VIRGILIO ROSPIGLIOSI

ART FOR THE MASSES

The idea was born in 2007 and is a simplified consequence of Atomideogenesi, a philosophy created by Rospigliosi at the end of the 90s. Art for the masses can be defined as a sociological ritual in progress, in which Virgilio Rospigliosi pretends to meet and collaborate with the Flemish painter Hubert van Eyck. It is important to point out that performance is applicable to anything. Every physical object from which it can originate is only the vehicle to arrive at an immaterial place, which is the very essence of the performance. The project includes a special series of small objects; paintings, sculptures, installations or audiovisual expressions, with a deliberately reduced and non-variable coefficient. Therefore accessible to anyone and not just to an elite audience. The themes are repetitive, elementary and devoid of relevant content. Each object is embedded with a QR code, containing a photographic image, which varies from object to object and represents "an action" on the part of Hubert van Eyck. Which involves the forced placement of every single object in the most important spaces and museums in the world. But also in the most unlikely places. The dichotomy of physical object (painting, sculpture, etc.) and photographic image of the action could generate an understandable condition of confusion in the spectator as an "active part of the performance". He may wonder whether the artwork is the object, or the image of the action displayed after scanning the QR code. The two things are essential. The immaterial space, given by the connection between the physical object and the image of the action, "is" the work of art. Art for the masses is a sociological performance that overestimates and at the same time underestimates art in all its expressions. Depriving it of the sacred aura that is often attributed to it and highlighting its mystifying aspect.

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Art for the masses - Analytical text by Roberto Cipriani (Emeritus of Sociology at Roma Tre University)

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