Figurante, 2010
I discovered the work of Arcangelo Sassolino in 2008 at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He was showing a nitrogen-powered sculpture that shot empty beer bottles against a wall at 600km/hr inside a zoo-like metal cage. 5 years later, i’m listening to the podcast of a presentation that the artist made at CCC Strozzina in Florence. the podcast gave me the opportunity to 1. get to know his work better 2. write a quick post about it and 3. advise you to check out Strozzina’s archive of podcasts because, as i mentioned on twitter the other day, they contain real gems (quick selection at the end of this post.) Some are conversations between the artist and a moderator from Strozzina. Others are more akin to ‘proper’ lectures. Most are in italian though.
Afasia1, 2008
Here’s the gist of Sassolino’s talk:
At the time of this presentation, Sassolino was showing a new commissioned (and untitled) piece at CCC Strozzina for the exhibition Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art.
A heavy industrial piston is linked to an oil hydraulic system and set up following the longitudinal direction of the room. Another component of the work is a thick rope which traverses the entire length of the room at the height of the visitors’ eyes. The rope passes through the piston and its ends are tied around two thick wooden beams anchored between the stone doorposts of the two entrances at opposite ends of the room.
Without warning and at irregular intervals the hydraulic system is activated and starts up the action of the piston that gradually pulls the rope taut. The traction is increased slowly until breaking point is reached, but just before the irreparable happens the piston eases the tension causing the entire system to return to a state of precarious calm.
That’s the kind of work that Sassolino makes. It has danger, mechanical tension, darkness and makes the spectator vaguely uneasy (“Is this going to break? Will i be hurt? Shouldn’t it take one step back?”) In fact, Sassolino also explained that the beams vibrate but they hold the pressure. The system actually gets in motion when a visitor gets closer to the work. And that’s when, as the artist puts it, a kind of Sadomasochistic moment emerges: the visitor would like to see some dramatic collapse of the wooden structure but doesn’t dare to get too close to it.
Arcangelo Sassolino. Exhibition view “Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art”. CCC Strozzina, Firenze. Photo credit: Martino Margheri
Arcangelo Sassolino. Exhibition view “Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art”. CCC Strozzina, Firenze. Photo credit: Martino Margheri
Arcangelo Sassolino. Exhibition view “Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art”. CCC Strozzina, Firenze. Photo credit: Martino Margheri
Arcangelo Sassolino. Exhibition view “Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art”. CCC Strozzina, Firenze. Photo credit: Martino Margheri
In his talk, Sassolino explains that what he likes is to take a material ‘by the neck’ and torture it in order to make it scream and admit the truth.
A “variation on the same theme” –as he puts it– is another work without title that made a piece of wood moan until it split.
Untitled (Spaccalegno), 2008. Courtesy Gallery Feinkost
As the video below demonstrates, sound is an important dimension of Sassolino’s work:
The artist is generally less interested in bringing a completed art work in a gallery than in showing a material, be it a piece of wood or marble, that will gradually be stripped of its ‘flesh’ and maybe reach the point of collapse.
The most literal example of this would be Figurante.
The powerful jaw crushes a femur bone over 3 hours. The work references the sterilized war images we see on tv. They never include the sound of people suffering.
Another work discussed was Elisa, a sculpture assembled from four mechanical digger parts and hydraulically animated by a random generator. The digger arm moves with spasms like a big animal slowly dying.
Arcangelo Sassolino, Elisa, 2012. Photo Art and the City (video)
A couple more image, mostly for my own pleasure:
Arcangelo Sassolino, Untitled, 2006-2007. Photo: Fausto Caliari and Federico Perezzani
Dilatazione pneumatica di una forza viva (Pneumatic Expansion of a Living Force) features a bullet-proof glass structure enclosing a glass bottle, which is set on a tube attached to nitrogen cylinders. The gas slowly fills the bottle, which explodes with a shatter of glass when its maximum capacity has been reached. After every explosion the glass bottle is replaced.
Dilatazione pneumatica di una forza viva (Pneumatic Expansion of a Living Force), 2010. Exhibition view at Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Firenze
Photo: Valentina Muscedra
Afasia2, 2008
Macroscopico e domestico, 2008
Arcangelo Sassolino. Exhibition view “Francis Bacon and the Existential Condition in Contemporary Art”. CCC Strozzina, Firenze. Photo credit: Martino Margheri
In case you’re dying to see Sassolino speak about his work in english, here’s his comment on Time Tomb, a sculpture he installed at Z33 back in 2010.
More podcasts i’m looking forward to listening to: Loris Cecchini talks about his work, Domenico Quaranta explores art and identity online, Gianfranco Pecchinenda discusses Video games and the production of the American imagination, Vito Campanelli talks Process flow and Web, Fabio Chiusi’s lecture is about Transparency and freedom of expression after Wikileaks, Emiliano Ilardi imagines A modernity without catastrophe, etc.