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

Luca Rento, Nuvole, 24 agosto 2005 06.26.16 (detail)

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.

Luca Rento (Feltre, 1965) began his career in the mid-1980s with painting and sculpture. From the mid-1990s he developed his research into video installation, exhibiting in spaces including the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, Palazzo Te in Mantova, the Mart in Rovereto, the Kunstraum in Innsbruck, the Prague Biennale and the CeSAC in Caraglio, Cuneo.
His works feature in the collections of major institutions, including the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Turin and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome. His work has been written about by, among others, Jean-Luc Nancy, Veit Loers, Elena Volpato, Andrea Busto and Saretto Cincinelli.

Alfredo Cramerotti is Director of mm:museum [media majlis museum] at Northwestern University Qatar and President of IKT – International Association Curators of Contemporary Art (600+ members worldwide). Beyond his institutional role, he has directed over 150 international exhibitions and curated projects for major biennials (Venice Art Biennale 2013-2022, Manifesta 8 2010, Sequences VII Reykjavik 2015). His recent projects include Noor Riyadh (International Lead Curator), Art Dubai Digital, and Leviathan (57th Venice Biennale, worldwide tour). He is the author of five books, among which Aesthetic Journalism (2009) and the forthcoming Hyper-imaging in Art, Media and Visual Communication (2026). He is Chair of Digital Strategies Committee at AICA – International Association Art Critics and Advisor for the British Council, the UK Government Art Collection, Italian Ministry of Culture, and the KSA Visual Art Commission.