S/Oggetti parziali by Carlo Dell'Acqua
Fornasetti store, from September 25thto November 16th, 2019
On September 24th, the exhibition “S/Oggetti parziali” by artist Carlo Dell’Acqua opened at the store of Fornasetti in Milan, Corso Venezia 21/a. Dell’Acqua has been asked to produce a show in the store by Barnaba Fornasetti and Valeria Manzi, respectively Artistic Director of the Milanese Atelier and co-curator of the cultural projects.
The exhibition, previewed at Nomad Venice on September 5th to September 8th, will remain open until November 16th, 2019.
The exhibition is part of a broader project called “Fornasetti presenta”, conceived as a space for dialogue between the arts. The format has already been explored this year with a partnership between Fornasetti and British artist Anj Smith.
The initiative stands out as a further confirmation of Barnaba’s peculiar view of the Milanese atelier and of his commitment to creating, and in some cases to preserving, spaces for creative exchange and cross-fertilisation: "It is not about producing fully-formed, marketable new ideas - that is not my intention - but rather to let circulate the thinking. I remain convinced that creativity and imagination are fundamental tools of understanding and that they are profoundly connected to freedom. This encapsulates the deeper meaning of what I do"
Considering the work that Carlo Dell'Acqua has developed in recent years, especially his conceptual interventions on glasses and ceramics, Barnaba Fornasetti invited the artist to work on some of the most iconic pieces created by the Atelier, through a process that could have been considered by many both a symbolic and a physical violation.
The artist accepted the challenge and found himself focusing on that female face that became the emblem of Fornasetti’s creativity. Ironically for a convinced non-figurative artist, the subject of the female face stood out among all the others to Dell’Acqua, and the face of Lina Cavalieri became the source of an endless series of variations on the topic.
Manipulated, torn to pieces, destroyed and then recomposed, porcelains and ceramics depicting numerous variations of Lina's face find a new life, becoming something else.
"Beauty must be broken daily to remain beautiful," said Virginia Woolf, and this artist seems to have fully embraced this idea.Carlo Dell'Acqua was born in Bormio and grew up artistically in Milan, where he attended the Accademia di Brera.
His exploration involves techniques of various kinds, from painting, photography and video to the manipulation and reworking of everyday objects and materials - very often work tools - to installations and performances.
The issues that have emerged, right from the first exhibits, concern the continuous interaction of awareness and recognition between objects and subjects. His many-sided techniques explore the various modes of stress, disarticulation, and fragmentation to which the identities of things and those who look at them or use them are subjected. His artistic activity often focuses on physical action - at times violent and destructive action - followed by a sort of second creation.
The object, among others, is sometimes the artist himself, exhibited more as a strange machine or a simple container from which to squeeze out meaning.
FORNASETTI is a design atelier that is internationally recognised for the decoration of furnishing objects, considered genuine pieces of art. Porcelain, furniture and furnishing accessories represent the heart of its varied output.
It was founded in Milan in the 1950s by PieroFornasetti, an eclectic artist and one of the most prolific of twentieth century Italy.An example of that cultural form of fine craftsmanship whose origins encompass art and design, Fornasetti not only produces objects but also conceives and curates cultural initiatives, which represent a fundamental part of the atelier's identity, its values and its social impact on the contemporary scene. In recent years, this area has been significantly developed. The last five years alone have seen the creation of four international exhibitions, an opera, various publishing projects and an artist's book, as well as numerous poetry readings and art installations.
The luxury to which Fornasetti aspires is the luxury of ideas, which, through finely crafted objects and cultural initiatives of varying formats, breathe life into images that inspire and transport the imagination.