Clouds are elements that throughout history have always fascinated those who observe them, they represent the outside of the norm, they are without substance, without form and permanence. Their presence in the sky is perceived as something negative: not surprisingly, many metaphors make derogatory use of it. And instead, for a very long time, clouds represented the very image of dreams, of spiritual pilgrimage, so much so that they were considered, in some religions, a vehicle for meditation and a place of visions.

Poets, painters, philosophers and mystics, whether from the East or the West, have all come across this theme sooner or later. Symbols of fertility and sweetness (due to the rain they contain and hide), as well as references to the invisible, clouds inspire melancholy because they recall the fleeting nature of things and at the same time instill, in those who contemplate them, a feeling of joy thanks to their lightness and their metamorphoses. They are a constant invitation to research and contemplation.

Starting from the assumption that art is the mirror of the vision of the world, the way in which the sky that is represented changes depending on the fashions, on the knowledge of the subversion that the artist wanted to assume. Changing clouds and palettes means changing the conception of the present. In this article we will see three very different cases on interpreting these forms.

SURREALISM: MAGRITTE – SENSITIVE CLOUDS

In “Sensitive Corde”, a frothy white cloud is placed on a crystal cup, capable of mixing the surrealist juxtaposition of apparently incongruous objects with the naivety of a child who questions himself about the nature of clouds:

Looking at the clouds and wondering why they are there means looking at the world and not submitting to it with resignation, it means approaching things not only with the desire to understand them, but also to be an active part of them.

What keeps the clouds hanging in the sky? A transparent glass.

Magritte breaks the rules of visual language to reconstruct and re-propose them in a new symbolic key. The objects live from the hidden meanings that represent them and are revealed by his clear and serene painting.

The painting is titled “The sensitive rope”, precisely because it questions one of those questions that we ask ourselves in childhood, when everything is still possible in the world: how do the clouds fly over our heads, to be light and without weight? Will he hold a rope for her?

The lightness of the question merges with the lightness of the answer, in a composition that proposes the vision not of a dream, but of a possibility.

If you don’t see it it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, this is what Magritte tells us, and he tells us that there is always a hidden possibility that can explain the inexplicable, a solution to doubt, a surprise behind a certainty. Because the mountains are enough to themselves while the clouds need someone to watch them to take shape.

JAN FABER: THE MEASUREMENT OF CLOUDS

The true nature of man’s art and thought is his continuous search for identity and discovery of eternity, through the study of the most ephemeral and poetic elements of nature.  This happens largely with the ability to dream, to transcend time and space through imagination. Jan Fabre celebrates the ability to imagine, dream and know, rising beyond our destiny as human beings with “The Man Who Measures the Clouds”.

A work that investigates man’s ability and will to catalog things, to name them, to make nature a “landscape”, to bring the possible of geometry – in this case – into the impossibility of air.

Inspired by the statement that the ornithologist Robert Stroud made upon his release from Alcatraz prison, when he declared that he would dedicate himself to “measuring the clouds”.

The work lends itself to being read as «a metaphor of the artist who tries to capture the impossible through his work», to quote Fabre himself, taking inspiration from the philosopher Protagoras’ assertion «Man is the measure of all things, of those that are because of what they are, and of those that are not because of what they are not”. For the Greeks, man is the unit of measurement of the mutual relationship between objects and, in the same way, Fabre’s man places himself as the measure of all things, in homage to the greatness of the human imagination.

From the Greeks to today, man has been attracted by monumentality: bigger, more visible and more powerful. Does Jan Fabre use the enormous height of this sculpture to make the extent of human endeavor physically visible? Man always wants to measure himself and loves to excel, it is impossible to overlook these facts in a historic city like Venice.

The subject is a man in contemporary clothes who, stretching his arms towards the sky, stands on a library ladder, holding a surveyor’s ruler with both hands, in the gesture of measuring celestial objects. The figure appears to represent Fabre himself, but is in fact modeled on the body of his younger brother, Emiel Fabre, who died at an early age; the resemblance between the two brothers was irrefutable. The longitudinal thrust of the body meets the decisive horizontality of the splint it supports, creating a culmination where a temporary reconciliation between horizontal tension and verticality occurs. The compositional balance echoes the perfection to which man aspires, to the point of placing himself as the unit of measurement of all creation, of pushing himself ever higher, aiming for the sky with his monumental works of art and magnificent architecture who are tangible witnesses of his desire for affirmation.

The silicon bronze work is completed with a gold leaf covering, making it a sort of contemporary idol/icon. The colossal dimensions of the sculpture and its golden radiance restore magnificence to the human enterprise. The use of gold in the Venetian context also brings to mind multiple connections with the history of the city and the men who inhabited it and made it a commercial power over the centuries. In fact, it was in Venice, in 1284, that the first gold coin was minted and remained the point of reference for all European currencies for 600 years. Today, it is in Venice that the ancient gold leaf processing survives, within the only existing workshop in Europe, still able to use the original 18th century techniques.

So who is this measurer of the unknown who deludes himself into being able to understand the greatness of the immeasurable? Jan Fabre leaves the observer with an unresolved doubt, a “creative thought” that pushes us to look upwards to note the indefiniteness of the sky above Venice and of the human perspective itself. Jan Fabre offers us a monument to the measure of the immeasurable. It challenges the viewer to rethink the meaning of proportions

DEMATERIALIZED CLOUDS – LEANDRO ERLICH

Candid, soft and floating. Leandro Erlich’s clouds are imprisoned inside large glass cases, illuminated so that they become protagonists. On the border between dream and reality, the artist proposes a game of poetic illusions.

Born in 1973, the Argentine artist famous throughout the world for his ambiguous and illusory installations, proposes a project based on optical illusions, on what is there but is not there. The cloud display cases seem to invite the viewer to come closer, to touch what is by nature intangible: a beauty suspended in time and space, trapped as if wanting to challenge the laws of physics and nature itself. Erlich’s work is designed so that the public feels part of the magic that materializes before their eyes, in a perpetual alternation of real and surreal

Leandro Erlich delves into the complex relationship that exists between reality and fiction, underlining the inversion of the common perception of what is real and what is not.

Erika Gaburro

“Our creativity must help the world to be different”. Gaetano Pesce

In Gaetano Pesce’s design philosophy there are always more meanings, but above all there is the freedom to be incoherent. Colour, self-irony, political and social connotation

His objects always have a dual objective: to be functional and to make people think. The search for materials is always avant-garde, but they are accompanied by a round, colourful, human style in violent opposition to the mere functionality of American-style industrial design.

Nowadays with generations battered by wars and crises, his design philosophy becomes welcome fresh air, poised between being Art and Design in contrast to industry. The materials he uses are liquid materials – resins, elastomers, polyurethane foams – as parallelism and expression of liquid time, in which values change constantly and quickly. It is with this research that Carlo Scarpa called him ‘The Foam Man’.

At the end of the day, design has only one rule: break the mould, and Gaetano has succeeded very well in this, bringing this subject matter to be not abstract but figurative, so that these created objects have a voice that can speak to the public.

The Up armchair is perhaps the example that most reflects Gaetano’s design principles. An armchair in the shape of a woman, vacuum-packed and made with cutting-edge technology. The first example of political expression of Italian design: an armchair that universally recounts the condition of women in any time and context.

EXCURSUS OF WORKS WITH SOCIAL DISRUPTIVENESS THROUGH EXTRACTS

This article has analysed products that aim to make people talk and create a kind of social denunciation of particularly difficult topics. For the analysis, Gaetano’s own descriptions were extrapolated from various interviews.

-POLTRONA UP

-TIRED MAN

-THE STRAITS OF MESSINA

-THE VASES

ARMCHAIR UP

“At that moment I was telling a personal story about what my concept of woman is: woman has always been, in spite of herself, a prisoner of herself. So I liked to give this armchair a shape of a woman with a ball and chain, which is also the image traditional image of the prisoner’.

THE TIRED MAN THE ETHICAL FATIGUE OF THE STRONG SEX

A large monumental installation, realised in collaboration with the City of Milan, entitled ‘Tired Man’ tells of the ethical fatigue of Strong Sex.

“Man in the past has made a lot of discoveries, important achievements, invented aeroplanes and so on, but all this has caused a form of energy drain that sees him tired today, and the signs of this tiredness are that politicians do not serve the countries they govern, many people use incorrect and dishonest attitudes, and in general life instead of projecting itself positively towards the future, becomes impoverished.

The man is tired and fortunately the woman is taking more and more space in the public and no longer in the private, to do things that make sense, because the woman’s function is to serve, I don’t mean serve in the banal sense of the term, but to serve the places in which she invests her time and commitment, so in politics, in social work in business and so on, giving results that are evident. I think the lack of honesty of some men does not happen in women. The woman is still an individual who, having lived for centuries in the private sphere, is full of genuine energy and this should give us pause for thought’.

The large sculpture of the tired man, eight metres high, is intended to make people think about this. Man is tired, and this is due to the continuation of dishonesty aimed at selfish gain. In contrast, the transition of women into the leading role in the public sphere has been observed for decades.

“The liquidity of our present is amalgamated with the female spirit that takes on different identities according to need. I believe that the future will be feminine.

The emancipation of women has provoked in men a weariness identifiable in the fear of losing control over the weaker sex, which has resulted in unprecedented violence. Our time is at odds with male rigidity, while it matches perfectly with the elasticity of the female spirit. Our present is liquid, it has nothing to do with homogeneity and static thinking. hinting that this is the time of women: flexible, curious, energetic. The woman no longer has the ball and chain while the male is immobile’.

“Instability, elasticity, liquidity and therefore softness are expressions of our time. The values of the modern world reject rigidity: they are mobile, flexible. Feminine. I have no doubt, the future belongs to women. With their intellectual and organisational skills, if they have more power, it will be good for everyone. They will improve the world’.

THE DREAM OF THE STRAIT OF MESSINA:

A SHOWRROM BRIDGE, ATTRACTION FOR THE WORLD

Following the project proposals for the Messina Strait bridge, Gaetano gave a new point of view on the project. More than a point, a complete perspective based on what is the concept of Italian projects going for the extraordinary and not stopping at the banality of a bridge or an underwater tunnel that already existed and therefore without the attraction of innovation. Perhaps a dream, but with dreams mankind has realized the beauties of the world. Many are to be found in Italy, where great creators and visionaries have left endless examples to follow.

The architect takes inspiration from the typical Italian tradition of inhabited bridges Ponte Vecchio in Florence and the Rialto Bridge in Venice are the most striking examples. In terms of cost, a tunnel would be less onerous, but unable to give our country the prestige and pride we need. So why not take this tradition to a larger format?

The bridge should be an opportunity to express the cohesion and difference of the peninsula. A bridge where the commissioners are the regions of Italy that design a pylon that together support the road and rail carpet, but also the support for built volumes, where each can showcase itself, its qualities and riches with hotels and restaurants with stunning views, restaurants and shops

VASES

Vases can be considered one of his favourite forms. Throughout his career, Pesce has designed an infinite number of vessel shapes – each of which has taken on a form and personality of its own – inspired by a range of subjects, from spaghetti to lava, flames to trees, not to mention mountains. Often colourful, irregular and eccentric, they openly embrace figurativeness and reject flat abstraction, becoming living entities in their own right. “Vases are fundamental elements and must be treated as life-giving objects. When you have flowers, that’s where you put them, with water; we are all born from a vase – a woman’s womb – and when we die, our ashes are collected in a vessel, an urn”. Last year, at Design Miami, he presented perhaps his most striking vase, a large resin floor vase, which places on a pair of legs a semi-circular cup in the shape of a mother’s womb: an indispensable metaphor.

Vases are fundamental elements and must be treated as life-giving objects. which, in addition to resin, include papier-mâché, foam rubber and felt.

“Imperfection creates uniqueness. Difference brings the life-giving thrill of randomness into the series”.

Roberto Leone

From the curatorship of Gražina Subelytė in collaboration with the Barberini Museum in Potsdam comes the exhibition of Peggy Guggenheim in Venice entitled: Surrealism and magic. Enchanted modernity.

A unique exhibition, as it is specific on the “rediscovery” of Surrealism in a historical moment, such as the one in which we live, where the analogies to the wars we live in and the help of the worlds through the metaverse make reality appear to us as never before surreal.

As the curator underlines “in an era of unprecedented global conflict, the Surrealists devote themselves to magic and the occult above all as metaphors of change, they use them as symbolic narratives with which to configure their trust in a period of recovery after war”. The Surrealists investigate what lies beneath the surface of the apparent world to delve into themes such as alchemy, dreams and irrationality.

With the rise of Nazism, the Surrealists felt an urgent need for social, political and spiritual renewal to counter the impending new reality. They therefore rely on what until then had never been explored and brought to light as a means of hope to believe in a drastic change in humanity. In this way all the themes treated by the artists become a reason for hope and a source of inspiration for the movement itself.

It can be said that surrealism has the will to express a superior reality formed by an irrational part and a dream part, to reveal the deepest aspects of the psyche. The poet André Breton, who was one of the first spokesmen of the avant-garde was influenced by reading Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” in 1900; after reading it he came to the conclusion that it was unacceptable that the dream and the unconscious are parts of little importance in a modern civilization and therefore thought of founding a new artistic and literary movement in which they had a fundamental role. Thus surrealism was born, with a first manifesto of 1924 written by himself, and a second in 1929 where he explored the themes of occultism.

In the years marked by the world war, the Surrealists devoted themselves to magic and the occult as symbols of healing, as a symbolic language through which to reconfigure the hope of a better post-war world. While many works from the 1940s evoke a sense of existential angst or dread, their overall attitude, based on the hope of regeneration, remains resolutely optimistic. In the exhibition Surrealism is retraced during and after the Second World War, giving space to the different interpretations of each artist on the theme.

From a chronological point of view, the exhibition ranges from Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical painting, dated around 1915, to Max Ernst’s iconic painting The Dressing of the Bride, from 1940, to the occult imagery of the latest works by Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. From a content point of view, some protagonists stand out as scholars of specific topics, in particular:

Max Ernst brings theories of correspondences to his canvases, shares a predilection for randomness, automatism and oneirism and above all a taste for senseless and illogical, yet beautiful combinations. In front of his paintings, one has the duty to abandon oneself to its labyrinthine branches, letting oneself be enchanted by its enigmas and visual and symbolic tangles. He himself will reveal “The more the combination of elements is unexpected, the more the spark of poetry that springs from it is full of amazement”.

Kurt Selington Swiss artist will focus on alchemy and esotericism, tarot and magic by writing a book in 1948 “The mirror of magic” very influential for the whole movement. He wanted to explore all dimensions, be they unconscious or genuinely preternatural or supernatural, that go beyond what rationalism or everyday life can offer.

Leonora Carrington. Leonora Fini and Dorothea Tanning, are the three main women in surrealism and willingly accept the operation of expressing the vision of the woman in a new way. The women of this artistic current reject the idea of ​​the accessory and passive female, but on the contrary she becomes an active character in mythology and magic. Under the guise typical of the classical academy, women are lethal, chaotic, erotic, magical and are interpreted as witches, enchantresses, chimeras and fairies.

Victor Brauner, will appreciate the themes of magic and tarot. Between the clarity of the images and the lack of any connection between their components, he has managed to create images that are difficult to understand but as hypnotic as they are disturbing. Known for his explorations of spiritualism, he was an active member of the Surrealist painters until 1948.

The exhibition presents a total of about sixty works by about twenty very relevant artists including Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux, Maya Deren, René Magritte, Maria Martins, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, Kay Sage, Yves Tanguy and Remedios I launch.

Among the major institutions from which the works come are: Center Pompidou, Paris, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, The Menil Collection, Houston, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Rivoli-Turin

Erika Gaburro

Complesse, dinamiche, giocose, stravaganti: anche quest’anno le installazioni site specific realizzate da artisti, designer e architetti per il Coachella Festival hanno fatto parlare.
I cancelli del Coachella sono stati riaperti per la prima volta dal 2019, rivelando una serie di installazioni su larga scala appositamente commissionate per l’evento. Le colossali opere scultoree esplorano e interpretano per questa edizione,temi globali come la sostenibilità, il dialogo multiculturale, l’immigrazione e arricchiscono l’immensa area dell’Empire Polo Field di Indio, trasformata per due weekend in un eccezionale museo a cielo aperto.

Architensions, lo studio italoamericano di design guidato da Alessandro Orsini e Nick Roseboro, è stato selezionato per progettare una delle installazioni volte ad amplificare l’esperienza del Coachella Festival.Per la loro prima installazione al festival, gli architetti hanno voluto portare una dimensione urbana al festival, creando un parco giochi con una superficie complessiva di 1966 metri quadrati.

L’installazione è quindi intitolata The Playground ed è composta da quattro torri collegate da ponti decorativi e con strutture in acciaio di diverse altezze e trae ispirazione da New Babylon, città anticapitalista percepita e progettata nel 1959-74 come potenziale futuro dall’artista visivo Constant Nieuwenhuys.

I colori e le forme scelte per il progetto invitano i partecipanti a interagire visivamente con la struttura attraverso l’evocazione emozionale che questi suscitano.  I colori come il magenta e il giallo per la griglia verticale e il ciano per la piazza, creano un’esperienza cromatica volutamente vibrante ed evocano un paesaggio urbano familiare che portano lo spettatore all’immediata visione del tempo libero personale passato attraverso il gioco.

Le forme si riferiscono a tipologie urbane usate appunto per il tempo libero come piazze, teatri, parchi e portici. Queste sono state disposte verticalmente all’interno di una griglia che delinea un ordine al paesaggio creato da così tante forme diverse.

I materiali reagiscono con il sole: la pellicola dicroica proietta i colori sul suolo e sulle persone, mentre la pellicola specchiante amplifica le prospettive e riflette l’ambiente circostante. L’altezza, il posizionamento e la griglia delle torri consentono inoltre di proiettare ombre dinamiche sul terreno. I ponti sospesi definiscono lo spazio interstiziale e le panchine a livello del suolo oltre a collegare le torri e formare l’impronta della “piazza”, costituiscono un luogo in cui riposarsi e guardare gli spettacoli del festival.

Alessandro Orsini, founder insieme a Nick Roseboro di Architensions spiega : “The Playground, in analogia con ‘Il teatro del Mondo’ di Aldo Rossi crea un ambiente simile a un teatro, in cui le persone possono interagire in una sorta di performance. La nostra installazione offre inoltre l’opportunità di vivere uno spazio di svago senza l’uso della tecnologia, semplicemente interagendo con lo spazio e la sua materialità. L’utente è allo stesso tempo spettatore e performer”.
In un’epoca in cui la tecnologia sostituisce le esperienze di vita reale attraverso il monopolio dell’immagine, The Playground rappresenta un modo per riscoprire il proprio tempo libero e una via di evasione da un modo ormai intrinsecamente legato al commercio o all’interpolazione digitale.
“The Playground è un frammento di città”, afferma Nick Roseboro, “un punto di incontro per coinvolgere i partecipanti al festival in interazioni collettive, performance, relax e gioco”.

The photography is by Michael Vahrenwald/ESTO, unless otherwise noted.

Erika Gaburro