (ek-stasis) cronologicamente distanti ma biologicamente vicine, unite da una totale perdita di controllo, dalla vulnerabilità e dalla mortificazione della carne.

Mentre nel Medioevo l’estasi era un ponte verso il divino, oggi l’esperienza dell’aldilà si consuma all’interno del regno digitale. Emergendo da uno sfondo nero profondo, le figure sono circondate e violate da visualizzazioni algoritmiche di ferite, lebbra e stigmate. Questa decostruzione tecnologica si combina con screenshot pittorici tratti dai profili TikTok di ragazze affette da disturbi alimentari, tracciando una forma moderna di ascetismo e controllo corporeo all’interno del cortocircuito dei social media.

Attraverso rendering grafici tradotti in pittura, l’artista raffigura le ustioni sulla pelle dei santi, la frammentazione atomica del corpo e la rappresentazione visiva del delirio, immergendo le figure negli sfondi vibranti di un mistero cristiano drammaticamente incarnato.