Pietro Fortuna's 'Moths' at Abbazia di Sant'Andrea in Flumine

The exhibition 'Moths' by Pietro Fortuna (born 1950 in Padua) is on view at the Abbazia di Sant'Andrea in Flumine in Ponzano Romano, curated by Graziano Menolascina. The show challenges traditional narrative and rejects predefined meanings, presenting objects as events of their own appearance. The title 'Moths' plays on the French word 'mots' (words), evoking nostalgia—Fortuna states, 'The word is always nostalgic, it chases the thing but never reaches it.' His art celebrates life and the resilience of everyday objects in their 'misery,' without filters. A recurring theme is the elastic relationship between part and whole; a sculpture of a tractor stumbling over a stone is presented as an 'event' without narrative closure. Fortuna merges thought and action, drawing on Rocco Ronchi's concept of 'practical intellect that resolves itself in its own exercise.' His drawings feature obsessive, repetitive motifs that are deliberately 'clumsy, inadequate,' which he calls comic: 'Comedy aroused by a gratuitous gesture is one of the highest values art should aspire to.' The exhibition invites critical engagement with reality, embracing complexity without seeking definitive answers.