For the End of Time is an exhibition that brings together the works of eight artists: Simone Brambilla, Filippo Chilelli, Lucia Derighetti, Andrea Fais, Siyang Jiang, Sara Laverde, Gloria Tamborini and Lu Weixin, students from the two-year sculpture program directed by Vittorio Corsini at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. The exhibition, hosted by Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting, is curated by a collective composed of Pietro Giovanni Coppi, Chiara D’Alesio, Francesco Gennaro, Miriam Muscas and Vanessa Villa, a group of curators from the Visual Cultures and Curatorial Practices course. «It is precisely time, captured and interpreted in its many facets, that constitutes the meeting or starting point, the stimulus that drives the reflections of the artists. The exhibition captures an uncertain and provisional time, in which the ruins of the past merge with an unstable present» says the collective.
Installation view of the exhibition “Per la Fine del Tempo’” curated by Pietro Giovanni Coppi, Chiara D’Alesio, Francesco Gennaro, Miriam Muscas, Vanessa Villa, © Simone Brambilla ph. courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
For Gloria Tamborini, with 45°47’31.1″N 8°50’09.2″E. e dai tuoi piedi qui 165 cm in su (2023), time is the roots that sink into nothingness. The artist goes into the woods and makes direct casts, pouring pewter directly into the roots and pulling out these concretions, creating an interaction between the formless matter and the life that remains hidden, a nature that introduces itself into something else. For Sara Laverde, in Tramonto (2024), time corresponds to the fading of the candlelight behind which a sunset can be glimpsed on the horizon. In the 15th century, this effect was created using transparent alabaster; today it is the mirror of a suspended time, through the glass film, the continuity of time is perceived, the consistency, and the condensation of the sunset moment, which is ephemeral. In Siyang Jiang, Error (2024), there is only one clear point, the rest is undone; it is an android, a being that does not exist, invented by the artist, who introduces the dimension of memory, of the recollection of the faces we love, as if in the represented house, there were displayed photo memories.
Simone Brambilla, “Il Pensatore”, 2023, glass, acrylic, nails, 43 x 45 x 0,5 cm, © Simone Brambilla, courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
For Gloria Tamborini, with 45°47’31.1″N 8°50’09.2″E. e dai tuoi piedi qui 165 cm in su (2023), time is the roots that sink into nothingness. The artist goes into the woods and makes direct casts, pouring pewter directly into the roots and pulling out these concretions, creating an interaction between the formless matter and the life that remains hidden, a nature that introduces itself into something else. For Sara Laverde, in Tramonto (2024), time corresponds to the fading of the candlelight behind which a sunset can be glimpsed on the horizon. In the 15th century, this effect was created using transparent alabaster; today it is the mirror of a suspended time, through the glass film, the continuity of time is perceived, the consistency, and the condensation of the sunset moment, which is ephemeral. In Siyang Jiang, Error (2024), there is only one clear point, the rest is undone; it is an android, a being that does not exist, invented by the artist, who introduces the dimension of memory, of the recollection of the faces we love, as if in the represented house, there were displayed photo memories.
Sara Laverde, “Tramonto”, 2024, paraffin candle, lithophane printed from 3D PLA model, 20 x 10 x 20 cm, © Sara Laverde, courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
For Andrea Fais, in Brillare prima di sparire (2024), time is the crumbling of matter. In Untitled, made of the same substance and with the same material, real mushrooms soaked in water mix with nickel plating. The artist plays with light, the cube almost disappears behind the shadows creating depth. Disintegration and proliferation, a material that disappears, deteriorates and at some point, shines: the brightness is an interference that enhances the traces of memory that time leaves, the gleam of something that is disappearing recalls the life of a star, time flows slowly, we disappear, our matter evolves and this shining trigger a visual short circuit attracted by this explosion. From the reflection on the term consubstantial, two objects of different nature live of the same substance and coexist in this paradox: the two elements deny and charge each other.
Andrea Fais, “Stessa sostanza,” 2024, stainless steel, copper, nickel, 10 x 16 x 14.5 cm, © Andrea Fais, courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
For Lu Weixin, in Torno (2023), time is the word that promises and leaves us in suspense. In a world full of visual and technological stimuli, the artist questions the viewers on the essence of “returning” through these simple tools. The neon grammatically imposes on the viewer to be called into question and each person can relate to it from past personal experiences such as emotions and memories. A technological writing universally human. In the domestic dimension in which the exhibition aims to lead the viewer, Filippo Chilelli introduces an infesting element, a spider web and a shell that break the sole vision of time as the past, opening to an indefinite and timeless future. Metamorphic objects, concretions of resin from natural remains and fabrics, metamorphic figures that invade the space. Like Relief Web (2023) where the large spider web can be understood as the web of an apocalyptic future or perhaps of a mythical past. Untitled, on the other hand, is a living creature, a shell from which small tentacular filaments emerge, branching out along the floor of the room.
Lu Weixin, “Torno”, 2023, white neon, 60 x 30 cm, © Lu Weixin, courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
So, what is this exhibition? It could be summarized in three word couples: memory/past, nature/present and metamorphosis/future, three concepts that for each artist are expressed in different ways. Ranging from works that introduce a thinking, dramatic and silent dimension, to works that blend natural elements with material concretions, showing a present nature that emerges and persists. Finally, a future dimension of time where metamorphic elements, almost unicellular beings, infest and invade the environment, displacing the observer from their usual reality. For the End of Time gathers reflections on time, where nature and technology blend, erotic visions of an elusive time. The exhibition aims to introduce visitors into an intimate, timeless and inner place.
Installation view of the exhibition “Per la Fine del Tempo’” curated by Pietro Giovanni Coppi, Chiara D’Alesio, Francesco Gennaro, Miriam Muscas, Vanessa Villa, © Simone Brambilla ph. courtesy Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
The collective of curators is composed of Pietro Giovanni Coppi, graduated in 2023 in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan, to which he is still enrolled; Chiara D’Alesio with a Bachelor’s Degree, obtained in 2022, in History and Protection of Artistic Heritage at the University of Florence; Francesco Gennaro graduated in Art Didactics from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo in 2019. Finally, Miriam Muscas and Vanessa Villa study Visual Cultures and Curatorial Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera.
Info:
VV.AA., For the End of Time
05/07 – 26/07/2024
Glenda Cinquegrana Art Consulting
via Luigi Settembrini 17, Milano
glendacinquegrana.com
Emanuele Magri teaches History of Art in Milan. Since 2007 he has been writing abroad for Juliet art Magazine. Since the 1970s he has dealt with writing and visual arts. He created taxonomically defined worlds, in which he experimented with the self-referentiality of language, such as “La Setta delle S’arte” in which ritual clothes are made starting from words with multiple meanings, the “Treaty of genetic art” in which a series of plants is obtained from grafts of human organs, eyes, hands, mouths, etc., and the project “Fandonia”, a city where everything is double and hybrid.
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