Abitare l’eternità. Sonia Costantini e l’icona sacra

From 16 January to 26 March 2023, the Diocesan Museum of Brescia hosts the exhibition "Abitare l’eternità" which compares the rich collection of icons of Russian origin, made between the 17th and 20th centuries, of the Diocesan Museum of Brescia with the monochrome by Sonia Costantini.

The exhibition, curated by Alberto Cividati, professor of philosophy at the Cesare Arici Institute, relates the two modalities of "absolute painting": the fragmentation of the icon and the monochrome as an icon.
The Orthodox icon is placed in the center of the wall, the single monochromes of the artist from Mantua are placed around it to represent the decomposition of the colors that make it up and structure it. The installation turns out to be an experience of the mystery in the plurality of accesses, a fragment in itself and a relationship between the fragments to draw the action of beauty that fascinates and involves the observer, so much so as to make the vision of the work of art a contemplative moment. The dialogue between icons and paintings reveals their experience of the sacred.

The curator Alberto Cividati says: “The exhibition Abitare l'eternity. Sonia Costantini and the sacred icon proposes an unusual juxtaposition between the religious icon of Russian art and monochrome painting. One element unites them: both are forms of writing. "Writing" indicates the gesture of coding something spiritual, transcendent, that one has intuited. Creativity is necessary creation, not a work of imagination, it is the careful writing of a revelation perceived through one's own feelings, singularity of the artist. The exhibition also intends to define the meaning of the term "spiritual" by identifying it with the movement of the imagination, which arises from contact with the world, made possible by sensitivity. Educating in spirituality means educating sensitivity”.