Luca Rento. Prima che tutto svanisca /Before It All Vanishes

_Prima che tutto svanisca /Before it all vanishes_ is a solo exhibition dedicated by the Fondazione Querini Stampalia to Luca Rento (Feltre, 1965), curated by Alfredo Cramerotti. The exhibition brings together a selection of works made over the course of twenty-five years, films reduced to their essence that reveal something profound that concerns everyone – our being in the world, our relationship with time, with what changes and is inevitably destined to disappear. Rento recognises the necessary instant and celebrates it. Kept alive, the moving image thus offers itself to the public as an act of resistance against disappearance. These works crystallise, in instants, the stages of one's earthly journey. 'It's an important exhibition, dedicated to an artist of exceptional quality', says Cristiana Collu, Director of the Fondazione, 'who combines a rare sensibility and impeccable technical mastery with rigorous research: through video, Luca Rento has developed a language that possesses the density, the light and the depth of painting.' Behind every work one senses the presence of someone grappling with reality, who looks the instant in the face and does not turn away from disappearance, and does not let themselves be deceived by fantasy. In the self-portraits, Rento records the constant states of mind and turmoil that run through him, seeking in the image a deeper understanding of his own existence. Between the event and the work, a great deal of time can pass. The filmed impressions settle and mature in the studio, sometimes for years, until the work finds its own form through framing, colour and tone. In just a few moments, years of life, research, work and vision can thus be concentrated. Each work, in relation to the others, marks an essential point in the circle of life – a single, fixed frame concentrates the gaze on the image, leaving time the task of revealing it. In reality, within that apparent stillness, nothing is still: a change in the light, a gesture, an almost imperceptible movement can take on an unexpected intensity. It is in this tension that the image continues to live. This is matched by an equally rigorous investigation into the mechanisms through which the work becomes visible, from the filming to its rendering in the exhibition space. As curator Alfredo Cramerotti points out: 'A few minutes of video for durations measured in seasons, generations or geological eras. Staging this exhibition also meant treating the works as measuring tools: not of the distance that separates us from things, but of the closeness that binds us to them. In the rooms of the Querini Stampalia, this dissonance can be felt even before one becomes aware of it.' _Prima che tutto svanisca /Before it all vanishes_ stems from the awareness that nothing lasts forever, and from the fascination of watching life as it happens.