Back in Black

BACK IN BLACK
Andrea Morucchio Solo Show
>>> Ca' Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art, Venezia, September 2 - November 6, 2011
Curated by Silvio Fuso

>>> Catalog with texts by Stefania Portinari, Giovanni Bianchi, Chiara Casarin, Daniele Capra, Gaia Conti, Domitilla Musella, Andrea Pagnes, Silvio Saura, Alberto Zanchetta.

In September 2011, during the Venice Biennale, I realized what I still consider the most significant of my exhibition projects: Back in Black, presented at Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice. At the same time, the museum also hosted a major retrospective of Pier Paolo Calzolari, creating an extraordinary dialogue between contemporary voices.

Conceived as an anthological exhibition of the first decade of my artistic practice, Back in Black brought together sculptures, prints, and video works, all bound by a unifying element: the color black. More than a formal choice, black here functions as both a material and a metaphor, linking different media—sculpture, photography, video, installation, performance—through a continuous exploration of form, symbol, and meaning.

The works on display reflected a Zeitgeist already marked by shadows: the looming specter of war, the turbulence of economic crises, ecological catastrophes, the rise of populism, and the pervasive dominance of media-driven “videocracy.” In this sense, Back in Black anticipated, in metaphorical form, the darker times that were already beginning to take shape.

Today, in light of the dramatic geopolitical scenarios we are facing, the exhibition acquires a renewed urgency and resonance. The “return to black” appears not only as an aesthetic choice but also as a prescient metaphor for the collapse of certainties and the disquieting transformation of our world.

Back in Black, in its chromatic radicalism, invites us to confront the darkness of our contemporary age—both as a warning and as a stimulus to rethink the conditions of the present and the possibilities of the future.

“There always comes a moment when one has no option but to take a risk,” wrote José Saramago. In Back in Black, Andrea Morucchio takes that risk with a radical return to sculpture and installation.

As Stefania Portinari observes - >> “L’Oeuvre au Noir” -, his anthological solo at Ca’ Pesaro (2011) gathers a decade of research into sculptures, videos, and installations united by the absolute presence of black—ascetic, opaque, and seductive. These works, often fragile yet menacing, evoke a spiritual and combative energy, balancing between medieval austerity and contemporary urgency.

Glass, iron, light, and photography clash and converge in forms that suggest both violence and transcendence, memory and protest. Portinari describes this monochrome language as a dark monologue that destabilizes perception, exposes fragility, and reflects the human condition.

Ultimately, Back in Black becomes a prophetic metaphor: black as origin and abyss, mourning and creation, a space of resistance where art reclaims its power to confront the shadows of its own time.