On the Matter | Brescia | 11 June - 13 July 2025

On the Matter

from an idea of matteo lorenzelli | curated by ilaria bignotti e camilla remondina June 11th – July 13 2025
press preview e opening June 11th 2025, 6 p.m.
MO.CA – Centro per le nuove culture, via Moretto 78, Brescia
in collaboration with the Municipality of Brescia

produced by lorenzelli arte

A major exhibition, dedicated to how contemporary artists use and transform materials in their work, is set up in the rooms on the second floor of MO.CA - Centro per le nuove culture (via Moretto 78, Brescia). Originating from an idea by Matteo Lorenzelli and curated by Ilaria Bignotti and Camilla Remondina, the exhibition features more than twenty internationally renowned artists, both mid-career and belonging to current generations, from Japan to Africa, from China to Great Britain, whose works are aimed at shedding light on the declinations of traditional and unusual materials in the creative process, from copper to textile fibers, from pure pigment to reused plastic: used in an innovative, consistent, repeated and in some cases even obsessive way, is the material protagonist of this exhibition of international scope that opens Wednesday, June 11, at 6 p.m., in the presence of the Mayor of the City of Brescia, Laura Castelletti, Matteo Lorenzelli and the curators, and many of the invited artists.

The itinerary also features a number of works by artists from the first half of the 20th century who are considered “pioneers” of contemporary materials research, with a view to offering the public an exhibition of great stature and full of food for thought.

Among the works to be remembered, then, is that of Nunzio, an alchemist of matter with his unique way of dealing with organic materials, from wood to plaster, but also the meticulous and poetic work of Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, recently celebrated at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, whose investigation is characterized by textile installations composed of interwoven threads and elements with a high symbolic and memorial rate, where matter highlights “existence in absence.” Sissi, an internationally renowned artist from Bologna, also works on knotting, the body and relationship, dialoguing punctually with Shiota.

A notable presence in the exhibition is represented by the international artists who work with metal: from Liu Ruowang, a Chinese artist who knows how to shape bronze in a monumental and mystical way, to Antonella Zazzera, an artist who makes light sing and copper strings vibrate, the material of choice in each of her works where matter is transformed into pure energy.

Other works in the exhibition offer the possibility to observe to what levels of experimentation artists have reached with plastic and industrial materials: on display then is the research of Serge Attukwei Clottey, a Ghanaian artist who founded a real movement and method of artistic and social work: Afrogallonism. The jerry cans used for transporting cooking oil and gasoline, disused and dispersed in colossal quantities in his country and often reused as containers for transporting drinking water with the logical nefarious consequences for the health of the inhabitants, in fact become material for artistic reuse and are transformed into monumental works, assembled together with old tires, scraps of wood and jute sacks. Jute is also the material of choice for Ibrahim Mahama, also an artist of Ghanaian origin who uses jute sacks to create monumental installations to stimulate public awareness of economic exploitation and social inequality.

The theme of reuse is also present in the work of Faust Cardinali, who chooses polyvinyl resin and mixes acrylic, polyester, iron, aluminum and with objects of choice and fondness, disparate activators of imagination drowned in matter. Observe also sculptor Alberto Gianfreda's research, made from myriads of ceramic fragments. Luca Caccioni, on the other hand, reuses rubberized canvas, reinventing even the pigment of painting; Albano Morandi intervenes directly on the wall with colored adhesive tapes, strip after strip, coating the surface.

More conceptual is the work of Michele Spanghero whose material is sound, as in the work Ad. Lib formed by six organ pipes and a lung ventilator that reinterprets the music of Johannes Brahms to the rhythm of artificial respiration.

On the other hand, Jason Martin works experimentally on painting, placing it at the crossroads with sculpture and inventing new monochromatic rhythms each time.

One of the main themes echoing in the exhibition is that of time linked to the process of transformation of materials: whether they are attempts to eternalize matter or icons of change, the works on display continue to investigate the transformation of things, the inescapable sense of their end; so does Sophie Ko, a Georgian artist who mixes butterfly wings, pollen, chromatic pigments, burned images that turn to ash, and Arcangelo Sassolino, undisputed master of waiting and tension in matter, the image of a power in action.

The project is accompanied by a catalog published by lorenzelli arte with an essay by Ilaria Bignotti, full of exhibition views of the two shows, in which the artists' works are accompanied by their statements, many of them specially collected, and a selection of critical excerpts.

Special thanks for the valuable collaboration to APALAZZOGALLERY, Brescia, Massimo Di Carlo | Galleria dello Scudo, Verona.

ON THE MATTER
From June 11 to July 13, 2025
MO.CA - Centro per le nuove culture, via Moretto 78, Brescia, 25121, Brescia (BS) IN COLLABORATION WITH the Municipality of Brescia
PRODUCED BY lorenzelli arte
FROM AN IDEA BY Matteo Lorenzelli
CURATED BY Ilaria Bignotti and Camilla Remondina
CATALOG #168 | lorenzelli arte edizioni (2025)
FREE ENTRANCE
HOURS Thursday through Sunday 3 p.m. - 7 p.m. | first floor rooms
INFO www.morettocavour.com/info/ | 030 297 8831 | info@morettocavour.com

PRESS PREVIEW and OPENING
Wednesday, June 11, 2025 6 PM
MO.CA - Centro per le nuove culture, via Moretto 78, Brescia, 25121, Brescia (BS)
6 PM
INTERVENTIONS
Laura Castelletti - Mayor of the City of Brescia
Matteo Lorenzelli - owner and director of lorenzelli arte and creator of the exhibition Ilaria Bignotti and Camilla Remondina – curators
MODERATOR Ilaria Bignotti