Sign and colour transform the intricate space of interior reality into a battleground for a never-ending conflict-scene of the only possible revolution, i.e. against oneself. The tension in Giovanni Muggiasca's paintings is always between two dialectically opposed fields of force, between self and self, interior and exterior, man and nature. The progression unfolds through an endless duel where the drama of sign is enacted on the surface of the painting, which is the theatre of the representation that always returns to the theme. A primary symbology emerges and asserts itself with ease and strength. “In art, the symbol is a condensation of time in the space of the image, and, inadvertently, the depiction of the artist's desire to last, to live on in history, to further the immortality of his mark, of his person... within the spatial condensation the symbol holds its own time, but it also envisages the future” (Achille Bonito Oliva). Then there is colour. This too is primary; yellow and more yellow, which could be orange, or pink and magenta red. Delacroix stated that is was known that yellow, orange and red inspire and represent a notion of joy, of wealth. These compositions gradate in a degree of imperceptibility that is limitless because of the knowledge that one can always advance a little more, that there is still another step to take before the abyss. Some have hovered about that abyss, feared it; it has been conquered many times by those who have experimented. They have often arrived at totally different conclusions: “I ran through the restrictive blue tone in the colour and I came to white: after me, fellow pilots are flying in the abyss” (Malevich).

(M. Cavallarin)