OPUS collection consists of a
series of seven pieces resulting from reflection around three topics: geometry,
understood as an abstract constructive and aesthetic code that daily pervades
and punctuates the work of the authors. The observation and interpretation of
social and environmental reality, with the evidence, limits and contradictions
that define our era. Finally, natural stone, the material of choice, perfect
for a work obtained through subtraction, where form is freed from matter,
revealing itself little by little.
In Lucio Fontana work’s
footsteps - a fundamental focus for European spatialism, according to
whom the canvas was the known dimension beyond which one should venture to find
unexplored spaces - in OPUS series too the painting skin represents a spatial limit.
However, the surface here is ductile, flexible, it bends to inexorably push
back any attempt of laceration, as if it were a soft, deformable yet
impenetrable prison.
Or as with Zilia Sànchez - who
exploits the surface of her paintings like the mirror of a lived space - here
too the matter symbolizes an introspective dimension, the turmoil of hidden
emotions incessantly throbbing toward the outside, toward the tangible surface,
emerging slightly without completely revealing themselves.
In OPUS collection, geometric
shapes take centre stage. Symbols of perfection, harmony and balance, almost
creating a complete geometric code, these figures emerge from a distant
horizon, to impress themselves on the surface of the painting, which becomes
deformed like a canvas, and crystallizes their memory forever. Not just
physical tension, but also symbolic, intimate, profound, a repressed impulse
rising to the surface. The stillness of sensible reality, upheaved by an
evanescent idea of perfection and control.
The deeper interpretation,
however, is social. Now more than ever, our society needs to deal with the
past. The quality and weight of the choices we've made are coming back to haunt
us. Abuse and [social, environmental] interventions have increasingly tangible
consequences on our present. Role models falter, and an inner restlessness
plagues our souls from within, and resurfaces in our lives. These geometric shapes thus become the symbols of a
perfection, a beauty and a social homologation that is as longed for as it is
unattainable, as strong as it is superfluous. The mirage of our age, which has
distracted us from our most authentic purposes.
Drawing:
Enhancing that idea of balance
and perfection, each composition follows a golden ratio of proportions, where
every geometric element exists in relation to the others. Dot, line, circle,
square and rectangle are the essential ingredients of the drawing.
Decontextualized and placed one next to the other, they make up a sort of
primitive geometric code. However, they are not fully legible flat shapes, but
rather outlines, to emphasize their evanescence and abstraction.
Technique:
Although expressing tension, a
movement pushing from within, toward the observer, the figures are obtained by
subtraction, by freeing the shapes from the matter, and thus strengthening the
idea of a discovery, of revealing what was already there, a little at a time.
Just like an archaeologist meticulously frees a relic imprisoned for centuries
from the earth, here too the production process is not a single energetic
gesture, imprinting or crafting the shape, but rather a process that reveals
it, that slowly brings it back to light, as if it had always been there.
Stone - natural, stable yet
fragile, durable yet mutable - is the best material to convey the idea of
solidity and eternity. Not a creation. A revelation. A fossil fused by stone
into stone, of which we suddenly recognize the presence and acquire awareness.
