The Perimeter as a Conceptual Tool for “Discorso Arte”

Artistic experience unfolds within a relational space where works, ideas, and interpretations converge and occasionally diverge, generating new possibilities of meaning. How can we understand this plurality without reducing it to rigid criteria or to definitions of art that claim to operate as absolute principles, independent of historical and cultural shifts? This question serves as the starting point for Giovanni Ciucci’s reflection in Perimetri dell’arte, which proposes viewing art not merely as the production of works, but as discorso arte—an "art discourse" that fosters a process of exchange among artists, audiences, critics, and all those who contribute to the construction of its meanings.

At the core of the essay lies the concept of the perimetro [perimeter], understood not as a rigid boundary, but as a device for observation and analysis through which to interrogate the relationship between the schema [scheme]—the horizon of thought that accompanies artistic research—and the schermo [screen], the concrete manifestation of the artwork itself. It is within the encounter between these two dimensions that the work offers itself to perception, prompts interpretations, and opens up possibilities for dialogue. The perimetro thus allows for the consideration of the various phases of artistic experience: from conception to formation, from exhibition to reception, and ultimately to the persistence of the experience in memory, even after the work has exited the perceptual field.

Engagements with specific moments in art history—from the Russian Avant-garde to Neoplasticism—alongside an examination of the author's own experiences as both an artist and a theorist, provide opportunities to explore the analytical capacity of the perimetro across different historical and operational contexts. Theoretical reflection thus tests itself through artistic practice, demonstrating how this device can be interrogated both in the reading of artworks and within the processes of making. Contributing to this research are the mappe mobili [mobile maps], graphic tools conceived to navigate the multiple interpretations and evaluations of art, connecting historical memory with the urgencies of the present without reducing them to a definitive classification.

Ciucci develops a proposal aimed at cultivating tools to comprehend the complexity of art and trace its transformations, without reducing it to a univocal and definitive conception. The conceptual perimetro he outlines offers a perspective for observation and relational connection, without erasing differences. The discorso arte—as an "art discourse"—articulates itself as a shared space, open to new questions and capable of transforming through those who participate in it: a process in which artistic experience continuously generates dialogue and knowledge.