Organic/Inorganic
by Silvia Loddo | Solo Mosaico
The group CaCO3 was founded in 2006 by the initiative of Âniko Ferreira da Silva, Giuseppe Donnaloia and Pavlos Mavromatidis. After different routes they matched their paths in the laboratories of the School for the Mosaic Restoration of Ravenna and they approach with curiosity the mosaic language.
Chemical formula of the calcium carbonate or limestone, the name CaCO3, makes reference to the raw material widely used for the production of manufactured mosaic, revealing explicitly the fundamental value that the material element holds in the research of the collective.
The study and the practice of the traditional technique and the direct contact with the ancient mosaics, made possible during the years of training and working experience on restoring historical sites, contribute at the sharing of a common reflection on the formal aspects of the mosaic and at their reworking, aimed to discover new possible relation between light and material.
The set of units is one of the characteristics of a mosaic composition. To guarantee this unit there has always been a sequence of rules that act as an ideal formal grammar conditioned by different parameters such as andamento-trend, color, size of the tesserae and interstice.
Beggining from these rules the artistic research of CaCO3 comes to an important point of reflection in 2007, when the problem of translation in mosaic of one electromagnetic field, photographed by Berenice Abbott’s, find an effective solution by using the tesseras (tiles) oriented-inclined in the same way as the iron filings – Movimento no. 1.
Already in the Buzantine gold backgrounds of the parietal mosaics is recognizable the will to amplify the interaction between light and tesserae placed, in the moment of the enticement, slightly inclined.
Based on this simple observation, CaCO3 realizes the great potential “language” of the inclined tesserae, solving that in very original and raffinate mosaics.
Modifying the shape of the tesserae, starting from the shape of cthe Roman opus vermiculatum, and especially by varying the angle of insertion with fine enforcement capacity, CaCO3 proposes an interesting serie of compositions, infinitely variable depending on the type of material used and the effects of contrast between the andamento and the inclination.
For those who watch the unit, it becomes translated into a surprising and striking result of a “whole”, capable to give life to the material and transform it into something organic, the effect is further magnified in some cases from the impression of “movement” which is created by changing the viewing angle. In Movimento n7 for example the evolution of the andamento, the perception and variation of the depth in the mosaic, it depends on the observer’s movement from right to the left.
The tesserae are inclined like vegetal elements moved by the wind or by the searching of light.
The representation of the space and the “creation” of the light can be obtained without necessarily making use of color variations but exploiting the contrast between the different inclinations of the tesseraee and the effect of the vibrant relation between infinitely small and infinitely numerous.
Studying constantly the forms of the past in the traditional mosaics and the forms of the nature with its organic structure, CaCO3 in the realisation of its personal work is inspired by the visual effect produced by still or moving multitudes, masses, streams, marches based on models of urban agglomerates or biological colonies, where the individual unit does not flatten in the surface, but emerges through the action of a formal “harmonious contrast” with the other parts of the “whole.
