For the Romans, there was no Hell. Only the Underworld, where one cannot distinguish the good from the bad. Access to the Underworld was through Charon, who ferried souls from one bank of the river to the other, through the marshes of the Acheron. Only the condemned who possessed two gold coins (called “oboli”) placed on their eyes, were transported. Those who did not have them were destined to remain in nothing for eternity.
I had the coins, I passed over.
So, I decided to celebrate my rite of passage at the end of 2019. By interrupting relations with the art galleries that represented me, by stopping to create works of art according to the criteria dictated by the market. Away from everyone, alone, I decided to devote myself solely to my role as an artist and as a man.
“The Artist is the one who places art to perform the central function of our life, a function that first of all changes our way of living, thinking and seeing. A radical and endless change in dynamism and learning. The artist’s intellectual zone plays an important role in the flow and evolution of Time, a role that illuminates confused and darkened minds, reveals the secret of Art and shows the way to wandering travelers. Some men do not believe in the therapeutic value of art. Today the Artist must be at the service of the Society for an improvement in human life.”
Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
Simafra
“I had to make an extreme gesture to rediscover my identity as an artist. I abandoned my certainties to go into the unknown. I celebrated my death by being reborn as a phoenix from the ashes.”
In recent years I have understood the essence of art and the responsibilities of the artist towards society.
The artist has the task of raising awareness, of expressing his research, of telling his experiences through the various forms of art trying to interact with human consciences. He must relate to every man and not just to the insiders. Art can change the world. I believe that focusing solely on one’s ego or an art understandable to a few is only an economic process aimed solely at the “God of money” and the “power” of the conformist image.
Art is spiritual and intellectual enrichment. It is Absolute Cosmic Love for the benefit of the whole of Humanity.
We must reflect and ask ourselves, how many artists in the past have tried to bring an improvement to the human race, foreshadowing all those social problems present, today more than ever, throughout the globe? There is an artist who has not invented any method but has generously dedicated his entire life to improving existing systems in society. He placed man and nature at the center and all of himself at the service of humanity by creating his famous Living Sculpture: Joseph Beuys
From 1972 to 1985 until the last days of his life, the German Master worked in Italy in direct collaboration with Lucrezia De Domizio and with the magical goal and scientific contribution of Buby Durini to the famous Operation: DEFENSE OF NATURE
Defense of Nature by Joseph Beuys should not be understood only from an ecological point of view but should be read mainly in an anthropological sense. Defense of man, of individuals, of creativity, of human values. Current issues around the planet Earth.
Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
The “Defense of Nature” is a phenomenological unicum in the global art of Joseph Beuys. A colossal operation in which the Beuysian concept of Concrete Utopia is realized through the triad of the three Plantations: Seychelles- Bolognano- Kassel, the Utopia of Earth.
For the first time, the plant world undergoes spiritual transubstantiation. The “plant” becomes a work of art that cannot be sold and does not exist in any museum in the world.
Beuys was the active precursor, the forerunner of all those social problems that unfortunately still afflict the whole World. More than 30 years later, nothing has changed. Indeed there has been a global deterioration.
Starting from my social concept of art, I believe that “to move forward towards a better future we must put memory into practice”. I would like to resume Beuys’s Nature Defense operation. We have no more time, humanity has no more time.
“It is, therefore, necessary for the artist to extricate himself from the consumerism in which he has been damned trapped and reflect on Time, on its perception, on the different spiritual depths of Man and Nature, making use, on the one hand, of the value of the spatiality of the mind as the attitude of the intuitive potentiality of a man and, on the other hand, of the Courage of Truth, of that Truth that goes beyond the systems to live and love reality”.
Lucrezia De Domizio Durini
PRESERVATION OF THE SPECIES 2020
PRESERVATION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES
PRESERVATION OF THE PLANT SPECIES
PRESERVATION OF THE ANIMAL SPECIES
It is essential to carry on profound human concepts trying to return to the origin, studying, and trying to observe the ancient secrets of nature. We must be more careful to heal our souls and that of others and detoxify ourselves from corrupt systems.
Today more than ever, we must Defend Nature but I also believe that we should focus more on the Protection of Man, on his identity. Safeguarding the human species also means paying attention to the animal and plant world, restoring the perfect balance of nature.
WE GOT LOST.
WE ARE WEAKENED.
Man has lost human values, those fundamental principles that govern our Mother Nature. Man has lost himself, he needs a secure guide that takes him from darkness to light. We rely on politicians who move us like puppets. We have forgotten our father figure.
We need a Master to guide us.
If the system is weak, people who are greedy for power and money take strength.
In my opinion, women are the only ones who could have the strength and intelligence to change the world. Women must regain possession of their genetic heritage, they have been subjugated for centuries. Today is indeed the moment of female intellectual and social revenge, but a choice of life, skills, and solid collaborations are necessary.
We human beings belong to the animal kingdom, but we have that extra something that we can call THINKING or RATIONALITY, and it is precisely the lack of Rationality that is slowly destroying the world. My work as a man and artist focuses precisely on these social and human concepts aimed at supportive collaboration for the Common Good.
I fully agree with Joseph Beuys, one of the most representative figures of the post-World War II art world. Clearly, my work has a temporal, spatial, and formal diversity, but I fully share his philosophy.
The broad concept of art affects all fields of the social organism because it is a transformation, it becomes paradoxical and imperceptible that all collectives that produce spiritual goods, that produce creative capital must live under repression and dependence on parties.
Joseph Beuys
When we are aware that we are all working together as free individuals, we are much closer to having created a real and concrete democracy.
Joseph Beuys
In this context, I strongly desired to express the profound totality of my artistic research. For years through different instances, crossing studies on Joseph Beuys and James Joyce with the many experiences of life, I was led, step by step, to the creation of a Sculpture that lives the KINGDOM OF BEES as a metaphor of the social and organic structure of cooperation, and a concrete productive value.
But most of all, my Sculpture reveals a transcendental plus value. I am reminded of Beuys’ series of Queen Bees from the 1950s. In the conception of the German Master, Honey and Wax take on great importance as products of an organism, that of bees, therefore a source of energy and glue that cooperates in harmony. A perfect metaphor for human cooperation that also acquires a political value. A symbolic nucleus was so strong in Beuysian work that it allowed him to talk about his Theory of Sculpture.
I feel like affirming the words of Novalis: “Arbitration and Chance are the Elements of Harmony”
The consciousness of knowledge and the awareness of being unison led me by the hand to realize my dream, the one that has been closed in a drawer for many years: the project of a lifetime, The Protection of the Species.