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Within the ambit of a commitment to the sustained research and promotion of contemporary art, Fondazione per l’Arte is proud to present the exhibition conceived by Roberto Pietrosanti for the Roman headquarters of Banca Leonardo.

The Roman architectural engineer Clemente Busiri Vici designed the sumptuous spaces of the villa occupied by Banca Leonardo in the early 1930s: they have been entirely re-interpreted by Pietrosanti’s intervention. He has transformed them into an experimental laboratory of densely layered, formally evocative spaces of rare intensity. Entering into harmony with the architecture of the site, the artist traces its dimensions and proportions to test its limits and reveal the identity of its rich history. Central to the artist’s practice is the generation of a rapport with architecture: this is reflected in works that are habitable, accessible and connote a strong architectural presence. Sinuous lines lead the eye toward sharp projections. Monochrome surfaces are incised with marks, edges, relief and layering combined to generate geometric forms. A myriad of pinpoints trace volumes in the air and arcs that appear to dissolve into space like luminous lint. Metallic membranes are woven into dark knots of feral power on the cusp of volatility. Rough surfaced papers, consumed by time, are severed revealing openings towards the third dimension.

The bank’s chambers are thereby transformed into a new meeting point within which to spread and share the all-encompassing values of art.

Pietrosanti’s intervention is situated in two primary locations: the entrance hall and the reunion rooms of the bank. There will also be works on paper and of small dimensions in the interconnecting passages.

The entrance hall is the heart of Banca Leonardo’s headquarters. Two installations will be situated here: a work of large dimensions on the wall of the main stair and another on the façade to the right of the entrance. Monochrome works will be located in the reunion rooms and in various other offices individually or in groupings: each room will be characterised by a different pigment so as to develop each space as a camera picta or painted chamber.

The exhibition period will be divided in two ‘acts’ – the first lasting from June to August and the second from September to December. During the second ‘act’ there will be changes to the installations in the reunion rooms: some works will be replaced, others resituated to generate new dialogues. The connecting theme of the project is to reveal the primary elements of the artist’s practice, thereby highlighting the internal echoes and references of his stylistic code. By unfolding the multiple variables of form and media in his work a coherent and rigorous itinerary emerges, centred on the research of space and the analysis of reciprocal interferences between work and site. For Pietrosanti the close study of the installation site constitutes the point of departure for his formal explorations aimed at reinventing the context of the setting.