Collezionisti di echi

curate by Elisabetta Longari, Nuova Galleria Morone, Milan, 2017

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The exhibition itself takes the form of a somewhat global and unique installation, made up of works that represent a kind of visual and conceptual echo of each other. “Piccolo Mondo, a 1995 work revised today in such a way that they are the same but different from the first edition, is reflected, by echoes, on the opposite wall, in a work that in a certain way seems to be the projection of its own shadow, or rather, a derivative of its missing parts which are found here body and articulation; the two works complement each other. This element finds confirmation, or rather is reflected in the form of gilded bronze, polita and Brancusiana, which occupies the opposite side of the gallery". Thus Elisabetta Longari underlines in the text how much the exhibition space is organized by the artist according to a tight assembly full of references. The two works just described, larger in size than the others on display, were present at the solo show dedicated to Barrias by the Porto Serralves Museum in 2011.

“Another recurring element in addition to the egg is the eye which, open and closed, evokes the diurnal and nocturnal regime of the images. The organ of vision, particularly celebrated in the Surrealist sphere, especially if closed and aimed at the depths of the unconscious, is one of his favorite objects. It is the wild eye, capable of plunging into the shadows and creating new images that have an ancient, ancestral flavour. Barrias' gaze knows how to organize the space of the work like a detonator that makes a chain explosion of wonder shine."