Gerardo D. Cristiante: the rebellious streak

From February 3rd you can visit the new temporary exhibition presented by the exhibition hall of the Girona Urban Property Chamber, entitled The Rebel Stroke, by Gerardo D. Cristante (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1979).

Japanese calligraphy, as a modern art, is the contemporary impetus of the Art Shodō movement in Japan after the revolution of calligraphic abstraction led by the avant-garde calligrapher group called Bokujinkai in the mid-20th century. A ten-year dialogue with European informalism and American abstraction was enough to transform the history of art. Yuichi Inoue, with his single-kanji works, fully entered the world art scene.

The works presented in this exhibition, which can be visited until February 28, are inspired by this movement and the universe of kanji, although they do not aim to achieve its legibility, but rather to highlight the raw presence of the stroke. All of the author's work can be read as a loving praise for the little stroke, a clumsy stroke that he cultivates as a gesture of authentic rebellion against the finished, the perfect, the clean, the sublime, the controllable, the premeditated. Using everyday elements, such as steel scourers or natural scourers such as the foxtail bush, among others, found on his walks through the Llémena Valley to make his own brushes, the artist moves away from the expertise and comfort zone that familiarity with traditional materials can generate to launch himself into the uncontrolled and instinctive void of the art of the stroke.

Taking on the philosophical premise of Morita Shiryuu, who states that calligraphy captures the dynamic movement of existence, the author explores the interiority of what he calls the “rebellious stroke”. Through a swift, thoughtless stroke, fleeing from artifice and accepting the liquid nature of ink as a reflection of life, he connects with the humble beginner's mind of the Zen tradition and with the concrete interiority of the stroke, which does not accept corrections, which loves “error”, imperfection, mystery and chance. Each kanji is a universe in itself, a knot of meanings that opens to the gesture that penetrates it and resignifies it to return it to the world in an always contemporary story.

Gerardo D. Cristante currently lives in retirement in the Vall de Llémena (Girona). During his professional career he has worked in the world of entertainment, drama, poetry, photography, dance, theatre, among other disciplines. His meeting with the artist Mihoko Ono at Casa Asia in Barcelona left a deep impression on him, especially when she performed a calligraphy performance. At that time, Cristante decided to leave the performing arts sector to dedicate himself to the study of Shodō Art for five years with Mihoko Ono. Later, he founded Acashodo, the Catalan Association of Japanese Calligraphy, together with other artists.