LA FIBER ART AT PARATISSIMA START
Paratissima for Start/Saluzzo Arte 2023
27 May – 18 June 2023
ESSENZIALE
Il Quartiere, Piazza Montebello 1, Saluzzo
Curated by Francesca Canfora
For the second consecutive year, Paratissima is alongside the START/ SALUZZO ART section event.
Starting on Saturday, May 27, 2023 at 5:30 p.m., START ARTE kicks off with EFFECT START – the White Night of Contemporary Art. Scheduled is an inaugural route in steps that chronicles an event scattered throughout Saluzzo’s spaces and buildings. The route will start at 5:30 p.m. in Castiglia and end at 7:30 p.m. at the spaces of Il Quartiere at the Fondazione Amleto Bertoni with the group exhibition Essenziale curated by Francesca Canfora.
From Sunday, May 28 to Sunday, June 18 at the headquarters of Il Quartiere, in Piazza Montebello 1, it will be possible to visit the 28th Saluzzo Contemporary Art Exhibition for the second time Powered by PARATISSIMA. The extensive exhibition project, titled ESSENZIALE, curated by Francesca Canfora will take place in the spacious halls of Il Quartiere, Ex Caserma Musso, and will involve 27 artists, who will interpret the Essenziale theme through a variety of techniques and expressive languages.
“Investigating the concept of essential,” writes Francesca Canfora, “it is instinctive to think of the atom as the first constituent element of reality and, in relation to art, of the point and the line as the minimal and basic geometric units of representation of the world, both enclosing within themselves the potential to describe and return the complexity of the entire Universe. Dot and line are also simple modules underlying complex forms of coding and language: just think of the Morse alphabet, the Braille code, or even the assonance with the binary code at the origin of computer programming. The infinite combinations of whole and broken lines gave rise to the millennia-old tradition of the I Ching, the book of changes, a divinatory tool used in ancient China to reveal future events.
This small digression regarding the potential of elementary units toward the construction of any form of structure, even extremely complex ones, brings to mind the famous statement, an anthem of modernity, coined by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Less is more.”
Among the works on display there is no shortage of fiber art with Elizabeth Aro‘s installation and Giulia Spernazza‘s cycle of works
The artistic research of Giulia Spernazza (Rome, 1979) essentially induces silence because it stems from deep listening. The intention is to make her own path absolute, a path toward authenticity that can resonate in anyone who observes her works. In this sense, the importance of emptiness, transparency and purity are expressed through an essential language that aims to strip them of any subjective reference. In the Fabric Works coexists a mysterious contrast between the worn-out material and a sense of lightness and suspension, they appear subject to the passage of time but at the same time emanate a sense of immobility that seems to suspend it, to transcend it. Formally, the research is aimed at minimalism through the balanced inclusion of a few sculptural and pictorial elements, the materials chosen are mainly Japanese paper, fabric and wax.
Giulia Spernazza after graduating from Liceo Artistico, she graduated in Decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 2008. She exhibits permanently at the Faber Art Gallery (Rome) and collaborates with several Galleries. In 2012, among the main exhibitions, she participates in the Adrenalina 2.0 Prize at Macro Testaccio la Pelanda (Rome) and at the Museo Centrale Montemartini (Rome). In 2013 she is invited to the 64th Michetti Prize at the Michetti Museum (Francavilla al Mare) ), in 2014 she participates in the Adrenalina 3.0 Prize at Macro Testaccio la Pelanda (Rome) and in 2015 she makes the solo exhibition “The courage of abandonment” at the Faber Art Gallery (Rome). In 2018 he exhibits at the solo exhibition “natura pura” at Galleria d’Arte Faber (Rome), in 2019 he participates in the group exhibition “Ex Voto per arte ricevuta” at Museo Marino Marini (Florence), at Premio Arteam cup, Villa Nobel (Sanremo) and at the IV Biennale del libro d’Artista, Fondazione Monti uniti di Foggia. In 2020 he makes the solo exhibitions “Strati d’animo,” curated by Anna Lisa Ghirardi, at MuSa (Salò Museum) and “Memories to preserve,” curated by Barbara Pavan, at SCD Textile & Art Gallery (Perugia). In 2021 he carried out the Solo Exhibition “Vulnerable,” curated by Cristian Porretta, at Faber Art Gallery, in 2022 he participated in the Exhibition “The Soft Revolution,” 25WTA World Textile Art promoted by ArteMorbida, at Busto Arsizio Textile Museum and exhibited at the solo show “MUTEVOLE,” curated by Barbara Pavan, at F’Art contemporary art space in L’Aquila. In 2023 one of her works was exhibited at Ex Ateneo in Bergamo Città Alta as part of Fiberstorming project of the WTA Italy Salon, promoted by ArteMorbida and among the events of BG BS Capitals of Culture. Her Works have been acquired by the Michetti Museum (Francavilla al Mare) and the Civica Raccolta del Disegno di Salò (MuSa).
The installation by Elizabeth Aro (Buenos Aires, 1961) entitled ” La musica segreta delle piante” (The Secret Music of Plants) (year 2019) is articulated in seven music stands/modules in which the plants play the score, create the melodies. Each plant is different and the sounds they produce change at every moment, their scales are always new, everything creates a harmony to be read as a whole. According to different research conducted in various universities, the plant world communicates internally through a musical language, messages like notes run through the fibers of different species, composing a harmony. This installation speaks of the vibrations that plants have inside. Made of red velvet, the artist’s color of choice, the work solicits an urgent reflection on the future and survival of the human species as a result of current climate change, a kind of reminder of the “(…) need to take care of the environment, reverse the processes of degradation put in place by man, and begin to be guided by plants, by the largest and most defenseless part of the planet.” E.A.
Elizabeth Aro was born in Argentina, has lived in Spain for 15 years and in Italy for the past 8. She studied art at the National School of Fine Arts Prilidiano Pueyrredón in Buenos Aires and Art History at the University of Buenos Aires. She received fellowships that enabled her to become a resident artist at Fondazione Ratti in Como and Fondation Australis, in Rotterdam, Foundation La Napoule Cannes, France and Citè International Des Arts, Paris, France. Her works can be found in the collections of GAM (Galleria Arte Moderna Torino), MAMbA and MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art Rosario) and in various private collections in Argentina and Europe. Interested in the psychological and emotional relationship of human beings with their environment, Elizabeth Aro explores what different ways architectural environments affect the viewer-both mentally and physically: intervening or integrating, she engages with specific installations, creating spaces of poetic density where fantasy merges with reality. Elizabeth creates interdisciplinary multimedia installations in galleries, contexts and public spaces in the form of sculpture, photography and drawing.
