In recent months, of fluctuating pandemic, from his office of the Maugeri Foundation in Pavia (he is employed in the Allergology clinic) he saw doctors, nurses, technicians pass and go by again from morning to evening with masks lowered on his face: disheveled, sweaty, often unmade. That idea turned into a painting. Those masks, recovered in the corridors and among the hospital waste, are now immortalized on canvas, between brushstrokes of color and bright flashes. He, the author who wanted to represent Covid on the faces of the Pavia health workers – who are those of doctors and nurses from all over Italy – is Stefano Brocca, 49, from Pavia, the only Italian artist to transform an X-ray plate, or a surgical mask, into a work of art.
Author recycling
The personal “Recycling in art”, held at Maugeri, had hit the mark. It was the demonstration of Brocca’s ability: to transform waste, often coming from the landfill, into paintings. Because he paints on plastic, polystyrene, cardboard, ceramic scraps, even on aluminum sheets to preserve food and on x-rays, thus making sure that the image of a hospital plate, the X-ray image of a knee broken or a dental arch, it becomes a work of art preserved in everlasting memory.
“And they will also be historical relics – he says – since now the reports travel exclusively on DVD. I always ask relatives and friends to give me their old plates, also because the artistic discourse fits perfectly into the perspective of recycling that I carry on with my art. In fact, the plates are not disposed of easily, because they are special waste. I also like to paint on the x-rays, it is a material that fits my style perfectly: it is in fact very smooth and that clear that you see against the light lends itself very well to my work “.
Covid inspiration
An interpretation that is placed between Jackson Pollock’s action painting and Cromocoat art, centered on dripping, that is, on the intervention of color that is poured directly onto the space of the canvas, with particular dynamic effects. Effects that multiply in Brocca’s latest works, those in which he fished with both hands from the aftermath of Covid. For at least a year he has been proposing paintings depicting surgical masks, but also newspaper clippings that “scream” news about the infection (the work is called “Totem”); paintings on which the canvas is sprinkled with fire red, with a fire extinguisher standing out («I titled it“ Let’s put out the fires ”. I painted it last October, when the infections of the second wave were rising); with broken traffic lights dripping blood red (“I created“ The Fallen ”after the famous video of the coffins being carried away on army trucks in Bergamo”).
Related to volunteering
The solidarity aspect, always a priority, is the factor that further embellishes the art of Brocca, a pupil who grew up with the master Rosario Ticli, (today he is part, together with him, of the “Movement of current” founded in 2004 in Pavia, project which directs his interventions to social purposes), who then specialized also thanks to the two years of portrait and nude at the Academica Carrara in Bergamo. Thus Brocca’s works are frequently found at exhibitions in favor of associations such as Aisla, to raise funds for research on ALS. They aim to raise awareness of the problems faced by patients and their families.
“What do I have planned? For the third Covid wave, something will surely come out – he concludes -. But now I want to give hope. The picture I am about to start covers this theme: I want to paint on vaccines, which are the only idea of the future we have”.
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