"Eternal Elysium"

The Hirsau Monastery Museum presents significant works by the Italian artist Rosario de Simone in the special exhibition "Eterno Elisio." The exhibition is complemented by a digital catalog. Sensitive and fragile, restless and melancholic, the works of the Naples-born artist Rosario de Simone evoke ambivalent feelings at first glance. They are fragments of memories, impulses of thought, even archaic landscapes that hide within the veils and misty layers of color. In the painting process, the motifs and figures emerge from the depths of the initially almost abstract composition. After a short time, the fragmentary and shadowy figures reveal themselves, and the bodies concealed in the color glazes begin to tell their stories. Are they those released from earthly contexts, the remnants, perhaps saints, pilgrimage figures, or those who have escaped worship? Rosario de Simone addresses themes from Christian doctrine and mythology, influenced by the old masters of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. At the same time, the viewer encounters secular motifs closely tied to the fate of human life. Thus, the seemingly faceless beings appear vulnerable and fragile; they symbolize human abysses, the struggle with God and one's own fate, a state between hope and fear. The figures therefore represent not only themselves but also serve as a high image of humanity and its humanity. Under the exhibition title "Eterno Elisio" ("Eternal Elysium"), Rosario de Simone artistically explores the shifting boundaries between abstraction and representation, between the otherworldly and the human – a constant questioning of his existential belief in painting, which directly influences the viewer's perception. Here you can access the digital exhibition catalog.