Paper and can be ethereal. The pilgrim robe, suspended inside the collapsible temple is will be printed on the thinnest Japanese paper possible. Both the feather weight collapsible temple, and the pilgrim robe can be folded away in a suitcase.

This suitcase of images and searching that I carry with me from continent to continent.

Cezanne, the painter said, that art should be like one’s favourite armchair. A place to rest and sink in to a welcoming softness after a long, hard day. I don’t quite agree, as I believe that art is also a method to wake up an audience to be enagaged in a thought, or a provocation which shakes away the notion of passively consuming culture. Yet, in parts, I like Cezanne’s idea, that at times- art can also provide respite, a moment to let a thoughful gaze simply rest in colour, and form.

The show ” Magical Usefulness” aims to present both notions- from rest to provocation, and so there is an armchair featured on the poster.

What really happens in that armchair? Forgetting or remembering? Deciding to stay in love- or to leave, taking the armchair upon departure.

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Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director said of his fellow creative Tarkovksy, that Tarkovsky opened up other rooms. While most artists bang on their own doors of angst and limitations, Tarkovsky had the ability to transcend the introverted pounding of the self and recreate stories that opened not only doors of experiences for the audience, but also invited the viewer to enter other rooms that offered a space for the visitor to feel , and to experience life through his vision. These spaces then became shared, for both the director and the viewer.

On reading Bergman’s comment, I decided to build, in prints, such a room. It will be a collapsible temple made form 2.4 meters woodcuts printed on Korean paper. Inside this fragile and wafer thin space, I will hang a three-dimensional pilgrim robe, stamped with 33 woodcuts that represent key moments in my life.

My way to the print- to my art- has at times felt like a pilgrimage, that I had to test my commitment, focus and the strength of my vision moving through life, moving from country to country to keep on making images and refine my techniques under the tutelage of other printmakers in collective print studios. My collapsible temple, like the rooms of Tarkovsky, is built from the made and awaiting prints. I invite the viewer to enter to a meditation on a puzzling journey across continents and inwards to a raw heart.

Stefano Beccari is coming closer to assembling his ‘Black River’. The work is edgy, equally playful as threatening. These are embryonic figures that appear to the lost children of inner city, or figures from a wild ride down a mythical river.