Mr Savethewall International Language - catalogue

Five hundred years ago Leonardo Da Vinci affirmed that painting should have been “pure mental thing”; a hundred years ago Duchamp, driven by a same kind of necessity, went from painting to ready-made, claiming that the object has to be a background and has to be barely touched with the glance, so to catch the truly interesting aspect: its “verbal” significance.

In the series International Language Mr. Savethewall starts from English words, showing them purely and matching them with their significant and signifier, representing the image of their meaning in black and white. As defined by linguist Ferdinand De Saussure1, language is the social outcome of speech and, at the same time, a set of necessary conventions adopted by the social community to allow individuals to speak. As a matter of fact, a language is a system made of different signs that correspond to different ideas, which develop from a set of “words” and include also phonetic. For this very reason, in these works Mr. Savethewall does not show just the concept (the meaning), but also the acoustic image (signifier) that make his “words” recognizable and intelligible for all the individuals of a specific community, despite the arbitrary visual sign.

With this project Mr. Savthewall acknowledges the importance of the contemporary use of English language and configures a true global artistic language, a “Lingo” , made of an alphabet of letters, numbers and words, and an abecedary with images that refers to the semantic areas of his poetic. (Chiara Canali)

Official catalogue of Mr Savethewall's exhibition curated by Chiara Canali.

From 10th October to 10th November, Street Nerino 2, Milan.

MR. SAVETHEWALL BIOGRAPHY

Pierpaolo Perretta, aka Mr. Savethewall, is an Italian artist from Como. Mr. Savethewall was not immediately born as an artist. In fact, he began his career in a very different world from the artistic one, where he also became an important manager. As time goes by, however, he begins to feel the need for a change, to finally put his great creativity and talent to good use.

Moved by his great passion for art and, in particular, for street art, he therefore decided to devote himself full-time to this new activity. In 2013, he gave up a secure and well-paid job to express his vision of the world and society through art.

Mr. Savethewall immediately proves to be a different kind of street artist. In fact, he declares himself against the defacement of walls and, for this reason, decides not to create his murals directly on the walls, but to use easily removable adhesive tape. He also uses recyclable and environmentally friendly materials, such as cardboard. This gave rise to his stage name, which literally means Mr. Save the Wall, fully declaring his desire to protect urban decorum.

MR. SAVETHEWALL ARTWORKS: AN IRONIC INTERPRETATION OF SOCIETY

In just a short time, Mr. Savethewall proves to be an artist of high calibre and, above all, multifaceted. It is no coincidence, in fact, that he is gaining an increasing foothold in the art scene. In his works, Mr. Savethewall makes use of languages from street art and communication, as well as from the latest trends in contemporary art, recalling in his works famous artists to whom he looks up to: first and foremost, Banksy and Damien Hirst.

In Mr. Savethewall's works, it is clear to perceive an interpretation of today's society in an ironic and critical key. His works indeed present strong, direct and targeted messages. Mr. Savethewall's aim is not only to communicate his personal vision of society to his audience, but also to convey messages that are as clear as they are provocative, prompting the viewer to reflect personally on the world around him and its contradictions. From this comes the use of famous and immediately recognisable images and subjects, to which he also adds texts. In doing so, he not only makes the message even easier to grasp, but also leaves no room for misinterpretation.

WORKS MR. SAVETHEWALL: THE CONCEPT OF DÉTOURNEMENT

The practice of so-called conceptual détournement has been known in the art world since the time of the Dadaists. This term refers to an artist's takeover of an existing image or work, of which he or she distorts the original meaning and gives it a new and often opposite meaning. This practice has been assimilated and internalised by Mr. Savethewall who uses it in his works.

In order to express his light but effective irony towards contemporary society, the artist draws inspiration from personalities from the world of culture, cinema and art history, which are re-proposed in a completely different light that moves away from the original purpose of these subjects and their meaning or function.

In addition, Mr. Savethewall's works do not fail to recall the religious and political spheres. Regardless of the chosen medium, therefore, his works all present strong, direct and targeted messages.

THE ICONIC SUBJECT: THE FROG BY MR. SAVETHEWALL

Famous all over the world is Mr. Savethewall's depiction of the well-dressed and elegant contemporary man who, however, has the appearance of a Frog. The artist's aim is to warn of the falsity of the famous fairy tale of the Princess and the Frog: the frog, even if he turns into a prince, is still a frog. The true moral of the tale is therefore that, as the artist himself states, 'a frog, even if well dressed, is and always remains a frog'.

But not only that: as anticipated, the artist does not remain superficial to his interpretations. The frog-man thus also becomes a representation of his acquaintances, real people, who pose by showing off their Rolexes and walking around well-dressed. In reality, beneath the appearance that often deceives, these people show themselves for what they really are: frogs.

This critical reflection gave rise to the famous work entitled Kiss Me, which has now become one of his best known and most iconographic works.

CUPID AND PSYCHE IN A CONTEMPORARY VERSION

Another of Mr. Savethewall's most recognisable works is his reinterpretation of the famous sculpture by master Canova, Cupid and Psyche.

In this case too, the artist Mr. Savethewall inserts a message into the work that is both ironic and critical. The work depicts, in fact, the two protagonists of Canova's Cupid and Psyche intent, however, on taking a selfie, an emblematic symbol of today's relationship with smartphones.

THE IPAD GOD: A CRITIQUE OF THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY

Mr. Savethewall has created artworks with a very strong and provocative message, at times almost dramatic in how well it reflects today's reality.

The subject of these works is a small girl with blond hair who, bent over an Ipad, prays to it as if it were a divinity. The dramatic part of this work is the purpose of the little girl's prayer: to ask the Ipad to give her back her father, who is too busy with work to dedicate any time to her. Mr. Savethewall wants to awaken the consciences of all those people who do not realise that time spent working leads them to neglect their affections.

THE BIRDS OF MR. SAVETHEWALL AND THE SOCIAL WORLD

Among the most popular subjects of Mr. Savethewall's works are definitely the little birds. These two subjects, one real and the other the symbol of Twitter, try to communicate with each other but without success.

The meaning of these works is the irresolvable incommunicability between the real and virtual worlds, unable to meet in a common point.

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