Metaphors of reality

The road is not straight, but nothing is repeated. The trajectory is directed upwards. To indicate what lies ahead Francesco Binfaré looks the other way. Following his gaze is like entering a maze. But the adventure brings oxygen to spaces. And to minds. Because Binfaré knows this maze. And he knows how to find his way out of it. Some time ago we were reasoning about the word "nature." Binfaré could have cited his sofas, the ones inspired by rocks and bears. Or perhaps the erotic component that is always present in his works, not exhibited, but there. Instead, he talked of anthropology and irony. Without wandering off the subject. This time, when the theme is light, to expect a discussion of lamps or perhaps the sun would be pointless. But not in vain, because we always reap a rich harvest from answers given by Binfaré, whatever is sown with the questions.

We were saying…  light.

When the Spanish arrived in America they engaged in bartering with the indigenous peoples: glass beads in exchange for gold.

Ultimately, we are all like those peoples: we give value to glitter, let ourselves be taken in by worthless things, as long as they dazzle us.
Light does not illuminate. There is our perception, because we have eyes. But what we see, what reality is for us, is a metaphor of reality. It is the translation our senses make of it. The wonderful thing is that the universe sees itself through our eyes. I saw the eyes of my newborn nephew: they were looking, probably without seeing. They were searching. With his senses, he will live experiences, and develop knowledge, which is a constant codifying, a stratifying.

“Light does not illuminate”: this is a provocation.

It happens as with materials. What we touch is also a metaphor for reality. Material is a code for the metamorphosis of energy, a way of organizing electromagnetic fields. Integrated with our minds, our senses generate a reality that is a metaphor for reality.

However, we have had Caravaggio, Monet, Fontana and others. They were able to capture light.
Light is art. Art has always searched around light. In Medieval and early Renaissance times backgrounds were made with gold leaf which signified light, the heavens, divinity. Sculptors look for light too, depending on how the light explores a form different effects are generated. The excellence of an artist resides in being an able light director.

Are you saying light only exists in art?

Art exists, and it is associated with divine expression, like light. In the Old Testament, the third verse of Genesis tells us "And God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light." What more can we say?

If you put it like that, very little. But I wanted to start with light to come to sofas...

We always start with light to come to sofas. An idea is light. In cartoons they have a person sitting on a toilet and suddenly a light bulb comes on above their head. It is a representation of what truly matters: the energy, the moment, the lightning flash. What you do next perhaps comes on its own.
 
We have gone from Old Testament to a person sitting on the toilet…

In truth, we have come to the light bulb, and therefore to the light of science and the world of ideas that, from the Olympus of the gods, over millennia, came down into our daily existence. And—why not— into my Edra sofas too.

Does all this come about through art?

I started truly studying when I stopped going to school. I started reading the books I wanted to, above all books on art. In primary and middle school, I felt I was learning nothing. What was proposed to me did not seem authentic, the only thing I understood were the stories recounted in ancient myths.

The Bible and ancient myths, I am sensing a common thread…

I am talking about searching for the truth. And that always has to do with searching for God.

Not everyone thinks so.

Searching for the truth of the meaning of our existence runs through everyone. Like the search for God. Every path leads towards this.

You are overestimating the human race.

I don’t believe so.

Why do you think everyone is looking for the truth? Perhaps they are happy with a little bit of wellbeing or simply a quiet life.

Because we die. Everything we do and think has to confront this unsolvable mystery. There is a fear of disappearing, we may believe in the afterlife, or in reincarnation, but the fear remains. We will never know if we continue to be. What eyes will I have? And without eyes, what light will I see?

I hope you are not asking me.

The other morning, I woke up with the image of Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Then, while drinking my tea, like in a comic, I mentally introduced light between the index fingers of God and of man. Michelangelo’s mystery is here. Or at least, that is where we can situate the enigma.

Between two index fingers?

The light is certainly there. The images of man and of God are metaphors for creating entities of equal necessity and equal enigmatic value. One descends from the other and vice-versa.

God creates man and man creates God, when he believes.

Both are enigmatic. However: since the metaphor is real, the whole is real. It does not mean reality is explainable. But the vision of reality is an important step for comprehending many things.

It gives the idea of being a complicated affair.

Everything depends on seeing. Therefore, everything depends on light. We need it to comprehend, which doesn't mean understanding, or knowing, but taking in, to have much. All this we do through the idea of light and of vision. Even though we will never solve the enigma.