Trajectoires
"The true object of art is to create sensible aggregates."
- Gilles Deleuze
In a practice nurtured by curiosity and a scientific, even compulsive, sense of discipline regarding the process of making images and what they reveal about how we perceive the world, the protean artist Roberto Pellegrinuzzi has constantly questioned their trappings and their methods. Since early on, he has highlighted the mechanisms by which the image is constructed, mechanisms devised and articulated through specific techniques and knowledge. In his work, photography and installation - dissected, collected, reframed, or structured - exchange forms and manners to the point of blurring the borders between the genres. Through this unique staging of photographs, he reveals networks of meaning among the different images and approaches representation as a territory in which reality and fiction converge; at the same time, he inscribes the medium of photography within a broader reflection on the materiality and objectivity of the image.
In Trajectoires, Pellegrinuzzi once again redefines the parameters of photography, this time through drawing. Eloquently - though surprisingly - in continuity with his body of work, here he simply draws loops, in templates that take shape and build relief through countless passes with a pencil. As the ultimate agent of connection for this corpus, the line gradually guides his hand in a sort of haptic wandering that creates intersections, decisive points of encounter, where layers of graphite are sedimented. Constrained by this minimalist formal vocabulary and an almost monastic production protocol, these gestures paradoxically acquire an autonomy grounded in their very process, paced by repetition and accumulation. Moved by this captivating set of gestures, Pellegrinuzzi allows images the freedom to emerge: each new line accentuates a protrusion, each additional stroke refines the contours of a concretion. Or, has the pencil lead has carved a groove into the paper? The matrix function historically associated with drawing thus resonates with Pellegrinuzzi's research on the image's materiality. Revealed by multiple uninterrupted iterations of the line, the loops meander and build up inexorably, the graphite accumulating on the paper's surface in a way that unveils the sculptural aspect of the image. Light, diffracted in the furrows of lead, is then captured by the digital sensor of his perfectly controlled camera. The drawings are photographed and magnified, and finally - closing the circle - transposed into sculptures coated with a graphite patina. In trajectories that take us from drawing to photography, from photography to sculpture, and from sculpture to drawing, Pellegrinuzzi literally throws into relief the mechanisms that construct the gaze by making the incontestable materiality of the image tangible - once again, using photography to do so.
We can certainly see eloquent references to a lemniscate in this new body, and this is not coincidental: through the repeated and meticulous act of drawing, Pellegrinuzzi is experimenting with a completely different maieutic method and temporality: that, slow and infinite, of making images. The notion of time is in fact central, as art requires patience, dedication, concentration. Here, his practice involves meditation, and it is through the laborious and sometimes painful exercise of the replication that joy emerges - the joy of the ultimate revelation of the artistic gesture.
With Trajectoires, Pellegrinuzzi pushes his artistic quest further by venturing into drawing, returning to the very essence of the image and its ruses. Borrowing the fundamentally performative dimension of sketching, he constantly straddles the organic and the Cartesian in a practice that is both intuitive and methodical, capable of generating collusion between body and mind. This is his still and always intelligent and sensitive gaze at representation and, even more, at our own perception of the world. A gaze here infused with palpable modesty and mastery, revealing the vitality of an artist at the peak of his art. - Text by Anne-Marie Dubois (Translated by Käthe Roth)
Roberto Pellegrinuzzi
Roberto Pellegrinuzzi was born in Montreal in 1958. He lives and works in Montréal and Bolton-est.
Since 1985, his work has been exhibited in over fifty solo exhibitions in Canada and in Europe. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Canada and in Europe, in India, and in Mexico. His work can be found in major public and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Fond National d’art contemporain (Paris), La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, and Hotel Gault (Montreal). Pellegrinuzzi has also been awarded over fifteen public artwork commissions as part of the gouvernement du Québec's 1% public art program.
Anne-Marie Dubois
Anne-Marie Dubois holds a master's degree in art history with a concentration in feminist studies and has been involved with the current art scene for more than fifteen years. Her love of contemporary art has led her to work within various cultural organizations in Québec, and she regularly contributes to art magazines and exhibition catalogues. Currently, she sits on the editorial committee of Esse arts + opinions and is the magazine's production coordinator.
The gallery thanks SODEC for its contribution to the making of this exhibition.
