Cristiano Carotti returns to Venice with a new solo exhibition at Crea Cantieri del Contemporaneo. An installation and site-specific project, Xenia was born as part of the Palcoscenici Veneziani program and a moment of restitution of the research and collaboration path with the artisans of the Consorzio di Cantieristica Minore Veneziana.
Xenìa (in ancient Greek: ξενία, xenía) summarizes the concept of hospitality and the relationship between guest and host in the ancient Greek world, of whose civilization it was a very important aspect. It was a duty for the Greeks to host those who requested hospitality; asking questions until the host had granted it was considered improper. Proving to be inhospitable could also have meant incurring divine wrath, if the gods had assumed anthropomorphic guises and appeared at someone's oikos.
In more recent history, Xenia has taken on an opposite and grotesque meaning when the term was used to indicate the trial brought against Mimmo Lucano, mayor of the town of Riace, accused of alleged crimes in the act of welcoming migrants, in an attempt to establish a system of spaces, integration and correlations against the rhetoric of closed ports and rejections. Cristiano Carotti’s artistic practice is constantly aimed at recovering the dichotomous value between Homo Naturalis and Homo Mechanicus, turning his gaze to Nature and the possibility of re-establishing an active role by Man. In both his sculptural and pictorial approach, the artist presents himself as an alchemist capable of investigating, with a different gaze, the dynamics underlying the loss of center implicit in universal and human ecosystems. Moving between painting, sculpture and installation, he investigates social dynamics through the study of the archetypal power of the symbol. This approach places the artist in constant listening to the signals coming from nature, and in particular from the animal kingdom, paying greater attention to species that have a strong connection with mythology and esoteric symbolism.
In 2021, in Giudecca and in the landfill in Sacca Fisola, exemplary numbers of Sacred Ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus appeared, a bird venerated as a symbol of the God Thot, depicted in ancient times in hieroglyphics, and now a sedentary species in the Lagoon, where it has recently begun to nest. Starting from this unexpected and disturbing presence, Carotti has developed a new site-specific exhibition project, designed specifically for Crea Cantieri del
Contemporaneo.
In perfect coherence with the theme of the 60th Venice Biennale, Foreigners Everywhere, Carotti turns his gaze to this unexpected guest and, with a divining attitude, follows his tracks by creating a video entitled Veritas (2024) - in reference to the name of the Venetian company in charge of waste management, on whose platforms entire colonies of Ibis move in search of food and in coexistence with other species of birds - which bears witness to the encounter with this majestic bird.
In the Egyptian Pantheon, Toth is a deity with an ancient cult, venerated as an advisor and scribe of the god Ra, admitted to stand at the bow of the solar boat with which Ra makes the nocturnal journey through the Underworld that brings the Sun to rise every morning. Toth is also the author of the Book of the Dead, a set of magical formulas and practical indications through which the deceased is able to reach, aboard the solar boat, the Duath, the sacred river of the afterlife.
On the basis of these content premises, the exhibition project opens with a first
installation in which a boat, covered by a large painted PVC sheet, is placed in dialogue with the video shot by the artist during his first inspections in the Lagoon. The boat can be
revealed when, symbolically, the journey to the afterlife is completed.
The exhibition continues, on the upper floor, with the creation of a single environment, similar to an early Christian basilica, in which sculpture and installation converge, as is the practice in Carotti's research. Corresponding to the position of the pyramids of Giza, in relation to the belt of Orion, this new body of work presents itself as a set of glyphs, sacred space markers, consecrated to the god Toth; Nido (2024) is a functional artificial nesting platform, adorned with two ibis heads made using the ancient technique of lost-wax casting. A shelter offered to the sacred stranger, this large installation symbolizes, at the same time, the Kabbalistic tree of life of which Toth provides the keys, the arhum, in the form of the 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot.
In dialogue with this imposing installation is a drinking trough - obtained from the concrete cast of an aircraft wheel - inside which, through a system of galvanized drainpipes,
water flows. The Goodyear wheel, with its winged shoe symbol, celebrates Mercury, equivalent of Thot in the Roman Pantheon and a god with multiple characteristics.
Through the mixture of symbol and esoteric research, Cristiano Carotti experiments with a potential intercultural contamination, in the perspective of welcoming, listening and caring for the "stranger", the xenos. To an earthly dimension, characterized by a strong political value, Carotti interpolates a magical and astral plane where the foreigner/patriot dichotomy is completely reabsorbed.
The exhibition, part of the Palcoscenici Veneziani project, led by Forcoop Cora, was born thanks to the «Culture in Rete» call, pr veneto fse+ 2021 - 2027 priority 1 - employment, which the Veneto Region has allocated to the creation of projects aimed at workers in cultural enterprises, in a territorial network logic. It is proposed as an innovative initiative aimed at creating a vibrant and collaborative cultural ecosystem in the Metropolitan City of Venice. Through the collaboration of companies in the cultural, artistic and entertainment sectors, the project focuses on training, audience expansion and social integration, promoting initiatives that combine tradition and innovation. With the support of local and academic partners, Palcoscenici Veneziani aims to consolidate the role of Venice as a dynamic center for the arts and cultural-creative tourism, enhancing both its ancient traditions and the most modern cultural expressions.