ARTICOLI FANTASIA
Curated by Lorenza Boisi
In collaboration with MARS
14 November 2015 – 10 January 2016
Over a period of five months, Circoloquadro, MARS and Lucie Fontaine, three independent contemporary art research groups, have had the opportunity to freely interpret the macro-theme of Botany, chosen as the leitmotif for the 2016 exhibition season at Casa Testori, alternating in some of the rooms on the ground floor.
Twelve artists were invited to Laveno, on Lake Maggiore, to follow a ceramic decoration workshop. It was precisely in Laveno, in fact, that a flourishing ceramic tradition developed from the mid-nineteenth century, which unfortunately came to an end at the end of the 1990s. Traces of this tradition can still be found in the activities of some workshops and artisans, with which the artists selected by MARS through a call for proposals were asked to deal. They found themselves experimenting with a different technique from the one they usually mastered, decorating vases of different sizes and shapes.
A flower designer, Domitilla Baldeschi Oddi, was invited to choose a flower for each of the vases made by the artists, while Alessandro Frangi used photographs to capture the combination of the plants’ caducity and the resistance of the vases.
In the second room, the exhibition was completed by a folder of drawings to be leafed through, made by the artists themselves on the theme of Botany, which made up a Paper Garden, curated by Yari Miele.
