Laveno Mombello meets Dante – “Inferno3000”
Laveno Mombello meets Dante
Suggestions and insights on the occurrence of the 700th anniversary of the Poet’s death
Laveno Mombello, Villa De Angeli Frua – Council room
“Inferno3000” will be exhibited from May 29th to July 25th
On the occurrence of the important anniversary of the death of the Supreme Poet, the Municipal Administration of Laveno Mombello wanted to underline this anniversary with an artistic installation that will be the backdrop to a rich calendar of initiatives.
The project proposed by the authors DAMSS FiberArt and by the curator Carla Tocchetti was immediately welcomed with enthusiasm by the Councilor for Culture Prof. Mario Iodice. The evocative and monumental installation has thus become the fulcrum of the cultural programming.
“Inferno3000” is a large tapestry with fiery colors, a UNIVERSAL TESTAMENT composed of single petrified scenes that suggest awareness of the tragic outcome of the twentieth century and of this first glimpse of the 2000s.
To celebrate the seventieth anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, DAMSS FiberArt created their own interpretation of INFERNO through an originally elaborate work.
This artistic proposal is well suited as a starting point for a serious reflection on Dante’s work and the relevance of the topics contained.
Inferno 3000, detail, photo credit DAMSS
THE AUTHORS
DAMSS is the acronym of Daniela Arnoldi, environmental engineer, and Marco Sarzi-Sartori, architect. They are a couple of artists and designers who for over twenty years have based their activity on experimentation mainly aimed at the textile medium, through a critical use of materials, centered on recovery and recycling. Numerous are the awards from private and public institutions at an international level, which have hosted their works and installations.
Inferno 3000, detail, photo credit DAMSS
INSTALLATION
A hell that has a meaning for the past, for the present time but also for a distant future. Hell is always defined as the place dominated by flames and darkness, but in this creative vision it is very linked to a state of mind, like saying that the danger is ourselves.
Hell is proposed not as a place of punishment that awaits the wicked deep underground, but as an environmental system with desperate conditions of livability, which threaten man’s survival.
Inferno 3000 DAMSS intends to arouse in the viewer a sense of bewilderment, which solicits reflections on the management of the planet Earth in general, and in particular of the natural phenomena through which the planet defends itself from anthropogenic activities.
Inferno3000 is composed of:
- 8 panels, each 1.50x4m
- Total width of the work 12 x4m. high
- Total area 48 square meters
- Weight Kg. 80
- 200 square meters of fabric used
- 10 months of work, 26 days a month, 18 hours a day equal to 4,500 hours of total work
– 50 km of yarn for the seams
The installation is complemented by a video that tells the birth of the project and its realization.
Inferno 3000, detail, photo credit DAMSS
THE CRITICAL COMMENT (2020. Gabriello Anselmi)
“The word INFERNO carries with it the germ of guilt. That error that arises with original sin and which, following the path of Cain, reaches us in its epilogue. “Inferno3000” is a large tapestry with fiery colors, a UNIVERSAL TESTAMENT where the word THE END finds strength in an advanced technology which, instead of helping man, accelerates its dissolution.
The Hiroshima mushroom cloud, the gas chambers of Auschwitz, the alleged wealth burning in the smokestacks of a large industrial complex, the impeccable destruction of the Twin Towers are some of the many images that strike us and envelop us in the flames of the last forest. Inferno3000 is a set of single scenes and petrified images; it just wants to present the horror of a “there has already been” that leaves no room for any repentance.
In this work, DAMSS does not want to create a new Guernica, a political denunciation, a cry addressed to all humanity but to build a wall to crash into. Despite its three-dimensionality determined by the numerous curls, Inferno3000 is in fact a large surface, a projection plane that creates a barrier, a clear line that delimits a boundary, beyond which there is nothing but darkness, the emptiness, the silence of the deep night.
But the extraordinary nature of this work lies precisely in being a tapestry, a large loom that fits perfectly into the contents of the work: that great curtain which one would never want to lift. This is a grotesque representation of the disintegrating social and environmental fabric.
In a thousand years the great glaciers will have disappeared, dissolved in the sea that has risen to the highest level, so much so as to cancel entire cities and modify the morphology known today, but the water has also evaporated in such a way as to generate a torrid climate.This millennium is characterized by terrorist attacks, major arson, extreme weather events, nuclear explosions, asteroid falls, overpopulation in gigalopolises, millennial viruses awakened by the melting of the ice. Unable to address these issues, the terrestrial people abandon the Earth and seek alternative solutions in space through spaceships. If we keep repeating the same mistakes and squandering the planet’s limited resources, the only escape route that remains is space.
And so we went out to see the stars again …”
DAMSS il Covid in Fiber Art, photo credit DAMSS
DATES
Inauguration Saturday May 29
6.00 pm Council room – Villa De Angeli Frua
Inauguration of the “Inferno3000” DAMSS FiberArt tapestry
Speakers:
– Carla Tocchetti – Curator of the exhibition project
– DAMSS FiberArt, authors of the installation
– The Councilor for Culture and Deputy Mayor Prof. Mario Iodice
– The Mayor Dr. Carlo Maria Santagostino
Saturday 5th June
Conference by Ottavio Brigandì “Journey to the limits of man: the character of Ulysses in Dante”
Streaming meeting for the students of the Liceo Vittorio Sereni, Laveno Mombello campus, and townspeople with passages read by the students
Ottavio Brigandì is a member of the Italian Dante Society. He was born in Luino (VA), is 44 years old, and has a degree in Civil Engineering and Modern Literature. He lives in Milan, where he works for an multinational oil company. He has published books and essays on social, poetic and literary subjects; he has written articles on Dante for books and specialized magazines. He will participate in the “Alma Dante” 2019 International Congress in Ravenna. An essay by him in the Société Dantesque de France magazine is forthcoming.
June 26 or 27
Conference by DAMSS GROUP on Fiber Art
Fiber Art, also called Art Fabric, Textil Art or Textile Art, is a trend of Contemporary Art. This artistic expression begins with the futurist avant-gardes who polemically introduced the most heterogeneous materials into their works. Between 1920 and 1933 at the Bauhaus founded by Walter Gropius, research and experimentation with artificial silk, chenille, cellophane, metal and the works of Anni Albers are well known in the weaving discipline.
Fiber art was born in the 50s following American expressionism in the USA, Canada, Japan and then in Europe. The most important moment in the development of this expressive form occurs between the 60s and the 70s. At that time, creativity in the textile field passes through an experimental and exciting phase: research spreads and the most disparate works, many techniques and innovative forms are produced. What is flexible is textile. And the field is vast: yarns, ropes, papers, fabrics, non-spun fibers, felt, metal threads, plastics, plastic nets, weaving with plastic rods, or with herbs, twigs … everything falls within the Fiber Art.
Throughout the exhibition period, visitors will be able to access the Council Chamber to admire Inferno3000 using a specially created explanation video via mobile phone with RQ Code
