Matter/Materials

For some artists, the search for forms of abstraction is accompanied by the confrontation with materials, either pigment as in the large canvases stretched in the sun by Renata Boero, or in the field of sculpture with traditional or more modern materials such as steel, textiles or assemblages of found materials. The poetics of the artists gathered in this section are different and highly articulated, but they all share a common historical matrix, namely the constructivist one. The abstract forms of their works derive from the use of materials that are unusual for traditional art and often "borrowed" from extra-artistic contexts. The forms of their works also derive from the very nature of the materials (rigid or flexible, soft or hard, coloured or monochrome). In this sense, these works, made with materials that have a strong visual and spatial impact, also have a decisive conceptual component, as it is typical of much art produced after the Sixties. For example, the folding of Boero's Cronogramma (Chronogram), which recalls the anthropological gesture of women in the domestic environment, enters into an ideal dialogue with the abstract textile works of Maria Lai, which alludes to the relationship between women in weaving and Luisa Albertini tapestries. But folding is also present in the work of Mirella Saluzzo, who, like in the practice of origami, folds the supple forms of steel. The found materials used to build the objects are given new life and abstract forms in the sculptures of Gabriella Benedini and Marion Baruch, who also bring themes of sustainability and regeneration to their work.