THOMAS BERRA, MARCO PALEARI, ARONNE PLEUTERI, RICCARDO SALA, VALENTINO VAGO
Cosa fare in Brianza: 5 itinerari mai visti

Martina Corbetta_Via Milano, 98. Giussano (MB)
15.11.2024 – 24.01.2025

Cosa fare in Brianza: 5 itinerari mai visti is a group exhibition bringing together Thomas Berra, Marco Paleari, Aronne Pleuteri, Riccardo Sala, and Valentino Vago. The project was conceived by Martina Corbetta and Giacomo Morelli, a curator and an artist both originally from Brianza, with the aim of recognising and re-evaluating the territory through the work of five painters who live or have lived within its orbit. Brianza is presented here as a place of origin, an emotional centre and surrounding landscape, but also as a territory of migration and movement. Located north of Milan and south of Lake Como, it is an area characterised by a strong demographic, economic, social, and cultural identity, where mountains, plains, and lakes form a distinctive and evocative landscape. Painting has long been a way of portraying this territory. From Giovanni Segantini, who encountered the light of Lake Pusiano and moved towards Divisionist painting, creating Ave Maria a Trasbordo, to Ennio Morlotti, deeply connected to the Brianza landscape and his own origins, the region emerges as a privileged meeting point between people, nature, and painting.

From Morlotti to Valentino Vago, and from Vago to younger generations, the exhibition traces an ideal passing of the torch. Born in Barlassina in 1931, Vago was one of the most original artists of his generation. For decades, he sought to move beyond the visible world in pursuit of the invisible and pure light, passing through different chromatic phases, from the dark tones of the early 2000s to increasingly light and ethereal atmospheres. His research represents an important reference for the artists who follow. Thomas Berra draws on the vegetal and dreamlike world, creating imaginary herbaria populated above all by so-called “wandering weeds”: plants without a fixed place of belonging that make their way through urban spaces. For the artist, they become metaphors for resistance, resilience, and inclusion. The relationship between subject and environment lies at the heart of his practice, as does his understanding of painting as a political and revolutionary act. Marco Paleari, trained at the Pio XI Art School in Desio and the Brera Academy, creates timeless scenes through images drawn from art history and personal memory. His figures appear like actors on a stage: artificial, moving bodies that seem to confront the viewer’s gaze. His more recent works evoke a grotesque and tragicomic vision of war, a theatrical staging in which the characters seem constantly aware of being watched. Aronne Pleuteri develops a multidisciplinary practice spanning painting, performance, video, and sound art, using movement as a way of rejecting rigid forms of expression. Drawing on cartoons, comics, and internet culture, he approaches themes such as death, illness, violence, and pain through irony. Following his move to Milan, the lost landscape of Brianza gives way to urban settings, where grey paradoxically transforms into explosions of light on the canvas. Riccardo Sala, known as Rikyboy, develops a poetics rooted in memory and childhood nostalgia. His imagery alternates between circus scenes and rural landscapes: in the former, his approach is graphic, colourful, and connected to the visual language of posters; in the latter, it becomes gestural, fragmented, and frenetic. Rikyboy describes himself as a “voyeur of Brianza”, observing the territory from an intimate and respectful distance. In 2024, he also launched Circo Rurale, a travelling project dedicated to rediscovering Lombardy’s farmsteads and courtyards, transforming the decay of the rural landscape into an opportunity for wonder.

Cosa fare in Brianza: 5 itinerari mai visti plays with the logic of online searches: as in the age of Google, the question places the visitor within an apparently defined territory, while the answer opens up endless possibilities for movement and discovery. Although the five artists have profoundly different identities, they share a place of origin that becomes the exhibition’s connecting thread. What emerges is a vision of painting that remains rooted in a romantic and traditional sensibility, while being crossed by contemporary and experimental languages. The exhibition invites us to look at the relationship between artist and territory without preconceptions, recognising it as a space for dialogue, belonging, and growth. A new chapter, then, in the story of good painting in Brianza.