Vazio Inverso

‘Vazio Inverso’ (Inverse Emptiness) brings together a series of works by Antonio Bokel, designed to occupy the space of Galeria MOVART. There is a double poetic desire in this set about emptiness: to investigate it as a sense of the completeness of form, as well as an exponent of its balance. Using geometric planes, especially circles (for their conceptual and spiritual connotations), Bokel explores the idea of modelling discontinuity, from the point of view of accuracy and logical construction, in order to reflect on space. In this process, emptiness is not just an absence, but a necessary pause in the perceptual articulation of the whole. It’s no coincidence that, together with black and white, blue is present in his paintings: Giotto’s blue, Klein’s blue, Volp’s blue? in short, the blue of s p a c e.

In his most recent work, Bokel introduces a certain dynamism to geometric structures that have long been recurrent in his work. However, instead of rigidity and purism, we are faced with unstable structures. Cuts, gaps and interruptions generate disquiet in the enjoyment of geometric spatialities that are almost out of sync.

Although these works are clearly inspired by works by masters from the history of Brazilian art – such as the sculptural folds by Amilcar de Castro – there is a poetic subversion of constructive plans in them. Perhaps this is reminiscent of the threshold of his artistic career. Something related to the gesture and hybridity of street art. But that’s not all.

The variations in scale undertaken by Bokel are equally instigating and analogous to city space. Emptiness and fullness merge like traffic flowing in the streets and lanes. Voids are an unavoidable presence in his work, which is increasingly rhythmic, whether it’s by spacing out large or small planes, or by launching into architectural and/or sculptural structures. These issues are of interest to this curatorship, who, through expographic thinking, aims to encourage the public to reflect on space and instability.

‘Vazio Inverso’ invests in an interval writing of shapes and lines towards different equities: figure and background, full and empty, before and after, continent and content, in a set in which our gaze circulates in the impossibility of finding a resting point.