“PY43 · Órigo – Materia tempore subsidit”, the solo exhibition by Andrea Benetti, curated by Laura Luciano and on view through September 20, 2026, opened yesterday, September 4, at the Art Gallery Il Cesello in Pietrasanta.
“When matter becomes time and time takes shape. It is with immense joy that I present the new and unmissable solo exhibition by Andrea Benetti, a profound and vibrant project that I have had the great honor of curating.” writes Laura Luciano.
The exhibition leads the visitor toward a primordial dimension of visual language, where the sign precedes the word and the symbol becomes one of the first forms through which human beings attempt to describe the world.
Andrea Benetti, a visual artist and author of the Manifesto of Neo-Rock Art—presented in 2009 as part of the 53rd Venice Biennale at Ca’ Foscari University—brings to Pietrasanta a selection of works belonging primarily to the “Astrattismo delle Origini” cycle.
At the heart of his research lies the idea that, even before the invention of writing, humans turned to images to fulfill the need to leave a trace of their existence. A principle that Benetti expresses in clear terms:
“At the dawn of humanity, even before inventing writing, humans felt the need to communicate, to leave a trace of themselves in the world; he did all this through painting.”
From this origin emerges a reflection that concerns not only art history but the very relationship between human beings and the world. For Benetti, early humans lived immersed in nature, aware of their own limits and the power of the elements, while contemporary society has progressively lost that sense of proportion.
The return to origins evoked by the artist does not, however, imply a nostalgic regression. Rather, it is a call to rethink the present through what seems to have been lost—respect for nature, human dignity, time, and life.
“Let’s wipe the slate clean and start over,” writes Benetti, symbolically inviting art to rediscover its most ancient roots: “We must start anew from the dawn of humanity and from primal art, to rebuild a new world”.
It is precisely this idea that makes the body of work presented in Pietrasanta particularly significant.
Alongside the extraordinary naturalistic depictions found in cave paintings, geometric signs, stylized figures, and essential symbols have appeared since antiquity—elements that seem to foreshadow artistic languages that developed many millennia later. From Symbolism to Abstract Art, all the way to certain experiments in conceptual art, these ancient testimonies continue to appear surprisingly contemporary.
In the works of Benetti, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures—bulls, horses, hearts, geometric shapes, and archetypal symbols—coexist. These elements gradually move away from simple representation to become an autonomous vocabulary, capable of connecting humanity’s most ancient memory with the sensibility of the present.
The artist finds in the very simplicity of the mark an opportunity to reclaim a more authentic relationship with our surroundings. He writes in his Manifesto: “Symbols, lines, and colors must once again become the protagonists of painting, heralds of the simplicity and beauty of the life they represent.”
A simplicity that does not imply impoverishment, but rather an openness to mystery.
The symbols painted on cave walls, in fact, continue even today to elude definitive interpretations. And it is precisely this dimension of the unknown—which has fascinated Benetti since childhood—that constitutes one of the deepest cores of his artistic exploration.
For the artist, doubt retains a fundamental creative value: “In art, the sense of mystery, of the unknown, must reign unspoiled”, because a society dominated solely by certainties risks robbing imagination, intuition, and that immaterial component—which is deeply rooted in the human experience—of their space.
The dialogue proposed by the exhibition, however, does not concern only the past.
Contemporary communication, too, increasingly relies on icons, symbols, and images capable of condensing emotions, actions, and concepts into a few essential strokes. This surprising continuity seems to confirm how symbolic thought has accompanied humanity through the millennia, changing tools and contexts without losing its power.
Benetti thus builds an ideal bridge between humanity’s earliest artistic expressions and our own time. Not an archaeological reinterpretation of cave art, but a reflection on the enduring nature of visual communication and the symbol’s ability to transcend eras and cultures.
And it is perhaps precisely here that the exhibition’s most interesting insight lies: returning to the origin not to take refuge in the past, but to question the present.
As the artist himself states, “art must symbolically start anew from its origins.” A return that does not erase progress or reject the contemporary, but seeks to reclaim a more conscious sense of existence, in which nature, human dignity, imagination, and freedom of thought can once again occupy a central position.
The title “Órigo” thus refers to the origin, to the beginning, while the Latin subtitle Materia tempore subsidit introduces the relationship between matter and time, between what endures and what inevitably transforms.
The exhibition, curated by Laura Luciano, is organized by Art Gallery Il Cesello and Italian Art Promotion, under the patronage of the City of Pietrasanta, Atelier Quindici, and the Ugo Guidi Museum in Forte dei Marmi, and with the support of Theoria.
PY43 · Órigo – Materia tempore subsidit
Andrea Benetti, a cura di Laura Luciano
Art Gallery Il Cesello
Via Stagio Stagi 64, Pietrasanta (LU)
Fino al 20 settembre 2026
Orari
Domenica, lunedì, mercoledì, giovedì e venerdì: 10.30–13.00 / 15.00–19.00
Martedì: chiuso
Sabato: 10.30–13.00 / 15.00–20.00
