Mazzoleni is pleased to participate in Artissima 2021 (Main Section) with a project that brings together Italian and international contemporary artists: **Andrea Francolino, Melissa McGill, Rebecca Moccia, David Reimondo **and Marinella Senatore.
The common theme running through the selection of works is the ability to overcome the creative limitations within a variety of artistic fields. This is explored through corporeal, linguistic, and sensory mediums. The project is characterised by a plurality of visual languages, ranging from drawing and painting to video and light sculptures.
Marinella Senatore's light sculpture Dance First Think Later is a modern interpretation of the traditional "luminarie", the decorative luminous structures belonging to Southern Italy's folklore. The work suggests a reflection on the concept of temporary architecture and the "universal square." On the adjacent walls, two works from the cycle Un corpo unico ("A single body", 2020) feature different elements juxtaposed next to each other, which reveal themselves as irreplaceable parts of a single "design" when viewed as a whole. The single elements can be interpreted as a metaphor of the individual who, despite their singularity, is an indispensable part of the community. This sense of unity and participation focussed on achieving the common good can be seen as a "single body." Further to Senatore's luminaria and paintings, the presentation includes some drawings inspired by the Divine Comedy, and first presented on the occasion of 2021 Dante's Days in Foligno.
The series 100 Breaths (2016) by Melissa McGill (Rhode Island, 1969) is comprised of 100 works on paper created by the artist with the use of metal dust and her own breath; the gold and silver materials create iridescent elements of remarkable lightness and volatility, which are sensitive to variations in light according to the observer's point of view.
For Andrea Francolino, the "crack" is almost an obsession, a neutral manifestation of an existential and material condition. Over the years, this subject-object dynamic has been made visible via the use of concrete and cement dust, glass and, ultimately, powder and gold leaf. In the cycle titled Crepa ("Crack"), the artist – almost as if replacing time and history – lacerates portions of the wall and subsequently fills the "wound" with gold, the utmost precious and luminous element.
For over a decade, David Reimondo has been drawing new graphemes and phonemes to create a new ecumenical and universal "language," which features verbal, physical, luminous, and elements and is meant to be understood as a general communication tool. Over the years, the artist has used his "symbols" to elaborate heterogeneous works, such as wood sculptures, verbal-visual, sound, and light installations, videos, and photographs. For the project "Gesti" (2014-2020), Reimondo collaborated with members of the Italian National Agency for the Deaf – Milan Province, reinventing his symbols into sign language. After several meetings and discussions, some "new gestures" were chosen to create a sentence, which is often used by the artist in his works: "The muscle of thought is the brain. A procedure of the brain is language. Language defines and indicates the functioning of thought. To see language in action is to see the characteristic organ of the human animal. New languages determine the birth of new worlds."
Rebecca Moccia's photographs are stills from Rest Your Eyes, a video featuring a news broadcast from 31 December 2020, in which images have been blurred through a digital filter created by the artist. The chromatic spectrum varies according to the type of images shown in the news. The variations in light and colour act as a persistent "filter" that blurs the surrounding space, inducing the viewer to try and recognise shapes and narratives.