Linda Aquaro speaks about her Chronicles of Resistance.
*Archive Article: Originally published in the digital magazine Blacklisted Copenhagen on December 7, 2018
To Italian artist Linda Aquaro her ‘Cronache di resistenza‘ series are a testament to the struggles of life, death and where they meet.
When taking in the full catalog of work by Italian artist Linda Aquaro, “resistance” might not be the first thing that pops into your head. Her work jumps seamlessly between graphic illustration, figurative painting, and abstract landscapes. She has all the hallmarks of an evolving artist who treats each painting as a chance to explore a different style, medium or motif.
In filtering through the hundreds of submissions that I received for this artist invite, the one thing that I came to understand is that resistance is a wildly subjective notion. A notion that can be as docile or extreme as the intention put behind it.
In the case of the works submitted by Linda Aquaro, she takes the direct approach to her expression of resistance.
The work I presented is part of a cycle realized some years ago, entitled “Chronicles of resistance”. This collection includes works inspired by the theme of struggle and survival as acts of political subversion and as acts of personal and intimate revolution. I believe that the concept of resistance must be understood in a broader sense since it is linked to another subversive act that we manage to accomplish in our daily life. Loving and thinking, for example, are acts of daily resistance, and in this sense, they are certainly the simplest and at the same time the most complex political actions we can carry out.
In the project “Venuto in Guerra” I pictured a soldier, not in a moment of confrontation, but idle. For the first time, he observes the surroundings with different eyes, not passively, but with awareness and critical thinking. In “La Pietà”, instead a man embraces his dying daughter, in a scene that may recall a retaliation or a citizen bombardment. The theme of death is opposed to that of life, so basically living is the highest form of resistance.
In these works, Aquaro expression is a clear vision in the pieces which are both simultaneously reflective of a past moment or prescient of a future event. There have surely been moments of tragedy and loss in the act of standing against injustices – and there will surely be more in the future.
While these works by Aquaro tap directly into raw circumstances of defiance, the large majority of her work is more positive in nature.
“These works are part of a specific cycle on Resistance. However, most of my creations are inspired by the subject of change as evolution and growth.
The project “Chronicles of resistance” is currently in stand-by, however, I do not consider it to be closed. This subject is very dear to me and I will certainly return to it with a new idiom and fresh eyes, as I often do with many other projects. The concept of Resistance goes even beyond what is pictured in my creations. It is a personal belief that guides my life and my approach to art.” It could be said that all artists are revolutionaries – that resistance is the inherent byproduct of simply “being” an artist. If such is the case, then my line of questioning and speculation towards the work of Linda Aquaro – and all works in this Artist invite in particular – seem redundant. If she is to be believed – that resistance is a belief that guides her life, but not always the concepts of her work – then my perception of resistance is surprisingly narrow and I welcome the broadening of my perspective through further exploration.
