Alfredo BARSUGLIA, 2022 Jänner Jänner

Alfredo Barsuglia created “January” as part of a more comprehensive work, “Das letzte Haus”/“The Last House”. In this piece Barsuglia constructed a house from found materials recovered from former demolition sites. This house had only one inhabitant: a plant. The art installation depicted a scenario in which humanity had become extinct. The house attempted to protect the plant (an agave), but in vain, for ultimately it died. The painting is a ‘portrait’ of this deceased plant, which takes the lead role in the art installation. Alfredo Barsuglia’s paintings are often portraits, irrespective of whether they depict a plant, animal, human or object. In adopting this strategy, the artist considers the question of who is shown in portraits nowadays. Such works primarily depict public figures; unlike a portrait photograph, however, a painted portrait is something special, something ‘solemn’, ‘sublime’. Portraying this plant in a painting served to imbue it with celebrity status: it is the plant from “The Last House”. The photo wallpaper, on the other hand, is simply documentary evidence that the plant really existed, as part of “The Last House” installation, in which it played the lead. The plant died in January 2022, hence the title of the work. It did not survive the cold winter, despite daylight lamps and all the care lavished on it.