Entra! Drawings by Enzo Cucchi

Entra! – Ludovico Pratesi, curator of the exhibition Entra! is an exhibition to be experienced as an initiation. Dozens of drawings by Enzo Cucchi allow us to delve into the heart of his creative process, where ideas, reflections, memories, and projects converge. These take shape within a realm haunted by the presence of hundreds of signs, suspended in the air like flocks of images set free, alighting on the Atelier du Bosco, following just as many mysterious trajectories. For the first public exhibition in Italy to date dedicated exclusively to Enzo Cucchi’s drawings, the artist has conceived a staging that redefines the exhibition space, transcending rules and conventions. Thus, visitors are greeted by a structure that occupies the studio’s entrance at an angle, from within which one can catch a glimpse of the exhibition’s first works: large drawings on paper, arranged diagonally, like absurd frescoes that defy the usual norms of perspective.

On the other hand, the rectangular room of the Atelier du Bosco takes on the character of a sort of “cathedral of drawing,” where sheets of paper float in space, laden with their own universe of figures—rebellious and untamed—ready to alight on the canvas to become a fresco or a painting. Cucchi has thus interpreted this imposing and memory-laden place—the French Academy in Rome—by flooding the mystical and silent atmosphere of Balthus’s former studio with a sea of paper, once an inaccessible ivory tower and now a space open to the diverse impulses and experiments emerging from the world of contemporary art. ” A catalog will be published to accompany the exhibition, featuring an interview between the artist and Ludovico Pratesi, a conversation between Enzo Cucchi, Giacinto di Pietrantonio, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and color reproductions of the exhibited works. The cultural activities of the French Academy in Rome are organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and with the support of Air France.