PREFACE by Giuseppe Martucciello

A Mediterranean island declared a “biosphere reserve” by UNESCO, no larger than 680 sq. km, with the Spanish and Catalan name of Menorca, is the “intermittent refuge” of my dear friend Guido – or as he jokingly describes himself, “Mastro GiPi”. I’ve known him for more than twenty years, and appreciate all of his great skills in knowing how to administrate, organize, take action, take the initiative, or rather to put it succinctly, do business…
Upon visiting him there, I found it very strange that he had chosen “repose”, in other words opting to intermittently shut off his innate “intensity” of living. Clearly, then, I hadn’t really understood that choice.
Quite simply, in Menorca Guido had peeled off another layer of skin, an “exfoliation” process that determined youthfulness and life; he had begun to channel, in an extreme way, his famed vital energy, which had allowed him to live and make his own choices up until them with such steady intensity. Simply put, in that “buen retiro” Guido was seeking art. The noblest expression of the human being, especially when it is anti-commercial.
I believe that for Guido, the process is definitely more important than the final product, as George Maciunas or John Cage liked to think. Experimentation coincides with making art, without worrying about fully planning the result at the end of that creative process. However, I soon noticed that every phase of his work was later followed by a careful reflection, without comparing it to “previous products”, but simply an analysis of the final product. This truly interested Guido, he wondered if that work or that series could really be defined as “his”.
This passion, which is not conditioned by the creative process nor by a serious analysis of the product, make Guido an original, consistent artist. He cannot fail to draw out his mood and profound subconscious from his informal expressionistic attitude; as Luciano Caprile writes, “Profumo throws pebbles of worry into the large, still pond of the illusory standardization of life. His periodical analyses of his creative process led him to a turning point in 2016. It happened after his canvas title “All you need is fantasy”, a canvas which he himself judged as being “painted for fun”. He therefore decided to channel his energy by returning to his childhood fantasies, even in a simple, apparently disordered way, without polluting himself with the search for order. He combined with this simplicity a bold process of deprivation of his artistic output. “Deprivation”, as he himself says, “can be a requirement and a possible solution in our compromised times, in a world that’s spinning on itself without knowing how to find linear, simple solutions”. He also changed materials, overturned the surfaces, rejected canvas, choosing unusual unbendable panels in wood fibre; on them, the process of introducing and then removing materials and colours takes pace with confident gestures, as he unhesitatingly dares to execute an endless creative “game”. In his critical introduction to this volume, Luciano Caprile will certainly interpret the artist better than I can, with the experience and knowledge he deserves. I have written just a few lines as I know this man who possesses an uncommon generosity and vital energy, both of which he puts into his works. In Menorca, I “glimpsed” his artistic process, which is performed in such a tireless, almost unstoppable way.