RECODING PICASSO - Exploring the manufacturing work of Pablo Picasso through Contemporary Jewellery
“We cling to outdated ideas […]”
What more ambitious and promising premise to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the death of the famous Pablo Picasso?
The exhibition “ RECODING Picasso ”, or “ RECODING Picasso ”, aims to keep open and fruitful the debate that explains the very existence of contemporary jewellery, and wants to do so through the filter of the provocative genius of the Spanish master.
Picasso's inspiration – which focuses on the ceramic production of Grassi-Vismara collection at the GAM in Milan or which looks multifaceted at its vast activity - wants to be the creative engine for the 10 protagonists who will each exhibit a jewelery work at Haruko Ito's atelier in Via Tivoli in Brera: HARUKO ITO herself, SIMONA MATERI/ALESSANDRO SAVAZZI, LETIZIA MAGGIO, GISELLA CIULLO, ANNARITA BIANCO, MICOL FERRARA, ROBERTA RISOLO, DANIELA REPETTO, SHEILA CUNHA, AZUSA KAMOGAWA.
The exhibition, curated by Alice Rendon, will be visible from 19 to 22 October 2023, taking part in the highly anticipated third edition of Milan Jewelry Week.
RECORDING Picasso text edited by Alice Rendon
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the death of the famous Andalusian master, the exhibition RECODING Picasso carves out its terrain of artistic experimentation in the intimate and intimate space of the Gioielli Poetici of Haruko Ito atelier, inserting itself within the vast calendar of events planned for the Milano Jewellery Week , the Milanese week dedicated to narrating the multifaceted nature of jewellery.
Ten protagonists of different backgrounds, ages and origins each propose a wearable work, comparing their own language with some aspects of Picasso's production and the character that we have been told, forcing themselves into a creative evolution filtered by the reforming genius of Spanish master and thus nourishing reflection on issues that more specifically concern the "art of jewellery".
“What is sculpture? What is painting? We cling to outdated ideas as if the artist's role was not precisely that of creating new ones", stated Picasso in a conversation with Brassaï in 1964. With the exhibition occasion, the famous artist's provocation becomes the key to stirring up a joyful revolt brought about from within, which opposes attitudes of emancipation and experimentation to the narrow and age-old prejudices linked to the sphere of ornamentation. “What is a jewel?”, one might therefore add, and how does it relate to other forms of artistic expression – more precisely to those that stimulate a direct and passionate confrontation with the material?
The collection of ceramic pieces forming part of the Grassi-Vismara donation acquired by GAM of Milan is in fact the local link to the vast artisanal production of the master. The enthusiasm with which he dedicated himself to ceramics following his move to the French village of Vallauris in 1947, reformulating traditional techniques and styles, demonstrates that the artist's mind must be protean and rhizomatic to be considered such.
The rereading of his figure is therefore a pretext to invite the public to recognize the necessary and never complementary role of every expressive means. An icon of freedom and unscrupulousness, Picasso embodies the model of an artist capable of masterfully juggling the different forms of art, be it drawing, engraving, painting, sculpture, ceramics, ... or jewellery.
Switching - Kinetic pendant in patina bronze
Simona Materi & Alessandro Savazzi
In collaboration with industrial designer ALESSANDRO SAVAZZI, SIMONA MATERI raises the question of the application of CAD/CAM technologies concerning ceramic manufacturing, specifically portraying the case of the 1955 Lampe Femme.
The object graphically translates the anthropomorphic, painted ceramic piece, perhaps referring to some Greek vases of female form. The face depicted in the original vase is replaced by the profiles of the two authors, just as the logic of the double is recalled by the use of two colours, bright bronze and green of the patina. The pendant, which in its plastic development evokes the powerful presence of the Picasso masterpiece, conceals within it a refined kinetic mechanism: the signs that define Simona & Alessandro's faces jolt out of the surface when pressed on the back, expanding the spatial field occupied by the object, which, from an extension played on the flatness of the plan, protrudes, (re)acquiring sculptural value. Alice Rendon
The object graphically translates the anthropomorphic, painted ceramic piece, perhaps referring to some Greek vases of female form. The face depicted in the original vase is replaced by the profiles of the two authors, just as the logic of the double is recalled by the use of two colours, bright bronze and green of the patina. The pendant, which in its plastic development evokes the powerful presence of the Picasso masterpiece, conceals within it a refined kinetic mechanism: the signs that define Simona & Alessandro's faces jolt out of the surface when pressed on the back, expanding the spatial field occupied by the object, which, from an extension played on the flatness of the plan, protrudes, (re)acquiring sculptural value. Alice Rendon
