The images in this book, collected under the title Works for a Cosmic Feeling, create a map, and an ode at the same time. They map out the universe of the author, the constellations that guide him and inspire his wonderings, the pathways and crossroads where he gets lost and finds himself back again. Just like god and the devil being hidden in details, Barile’s images oscillate in a constant flux of conscience, a rigorous yet abstract system of reference that includes and connects, builds and constantly destroys. There are no certainties nor statements, rather associations, at times vertigo. Just like in a quantum system, the narratives included are drenched in probability and chance. Nature is what encompasses all things, whether dissected in its traces and remains or triumphant in its decadence and complexity. Every now and then micro sequences fool us into linear timelines, but that is just an illusion as linearity here dissolves through the cracks. Temporal planes coexist through space and time, in Barile’s visual investigation of his own whole. The past and the future overlap in the present, yet these three dimensions seem to constantly move — only not in synchronicity. There is the feeling of an overarching timeline, yet it is too fable — as this is only one version of whole.
Barile’s cosmic feeling is complex, yet often unassuming. Its power is not diluted by the multiplication of possible directions, for it is fuelled by purpose — his participation. This book is a map into his soul, his eyes and his dimension — a suspended state in which reason and spirit collide and coexist in vulnerability, without exploding nor imploding.
By Elisa Medde
