Agnese Tonelli
Exhibition manager, Rocca di Dozza Museum
Rock. A mass mineral aggregate of such mightiness so as to be one of the essential elements of the Earth’s crust. Geologically speaking, this definition is quite apt, but totally inadequate to describe the rocks of Andrea Salvatori.
With the artist, rock shifts in various shapes. It becomes a solid base for traditional ceramic elements that, once flipped over and reversed, humorously turn into functional catch-all dishes, ironically losing their role as aesthetic furniture. In another gesture, the artist transforms the mineral aggregate in cute little beings. In fact, taking advantage of the pareidolic phenomenon, delicate pastel tones and two small holes make us identify a face.
A golden rock is instead placed on the fragile heads of two people riding a 19th century carriage, hinting at – and gently mocking - the weight of wealth. And yet again, a crowd of rocks seems to pleasantly gossip in an 18th century cushy salon. These are just a few among the many ways Salvatori has to delve deep into the rock element, making it the core element of this exhibition.
And then come the stars. Free, floating or sleeping in unsuspected places inside the furnished rooms of the Museum. Pure celestial bodies keep the grey rocks company, so as to remind us that a gust of wind alone is enough for us to move through space and time, in a gentle yet precisely marked dance.
An immediate dialogue between old and contemporary is established, thanks to a thorough gaze at the hosting place where this selection of works is located. As a result, the noble rooms of the Museum are brought into a connection with the chosen ceramic pieces, deeply rooted into the refined ambience of the Museum through specific installations.
In its amusing and poetic nature, the artist’s joke leads us to a quiet and refined meditation on what is truly heavy or light in life, wondering about the possibility of maintaining an unstable balance.
These sculptures seem to whisper to the observer about the chance to look at objects and places from a different perspective in a light harmony in grey and silence, “armonia in grigio et in silenzio”, quoting from the Crepuscular poet Corrado Govoni, who inspired the title of the exhibition.
Lisa Emiliani
President of Fondazione Dozza Città d’Arte
Kitsch, pop, design: traditional craftsmanship and contemporary experimentation are all features of the original research and artistic production of Andrea Salvatori, sculptor and ceramist among the most relevant and famous in Italy. Eclectic, visionary, ironic, and thanks to his exceptional skill and deep knowledge of the material, he is able to combine elements in a provocative way, bordering on visual absurdity. The selection of works in this exhibition is purposely located in the historical ambience of the furnished rooms of the Rocca di Dozza Museum, inviting the observer to meditate on the connection between art, technique and visual communication. The exhibition is further enriched by the artist’s book Certe cose, which includes images of the site-specific installation created for this occasion. I shall conclude with the words of Bruno Munari, perfectly suitable for Salvatori and his setting up: “La perfezione è bella ma è stupida, bisogna conoscerla ma romperla. La combinazione tra regola e caos è la vita, è l’arte, è la fantasia, è l’equilibrio”. (Perfection is beautiful yet silly. One has to know it and break it. Combining rule and chaos is life, art, imagination and balance).
Enrico Maria Davoli
Art historian
When an artist opts for an illustrious quote as the title for one of his artworks, it is fine to begin from there. Such is the case with Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars[1], the artwork Andrea Salvatori presents in a site-specific installation in the Armory room inside the Rocca di Dozza. Salvatori chooses the verse from Divina Commedia that concludes the Purgatorio. From the chasm in Inferno (Hell), through the mountain in Purgatorio (Purgatory) to the celestial spheres of Paradiso (Paradise), the last verse of each cantica contains the word “stars” so as to reinforce the ascending itinerary described in the poem.
To begin, the title serves as an access key, becoming more fitting as it leads the observer deeper into the work. Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars fulfils this need, acting as a mirror in which the “I” is set up to be anybody else. Something that does not happen neither with “thence we came forth to rebehold the stars” (Inferno), nor with “the Love which moves the sun and the other stars” (Paradiso), thus irreducible to a general “I”. Dante Alighieri is the wandering protagonist, but the invitation is extended to whoever reads the Commedia, following the initial didactic aim (“Midway upon the journey of our life”). However, it would be a mistake to stop at a purely evocative reading. I think, that Salvatori is looking beyond that, charging the quoting of Dante of a more substantial value.
More so than in other fields, in ceramics it is common to bring together objects (jug, vase…), artworks (sculpture, relief…), common nouns (antefix, tile…) and titles (Portrait, Torso…). One step in one direction leads to small statues and Nativity figurines; another step in a different direction shows altar pieces and viae crucis figurines. Isn’t this what ceramic art has always promised and delivered? To be, at one time standard and unique, sophisticated and kitsch, humble and aristocratic, monumental and domestic.
In Salvatori’s workshop hundreds of objects lie: those he creates and those he collects. There is no hierarchy among them, only a maze of possible ways. Each time Salvatori creates one of his accrochages he challenges his ability to balance planning and risk, meticulous research and fortuitous event. Just like a whirlpool which grows bigger and bigger into a vortex, recalling the physical lathe rotation, core tool in creating ceramics.
In this way, the matter is continuously manipulated, through hands first, and then with memory and intellect. After he brilliantly modelled, he combines, reuses and reconsiders what he has created and found in every way and with every tool he feels like. This is where the intensity of that vision, that perception of overcoming the “I” turned eternal, becomes real, and where Dante’s utterance turns into remembrance.
Andrea Salvatori
Biographical summary
Andrea Salvatori (Faenza 1975) is considered one of the most prominent contemporary Italian artists.
After obtaining the Maestro d’Arte degree at the Ballardini Ceramic Institute in Faenza, he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Valued as a ceramist for the quality and irony of his very graceful sculptures, in 2009 he won the Faenza Prize and thus far he has presented numerous exhibitions in prestigious national and international contexts, among which we highlight: MART in Rovereto, Casa Museo Jorn, in Albissola Marina, Palazzo Gavotti Art Museum and Cathedral Complex in Savona, Fondazione Giorgio Cini in San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice; Museo Civico d’Arte Industriale and Davia Bargellini Gallery in Bologna, Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri in Naples; Municipal Art Gallery in Faenza, Ceramic Design International Museum in Laveno Mombello; Biennale de la Céramique d’Andenne, (E); Gyeonggi Ceramic Biennale (KR); XXIII Biennale Internationale Creation Contemporaine et Ceramique, Vallauris (F).
Fascinated by the manipulation of images, the history of past and present art, and by popular and kitsch culture, Salvatori has developed his own personal language in creating ceramic sculptures which show strong conceptual charge, ironic and irreverent. He creates his works by remodeling already existing objects (artwork of fine craftsmanship as well as common industrial items) and literally grafting them in complex or modular shapes of his own inventory, placing them in relation with historical sites and architectural elements.
Website: www.salvatoriandrea.it
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