This project was born during the first lockdown imposed in Italy by the pandemic: it started on the 9th of march 2020 and ended on the 18th of may 2020.
70 days of complete closure and few strict rules to follow: don’t go out, keep a meter away, always wear your mask and wash your hands many times during the day.
Since then, the soap’s smell has always been present in our houses like a new skin.
So that soap, which is now more important than ever, becomes a sculptural and pictorial matter in this work.
The decontextualization of this object, linked to the rite of washing the hands for fear of contagion, helped me find again, through art, the beauty that seems now too distant.
A stick of Marseille soap a day that brings me back to the photos of my loved ones, to details of lived moments, to sensations, suggestions or wishful quotes.
70 soap cubes, one per day, which I dug, pianted, worked on and, at the end, resinated, fixed forever, as a rite to get closer to the elusive beauty of this period.
Tecnical notes:
Artistic project of Rossana Maggi
Title: IL RITO DI OGNI GIORNO (EVERYDAY RITE)
Year 2020
Dimensions: 99 x 68,5 cm
Tecnic: Marseille soap dug and painted with acrylics, bee's wax, collage, spills, resin.
Support: iron magnet and plexiglass
Weight: 35 kg
For the exposition they need 2 fishers which can hold a weight up to 40 kg
