THE “INTRUDER”: Stefano Arienti

From an idea by Chiara Bertola

Stefano Arienti’s intervention is set in the rooms of the Berthe Morisot exhibition to evoke the domestic atmosphere of the subjects proposed by the Impressionists. Arienti covers the walls with striped or floral organza wallpaper and ribbons, typical of the period, and introduces furnishing details such as a piano, a coat rack and a showcase with fruit by Francesco Garnier Valletti from the Museo della Frutta in Turin.

His ‘pongo paintings’ amplify Morisot’s elusive, jagged and impregnable manner, adding an unexpected tactile dimension to the Impressionist painting. Finally, a trompe-l’œil rug in the winter garden room illuminates the area, recreating the ideal space of en plein air painting.

Stefano Arienti is the ‘Intruder’ artist invited to curate the layout of the exhibition dedicated to Berthe Morisot. Throughout his career, he has explored and reinterpreted the luministic and tactile values of Impressionist painting in a completely original way, using unconventional techniques, while remaining anchored to the language of painting.

Arienti’s training did not follow a traditional academic path. With a degree in agriculture and a predominantly scientific background, his background offered him a wide range of content to explore, as well as a creative freedom that led him constantly to experiment in the field of artistic techniques. For Arienti, contemporary art is discovered through doing and creating, with a direct and intuitive approach that drives him to develop new ways of manipulating matter and image.

The artist invites us to reflect on the themes of nature, art history, light and the atmospheric reconversion of common, everyday landscape images. Starting with ordinary objects, Arienti transforms and reconverts them, thus renewing a reflection on their pictorial value. For example, printing on chenille gives the figures an unusual depth, enhancing the materiality of the colour thanks to the richness of the material. Similarly, crumpling paper generates unexpected reliefs on the surface, making it more vibrant and dynamic. These techniques add quality and texture to the image, which is perceived through new sensory paradigms, thus amplifying its expressive capacity.

Arienti considers himself more of a painter than a sculptor: he works with images and defines his approach as ‘pictorial’, although he does not paint in the traditional sense of the term. However, his work focuses strongly on the tactile values of painting. He often intervenes on painted or photographed figures, ‘implementing’ or ‘augmenting’ them with materials such as plasticine, modelling clay and puzzles. By adding matter to the image, Arienti transforms it, making it more tangible, vibrant and alive.