BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera
*Foto in evidenza: Giorgio Tentolini, dettaglio, Colossi Arte Contemporanea
We visited Bergamo Arte Fiera, which was held in Bergamo, Lombardy, on the last weekend of March after the postponement due to the pandemic. We went to discover those artists who in their practice also use the language of Fiber Art and the galleries that feature them.
In the Colossi Arte Contemporanea stand, Giorgio Tentolini‘s visages emerge from the overlayering of layer after layer of wire mesh or tulle, patiently cut and shaped to restore the chiaroscuro that delineates their forms. A meticulous work of addition and subtraction in support of a research that investigates the relationship between images and time and memory and that allows the observer to discover the ultimate truth of the work only through his desire and his ability to perceive it by gazing beyond the surface
For Giuseppe Inglese too, time and memory are the elements that define who we are through a continuous stratification of experiences, just as the artist redefines the form of the work by shaping the void. His luminescent sculpture Bacio di Luna (Moon Kiss) in hand-woven stainless steel inspired by a poem by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi is on show at Vecchiato Art Gallery. The gallery also features the wire mesh bodies of David Begbie, a Scottish artist who finds inspiration in the perfection of ancient sculpture for works that are as carnal as they are ethereal, leading to a consideration on the dichotomy between being and appearing
Lene Kilde (Raelingen, 1981), presented by Punto sull’Arte Gallery, also uses this material. The Norwegian artist uses cement and wire mesh to give form to the non-verbal language of childhood. Incomplete sculptures in which the detail of a foot or a hand alludes to character traits and emotions in which the observer recognises himself, drawing on memory and personal experience, two elements that integrate and complete the work itself.
The sculptures by Fabrizio Pozzoli (Milan, 1973) on show at the Galp Gallery are made of iron and copper wire. Works in which the figures in relation to different materials reflect the artist’s recent research into the individual and his interaction with the environment and the social context.
This is also a recurring theme in the work of Cristina Cosi (Cesena, 1980) and Renata Cosi (Cesena, 1983), whose artwork from the Society series is on show at Kromya Art Gallery. The artists reflect on man’s ability to create complex relationships with peers and on the individual’s contribution to the creation of the social fabric through his own personal experience. The work, made of white stoneware and cotton thread, conveys the continuous tensions and inevitable transformations of society in the drapery and movement of the ceramic fabric.
The works of Carlo Bernardini (Viterbo, 1966), also from Kromya Art Gallery, are instead in fibre optics. This artist has been experimenting with this expressive medium for some time, drawing in space and using the dark as a sheet in search of new relationships between light and space.
Galleria Ferrero presents the rigorous and minimalist works of Barbara Nejrotti. After years of experimentation, the Turin artist has found her own expressive style in the fusion of different languages, from woodworking to cutting and sewing. Her technique of thickness, of which she is the guardian, was born from the latter and with this technique she conceptually and physically sutures the elements maintaining their thickness in the weave of the works.
The Foyer hosts the installation by Clara Luiselli, one of the artists of the docufilm and the related exhibition “VOCI D’ARTISTA” (Artists’ Voices) by Alberto Nacci. Spazi per corpi in attesa della trasformazione (Spaces for bodies waiting for the transformation) depicts bodies traced by thin strokes on sheets of tracing paper. Sketched bodies, decontextualized, floating in an empty space that amplifies the dynamics of the encounter. They communicate through points joined by a red thread, a fluid and indefinite dialogue, subject to stretching or loosening according to the movement of the sheets.
Finally, a place of special importance is reserved to the works of Rino Carrara (Bergamo, 1921 – 2010) proposed by the Elleni Gallery. Protagonist of the Milanese artistic life between the ’50s and ’70s, friend of Manzoni, Fontana, Castellano, among others, in the ’60s, in search of a new language of expression, he identifies in the recovery of manual craftsmanship a possible alternative to the drift of reproducibility and mannerism of the art of those years. Therefore, he starts to work with woven and quilted threads on canvases with large monochrome backgrounds, contrasting the manual skill of fine workmanship with the widespread use of mechanical means – from photography to multi-media – in art.
