Caldara Carlo: Living Your Dream

The Triennale di Milano presents Living your dream, an exhibition by Carlo Calandra.

This exhibition is the achievement of the thoughts that have accompanied the artist in this new stylistic and linguistic evolution, which aims to involve the viewer who can empathize with the works through cut out sentences on aluminum and Plexiglas. His works with mirror background truly become a mirror for the artist and the viewer. In this exhibition there is a sense of awareness of one’s personal identity and the world where we live, which is seen through the artist’s eyes.

“Carlo Caldara was able to switch from figurativeness, where he represented the human being at the centre of his research, taking into consideration the inborn potential and limits peculiar of every man, to a more conceptual kind of art, involving an abandonment on the part of his mind, which leads him – and can lead the viewer too – to ask themselves questions about their own lives and on how they want to live their lives. At this stage, the artist puts words and imagination at the centre of his investigation. According to Martin Heidegger, «the essence of the image lies in “showing” something». Caldara idealizes, through his awareness, the anxieties and fears that characterized his earlier works, thus moving on to conceptual aesthetics, although not lacking of poetics of its own. In this creative cycle, Caldara was able to reach the mental projection that serves as a background to his works, in which he inserted indicative inscriptions with messages that are important to him. Through these words, you can reflect yourself and read the real thoughts, the deepest ones, which highlight the very soul of the artist. Yes, he is a human being, but this time no longer made of flesh and blood. He is a human being who is not afraid of standing in front of a mirror and share with the public what he thinks and what he feels. Finally, he has extended the message to all those who, like him, sometimes feel the need and urge to abandon their mind to give way to the freedom of their being.

It is no coincidence that Carlo Caldara also focuses his attention on the use of drugs with an image of Paroxetine and Depamag, which are both used for diseases and disorders in our society and, however, can also provide us with help and support to improve and light our depths. Surrendering to your mind also means letting yourself go and changing the order of thoughts, casting your mind towards your future and expectations of life with less anxieties and fears; freeing yourself from what you have inside, getting rid of any superstructures, so as to become not only the man standing in front of himself, but also the man who lives in the world to such an extent that, in addition to making a personal and individual analysis of the latter, can also provide a cross-section of our own contemporary society and show how strongly the uneasiness we go through affects our lives. Therefore, his production with mirrored background really becomes a mirror for both the artist and the viewer. Carlo Caldara lays himself bare through his sentences and concepts of life and on how he lives – or would like to live – his life: his innermost expression is represented by sentences and emblematic images that have been accompanying his life path, literally “cut” on aluminium with a Plexiglas bottom to reflect his works.

In this exhibition, the artist conveys a sense of awareness of his personal identity and of the world we live in, seen through his eyes.” (Annalisa D’Amelio)