As turbulence of every kind increasingly defines our contemporary climate, there is a growing focus on a handful of attitudes and works that, throughout the 20th century, cultivated the poetics of silence and were able to interpret the chaotic and elusive reality of our era through it. These pages are dedicated to unraveling some of the keys to this alternative sensibility.
The text is structured around ten brief studies on central themes in contemporary art and architecture, and on prominent figures who have made restraint a substantial ingredient of their work: Jorge Luis Borges, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Yasuhiro Ozu, Mark Rothko, and Jorge Oteiza.
Beyond the significant geographic and cultural differences separating the themes addressed, they share a common trait: the rejection of art understood as a hysterical assault on the senses—as promoted by media-driven pseudoculture—and, in contrast, the affirmation of an artistic interpretation of reality as a profound and eloquent reflection, aimed at unveiling the mysteries of the world.
