The Open Box presents Pietre / Stones, an exhibition curated by Giulia Bortoluzzi with the participation of Valentino Albini, Andrea Francolino, Gaspare, David Reimondo, and Fabio Roncato. The common theme can be described as “lapidary” and is at the heart of the research of the artists invited in this group show.
Stone: pencil lead or graphite, a soft, dark grey trigonal mineral with a metallic sheen recording a handwritten code in a binary numerical system. David Reimondo (Genoa, 1973) creates a short circuit between the traditional practice of writing that fixes linguistic signs in a durable external form and the representation of information used in computing. The process becomes more complicated with the image not destined for a wall: the text further transforms from the courageous transcription of the handwritten code to a file with an .mp3 extension to the sound of the mineral (Il suono della pietra, 2022, mural pencil script, 280 × 280 cm, adaptable dimensions).
Stone: powdered lapis lazuli, a precious mineral of an intense blue and with a glassy sheen. Known since antiquity, this finely ground pigment embellished medieval frescos and paintings. Echoing a long tradition recalling Giotto, Andrea Francolino (Bari, 1979) fills with ultramarine blue a crack traversing a ceiling like a breach in the Universe, an aperture linking earth and sky. The artist’s crevice that bursts across walls metamorphosises vertically and, in an equally precious manifestation, draws our gaze upwards in search of a future.
Pietre /Stones
2 April – 17 July 2022
THE OPEN BOX
Via G.B. Pergolesi 6, MILANO
www.theopenbox.org
info.theopenbox.org@gmail.com