ART CITIES: Rome-Making

The exhibition “Making” intends to develop the concept of materiality by reflecting on the properties of materials and rethinking the artistic production as a process of growth. In light of this, the artist is conceived as a participant in a world made of active materials, and in potential continuous transformation; these materials are what the artist finds themself working with. In the course of the production process, the artist joins forces with the materials, gathering them together or separating them, synthesising and distilling anticipations of what might emerge from them.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galleria Continua Archive

Starting from the assumption of anthropologist Tim Ingold – “In the art of investigating, an ongoing thought proceeds side by side and responds continuously to the change and flow of the materials with which we work. These materials think in us, and we think through them” – the concept of morphogenesis is analysed. The work that welcomes us at the entrance to the gallery is “I manu” by Sislej Xhafa. The Kosovan artist works in different mediums and dimensions to explore the social, political, economic and everyday complexities of modern life. The work “I manu” (the hands), whose title in Sicilian dialect is a tribute paid by the artist to the place, looks like a tower of about two metres high, created by the overlapping of terracotta hands. They are hands in which an entire existence can be read, communicating more than words could and they possess the strength of a double sign, to be read with an open mind. They are helping hands with the potential to turn into a gesture of oppression; they represent a moment for play that can degenerate dangerously. Entering the first room, Jannis Kounellis’ work, made up of iron, hair and copper and through the recovery and reuse of waste materials expands beyond the physical limits of the painting, forging a link between the work and its surrounding environment. The theme of ‘recovered materials’ is also central in the work of Pascale Marthine Tayou. The Cameroonian artist has always been interested in the effects of the circulation of objects, ideas and people in the world, mixing geographies, symbols, techniques and materials from different cultural traditions in his work. In “Plastic Bags”, he brings together hundreds of plastic bags, a symbol of growing globalisation, of the prevailing consumerism but also of the nomadism that increasingly characterises today’s society. The concept of “making” as a communication process is particularly evoked in the work of Zhanna Kadyrova. Using a repertoire of humble materials, the Ukrainian artist creates the “Shots” series in which ceramic squares and circles shattered by shots of fire plastically translate a fragile balance, expressed in the violent destruction of forms. In Kadyrova’s work, the use of ceramics is a direct reference to the tiles used to cover the facades of Ukrainian buildings, a legacy from the Soviet era. The first room ends with Anish Kapoor and with a work that incites alchemical questions, pushing us beyond appearance in search of being and making us reflect on the latent state of the power of matter itself, of the energy contained in it, and therefore standing as a metaphor for the entire universe. In line with the thesis expressed by the philosopher Gilbert Simondon in the book “Making” by Tim Ingold, according to which the essence of matter, or material, resides in the activity of taking shape, the Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruckyere explores this concept in her work “Met tere huid”. De Bruyckere combines brittle layers of flesh-like wax with hard or abrasive surfaces. She uses the incompatibility of these materials to evoke the complex dualities of masculine and feminine, hard and soft, rough and smooth, violence and peace, vulnerability and resilience. Her poignant and sensual sculptures contain a coldness that at the same time repels and attracts. Located on the opposite wall, the work “Arborexence” by the artist Loris Cecchini examines the shape of the material, here composed of steel modules. A basic and repeatable element, the module is the original nucleus from which potentially unlimited “paranatural” organisms can proliferate. The structure interacts with the architectural volume of the wall on which it rests and, somewhat like a root cutting, it is a fragment which when purposely repositioned can potentially regenerate itself, generating a new work in close relationship with the surrounding space. The exhibition ends with an emblematic work in concrete by Arcangelo Sassolino. In a constant search for the limits of matter, the artist subjects it to external pressures that lead – sooner or later – to a breaking point. In his works the opposites are not reconciled in a pacifying synthesis but maintain a strongly differential tension; this is one of the main keys to understanding the work of the artist from Vicenza who continually renews his creative tension by moving between opposite poles: liquid and solid, heavy and light, smooth and rough, full and empty. In this instance his material of choice is concrete, which in this exhibition he presents as a glossy and evanescent pictorial fragment.

Works by: Loris Cecchini, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Zhanna Kadyrova, Anish Kapoor, Jannis Kounellis, Arcangelo Sassolino, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Sislej Xhafa.

Photo: Pascale Marthine Tayou,Plastic bags, 2022, plastic bags, 230 x 320 cm. 90.55 x 125.98 in, Courtesy: the artist and GALLERIA CONTINUA, Photo by: Giorgio Benni

Info: Galleria Continua, Via Vittorio Emanuele Orlando 3, Rome, Italy, Duration: 16/12/2022-11/2/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.galleriacontinua.com/