BRUNO CATALANO , EXILE AND EMPTINESS OF THE SOUL

                                   

             (Bruno Catalano Born 1960)

   

EXILE  AND  EMPTINESS  OF THE SOUL ....

   “Les Voyageurs  "  or 'The Voyagers '  by the French sculptor   Bruno Catalano...

My interpretation of this master piece goes like this...

" This sculpture is also the story of an exile. A briefcase with bare belongings . A sea of insecurity surrounds him. This vast sea is  clearly visible from missing vital parts of his body  . For  onlookers it looks as if , this man has no heart ,no soul. Isn't this  emptiness of the soul  felt by the  people who leave their homes and hearths under threats of physical elimination, religious intolerance , war , supression ,genocide or simply to escape starvation ?Such faces possess limbs  to stand erect or  to exist physically. Alas !   quite often, you experience  the soul engulfing  emptiness in alien lands." 

About his art, Giovanna G. Bonomo writes this :- 

"These sculptures offer a unique perspective on emigration, identity, and the universal human experience of transition, inviting viewers to complete the story with their own imagination.At first glance, Catalano's sculptures appear incom- plete, as if some cosmic force had erased vital parts of their being. But look closer, and you'll find that what's missing is as important as what's there.In a world increasingly defined by movement—of people, ideas, and cultures—Catalano's travellers embody the complex emotions of displacement and transition. "

The above sculpture is one among ten bronze statues put on display at waterfront  Marseille,  France.This one in particular is called  “Le Grand Van Gogh".

The sculptures of Bruno Catalano represent men, women and children who left their homeland and moved forward with baggage in their  hands .All these souls were  driven by   an intense determination . The  viewer is free to imagine the story of their  past, present and future.

Most of his sculptures show a suitcase held in one hand which certainly is a strong link between the walking feet and thinking mind . These sculptures cry loudly that human identity is also defined by absence, e xike, denial and separation. At first sight , one is amazed to grasp how these fractured sculptures stand erect under the precarious conditions. But then the resilience and the determination doesn't keep them  only erec, it makes them walk and carry the  essentials of existence in their hands .

Is this the  price  that an exile pays for becoming a  so called 'World Citizen ' ?And in an alien land, every exile finds himself misfit for joys and sorrows.

                                 

                       

I conclude with "clothes"  a mini poem written by the exiled  Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas:

(Clothes)

Bekas used to say,

“Each joy I wear
Its sleeves are either
Too short or too long,
Too loose or too tight
On me.
And each sorrow I wear
Fits as if it were made for me
Wherever I am.”"

(Avtar Mota)



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