Colored earths, rusts, and engravings give life to contemporary petroglyphs, whose subjects are no longer hunting trophies or battles between early humans and animals, but rather the most celebrated symbols of our era: cars, airplanes, trains, the legendary Vespa 50 Special—means of transport that enable the 3.0 human to be constantly in motion. Yet, Andrea Benetti uses them to take us back in time, as he so often does through his Neo-Cave Art.
Based on the revival of primitive techniques, Benetti’s art echoes the style of ancient cave engravings, paying homage to the discovery of art itself and the birth of abstraction. His reference to prehistoric art serves as both an attempt and an invitation to reflect on the present through a dialogue with the past.
Like a modern primitive, unwilling to surrender to the frantic advance of progress, Benetti “suspends” and engraves—just as his ancestors did—the symbols and imagery of contemporary lifestyle: golf courses, yachts, motorboats parading across the sea like in the most common vacation advertisements. Here emerges an original temporal leap, blending past and present, prehistory and pop culture—a Pop(historic) iconography, where geometric and elemental shapes, reminiscent of primitive drawings, now serve as backgrounds and decorations for an array of two- and four-wheeled vehicles. Multiples of figures fill the plaster planes of the bas-reliefs, sometimes suspended on monochrome backgrounds, sometimes aligned like the lucky spins of a slot machine.
Progress is undeniable. Compared to the desires and needs of our ancestors, there has been a shift in perspective, in interests, and in the references of modern man. Benetti stages this transformation—an obvious change when viewed through the lens of time, yet not so predictable when reflecting on the present and, even more so, on the future ahead.
The Vespas, like centaurs, take on an animalistic form, once again proving that our origins inevitably return and impose themselves—we cannot separate ourselves from our nature and our roots. The constant presence of flora and fauna serves as a reminder of our role as guests on Earth, even if, in Benetti’s works, the coexistence between nature and the overwhelming presence of humans and their creations appears more idyllic than it truly is.
Yet, this is part of the artist’s message: an invitation to reflection and discussion.
Earth, humans, and machines—all in motion, in constant advancement… but in this “great acceleration,” where is the finish line?