CaCO3 or concerning the hypothesis of future archaeology
by Daniele Torcellini | CaCO3 Variazioni parametriche
After four years spent together in the workshops of the School for Mosaic Restora- tion in Ravenna, in 2006, Ậniko Ferreira da Silva, Giuseppe Donnaloia and Pavlos Mavromatidis set up a group for artistic research which emblematically takes the name of CaCO3, chemical homage to a material- limestone- programmatically reduced to a stylistic cipher. Out of this group, from the very beginning, emerged an aesthetic dimension balanced between neo-archaeological references and links with Optical Art and Minimal Art, for a purely analytical journey of formal in- vestigation into the mosaic medium.
The works of CaCO3 lend themselves to interpretation through apparently con- trasting readings, directly reflecting the three artists’ proposals which they recon- cile naturally in an experimental game of tensions, where in the end it is up to the observer to decide what to make of them. Material. Technique. Concept. Proce- dure. Analysis. Control. Automatism. Error. Archaeology. Formalism. Perception. Movement.
The range of materials used is rather limited, white or black limestone, glass con- taining gold or silver leaf, common glass, transparent coloured glass from which long narrow tesserae are obtained, never identical, alongside variously coloured plaster, mortar, or opus signinum, for the bases, which sometimes are elevated to the role of figure or at least of subject. With a clearly neo-archaeological signifi- cance, materials, codified in the past by the mosaic tradition, have been taken up again. The conceptual difference with the tradition from which all three artists draw inspiration is, however, extremely significant. With an attitude which could be called minimalist, the compositions are structured according to rigid geometric abstractions or else to the freest biomorphic organizations, defined for each work by a single variously modulated material – sometimes subtly modulated – within the spatial limits of the work. An obsessive insistence on variations and micro-variations of the vital parameters which allow a work to exist.
One of the most famous characteristics of Ravenna and Byzantine mosaics is their relationship with light. A relationship which finds its marvelous incarnation in the technical expedient of laying the tesserae with different angles of inclination be- tween each one in relation to the plane of the base. This allows the surfaces to of- fer a multitude of planes to the light, so as to make the appearance vibratile, changing continuously, according to the movement and consequent changing viewing points of the observer, creating a seductive glitter of shimmering light. CaCO3, with an analytical approach, emphasise this expedient, taking it to its ex- treme consequences. The tesserae are variably set vertically, horizontally and in all the intermediate stages between these extremes, sometimes with a gentle transi- tion as in Movimento n.7 (Movement n. 7), with sudden changes of direction in others, for instance Movimento n. 18 (Movement n. 18), creating surprising effects of chiaroscuro and chromatic variations which profoundly stimulate our visual sys- tem. To move in front of the works of CaCO3, to draw closer, to move further away, to move from one side to the other, is the most natural thing for the specta- tor to do, ravished by the pervasive sense of sight.
Spontaneity of execution and predetermination of the result, alternate in the works of CaCO3, keeping in mind, however, procedural choices that are always care- fully calculated. In geometrical type works, such as the elegant Movimento n. 13 (Movement n. 13), there is a preparatory study whose function is to plan the ar- rangement of the tesserae so as to achieve the deliberately sought for chiaroscuro effects. Yet in the biomorphic type pieces the result is not predetermined. Within each work of this type, having chosen a parameter, such as for example the incli- nation or the direction of the tesserae, this parameter is made to assume values that vary during the time it takes to make a work, from the laying of the first tessera to the last, determining every stage on the basis of the previous one, as in Movimento n. 65 (Movement n. 65). In this way, a not entirely predictable chain of events is generated, leading to a final result which is, likewise, not wholly predict- able. Not just this. In the process of execution, which is highly formalized but not exempt from human error, there is also the possibility that mistakes of several kinds can be made, at the various levels of planning underlying the realization of the work. Mistakes have to be managed. Whilst in computing, errors lead to the arrest and consequent resetting of the system, here, they are engulfed completely spon- taneously into the process, diffusing themselves like a wave, to be reabsorbed, leaving variable traces of themselves: a clear example of this is Raccordo n. 1 (Connection n. 1). In this way the mistake assumes an indisputable value. It is con- sciously pursued or followed up with the aim of making the system unstable; one thinks in particular of the way in which the tesserae in Dittico (Diptych) are chosen – shards left from the cutting of other tesserae. In this way the error assumes an in- disputable value. In view of – one might say – an algorithmic, rigid planning of the work’s execution, it is the management of the error which marks the distance from a mechanical type of creation.
In works such as Soffio n. 1 (Breath n.1) and Soffio n. 9 (Breath n.9) the archaeo- logical references become radically clear. Here the surfaces are heavily assailed using tools employed in architectural restoration, to corrode them unevenly, in a kind of acceleration of the effects that time has on material. This treatment further modifies the appearance of the works and the result is doubly disorientating. Pre- sent day aesthetics incarnated in materials typical of the past, for works mechani- cally forced towards their destiny of deterioration, using instruments generally em- ployed for restoring art to what is often lightly defined as, original splendour. It is a dystopian and projective archaeology of the future.
The mosaic technique in the research of CaCO3 appears in an oxymoronic way to oscillate between being an obsession, blurring the minds of the three artists, oblig- ing them, unto the limits of alienation, to venture towards the territories of automa- tism in the monotonous repetition of minimally variable gestures, and, being a mere pretext for carrying out a lucid analysis of artistic processes of the transforma- tion of material, suspended between the past, present and future.
