SIMPOSIO 4 | EUGENIO TIBALDI

Eugenio Tibaldi’s art is aimed at analyzing contemporary social and cultural dynamics, with a particular focus on peripheral and marginal realities. The artist often employs painting as a preliminary support for his work, graphically anticipating what will later be translated into an installation.

In 2022, however, he decided to dedicate a year entirely to painting. Within this perspective, Simposio 4 was created, part of a series of seven watercolor paintings exploring the connections between sexuality and power dynamics. Tibaldi presents a labyrinthine composition that, at first glance, appears to be a tangle of branches but actually represents cerebral synapses. The white of these neural connections contrasts with the vivid red and the bright yellow and green tones of the background. Perched on the branch-like synapses are dozens of birds, each from a different species, symbolizing the multiple facets of the human soul.
The inspiration for this artwork comes from the book Il verbo degli uccelli, a 13th-century Persian poem by Farid ad-Din Attar, in which each bird represents a human vice that hinders the path to spiritual elevation. In addition to the birds, various objects referring to sexuality are scattered throughout the composition: a chrysalis with a phallic shape and a lipstick stand in contrast to luxurious elements such as precious jewels, a gold bar, and a banknote. The artwork does not only feature symbols of luxury and seduction but also common objects, such as the two tires on the right, from which the entire composition seems to originate—suggesting an urban, peripheral context, a recurring theme in Tibaldi’s research.

Amid accidental relationships and recurring motifs, the viewer’s gaze gets lost in the multitude of details, almost trapped in an attempt to decipher the bizarre associations. In the Simposio series, the artist creates a mental space on the canvas that reflects the intricacy and complexity of the human psyche.

Eugenio Tibaldi
Simposio 4, 2021
Watercolor on paper, 167 × 132 cm
Courtesy the artist and Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Naples. Photo: B. Sales.

22/03/25