6ª
Biennale dell’Incisione Italiana
Contemporanea
“Giuseppe Polanschi”
The
sixth “Giuseppe Polanschi” National Engraving Biennial continues with
the important aim it has had since its inception, that is to further
interest n
the art of engraving.
The
small community of Cavaion Veronese has become the reference point for
an exhibition created by the Cultural Association of Veronese
Engravers, and
encouraged by the presence and persistence of Giorgio Trentin.
Together they
have permitted us to continue this work, thanks to the support given
by the Municipality which has believed, with steadfast courage, in
the importance
of keeping alive the historical and cultural tradition of the art of engraving
in the region of Veneto, to whose value small territorial entities have
become a point of reference and reflection. Cavaion Veronese, in
particular, given
its favourable geographical position, and a tradition of cooperation with
the countries of northern Europe, has permitted us to make this rich
heritage available.
Giorgio
Trentin has always worked in the art world. It is his lifelong
passion that
Italian engraving might regain the extent of freedom that it has
always enjoyed
beyond Italy’s national borders. The commitment to extend the
limits of
this exhibition, thus giving it an international flavour, is
confirmed by the
presence of a selection of ten foreign artists. After France and
Germany,
the
country to be represented this year is Bulgaria, thanks to the ties
between the
Academies of Fine Arts in Venice and Sofia. This year has seen a new
vitality and the presence of an ever more dynamic language capable of dialogue
with the contemporary world.
This
year’s exhibition thus becomes the natural, if not obvious,
continuation of
over ten years of activity. If on the one hand, the Biennial has
maintained its
own identity, on the other hand, it is marked by the need for renewed strength
and commitment to continue the work of Giorgio Trentin with the same
enthusiasm and determination that marked his endeavour from the
beginning,
This
constant dialogue with the institutions has further led Cavaion Veronese
to a continuous critical and historical review of its own cultural life.
The library is a natural point of reference for an exhibition of
engraving,
the
culture of engraving being closely connected to printing.
In addition to
preserving a valuable collection of antique prints of the collection
of Giuseppe
Polanschi, to which we owe the primary motivation for the creation of
this exhibition, the acquisition of new prints thanks to generous
donations by
exhibiting artists has led to the enlargement of our collection.
Spaces
have also been enlarged and initiatives have been created which have allowed
this exhibition to continue beyond the Biennial with monographic or
thematic exhibitions. If in the past the lack of official attention
to the engraver’s art
needed challenging, this is no longer the case.
These exhibitions stand
tall on the contemporary scene and give merit to research into the specificity
of the language which contains the engraved sign within itself.
As
part of its calling, the engraving gives voice to that peculiar
mental and creative
process that has stopped competing anachronistically with the other arts,
even if the disruptive force of contemporary sensibility seems to
demand it:
the transience of images and actions, sometimes the only ones try ing
to tap into our most extreme emotional strata, have perhaps made
every path
and language uncertain, negating the illusory search for certainty
and definitive
images.
The printing of art affirms itself as a space of inquiry
that, in
the value it gives to non-iconic and figurative signs, it winds its
way through
the dark and revealing shadows of an inner landscape capable of offering
deep insights.
The
ability to offer the public an X-ray, the rediscovery of current
reality, inherent in
the elaborative process of engraving, which contains within itself a psychological
element of research. The engraving takes one ever further on a journey
of discovery, to dissect the reality of things in a context which is
officially incomprehensible.
(Giorgio
Trentin, Venice, 6 February 2012).
It witnesses to
the loss of a recognisable narrative horizon, in which a reassuring and
familiar mimetic attitude, which persists today and has persisted in
the past
much more than in other artistic languages, has often taken refuge,
to approach
a form of knowledge that is not representative but intuitive.
The attitude
of the artist who works through the medium of the language of
engraving moves
towards a specific and reflective attention, which not only cannot ignore
the exploration of the procedures and the linguistic instruments used
in the realisation of a work of art, but also decants itself
emotionally, at the
same time cancelling any virtuosity and ostentatious technique where
the work
itself becomes the synthesis or extension of a thought, of a poetic
form.
Without
doubt skill plays a key role, but it is only by dominating it and
going beyond
it, first
the head then the hands,
as Guido Strazza writes, that the engraving
is able to dialogue with the contemporary world. The artist can use
the sign to communicate simply, or to discover and express in it
something capable
of translating a complex and unexpected emotional dimension.
And
it is here that alchemy, the manual skill which is not limited to
engraving, places
the artist in front of something unpredictable.
For in so much
as the execution is controlled, it is the experimentation with
materials and
techniques and more generally, simply with the creative act itself, that
amazes and leads to new and unexpected results.
The
engraving has within itself the power of a simple and primitive
gesture, humble
and powerful at the same time. This gesture moves its becoming through
the sharpness of the sign, or the roughness of a material that
translates aggression
- sometimes calm and indirect, sometimes violent - inflicted on
the matrix, into a positive thing.
A
strong, at times cruel contrast, between matter and a sign that
breaks down
in its making and in its manifestation, retaining the curiosity of
the doubt,
and of the imminent unveiling of that expectation linked to its own peculiar
ritual: the language of etching, in this creative act in search of
the right
tone, colour and texture, the plot from which to begin the story.
The discovery
of an identity that starts from the tracings in a matrix, maturing gestures
and thoughts until the final test: the mirror image in print.
Sensory
data and design are inseparably joined. This is the inner strength of a
language which is called to measure itself in a new concept of the
image, while
the viewer’s gaze is more often than not curious, omnivorous, but
also quick,
even violent: an image has the weakness of being reabsorbed and
forgotten in
the jungle of languages; whoever practices engraving expresses the courage,
perhaps sometimes the irresponsibility, to measure itself in an
artistic form
less concerned with fashion, not so much by choice but due to its ancient
and deep-rooted memory. Thus the possibility of staying on the
sidelines, even
at the risk of becoming marginalised.
The engraving reacts to the assault
and the suffocation of modernity by sublimating narrative influences, and
tracing a rigorous intellectual journey, a poetic
intuition which penetrates the
colour or caresses a line, which discovers a form or lights up an
emotion.
The
traces left by the process of stripping, even in the negation of
colour, animate
the investigative fields with a powerful communicative force, where the
contribution of the gesture or a spiritual charge often renounces
mimetic suggestion
in order to capture the essence of the image, itself remaining in its
fascinating and uncertain solitude.
Contemporary graphics has set
itself on
a course of confrontation with the new communication, and
consequently with
a new kind of representation, preserving and protecting the syntactic
inventions of a language known and studied for centuries.
The
communicative power of a work relies on the artist’s ability to
reinvent, or
rebuild, a rhythm that places the elements that compose it in
relationship with
each other. Experimenting with new materials and techniques leads to the
renewal of the interest in the equilibrium of composition played
against the
significance of the sign or chromatic associations, in a continuous
relational tension
of the elements that compose them. The sign as a fleeting trace in
continuous movement, the groove as immobile permanence.
Synthesis,
but also
a stripping away, in a temporal crystallisation, almost suspended.
Uncertain and
dilated surfaces where different monochromic gradations restore shaded
forms, where dense and dynamic images are given life through gestures which
trap the action as an instantaneous vision. In this way a suspended balance
between impulse and rationality is created through the empirical rigour
that the print imposes. The sign is broken down into endless
alterations of
light and shade. On one hand these divide themselves into elegant
structures which
give the sign its metaphysical value.
On the other hand, they show a
compositional virtuosity where the figuration becomes a sort of
diaphragm, through
which we seek the nuances of an intimate and personal dimension.
The
surface makes itself changeable and dynamic, through the variations
between the
intensity and saturation of full and empty spaces.
Harsh harmonies of
elements alternate with strong chromatic tones, through which the
artist appropriates space and defines it. And just as in the past
printing had
the role of translating and preserving the memory of the past, so the
art of
non-iconic engraving has constituted, thanks to its ability to
reproduce itself,
an archive of the memory of abstract images.
The engraving is a
privileged vehicle
for the transmission of both a human and artistic message, which
reduces the risk of creating meaningless repetitions that turn into
illusory icons,
quickly forgotten.
The
overview presented here, although not exhaustive with respect to
single artists,
expresses the wish to look for value, not only, as is often the case, among
a closed circle of artists, but among those who in their formation
have used
engraving along with other languages, either as a space of
preliminary experimentation,
or as a synthesis of intuitions achieved first in other areas and
then fully expressed using the potential of engraving, as pure
engravers, so
to speak. If comparison with the other languages proves outdated, a
comparison between
artists who have marked their work with modernity now seems
topical.
These are the artists who have been able to translate the
results of
their quest into their art, engraving or otherwise.
Only given this
attention can
the goals, the objectives achieved, justify the means.
This
Biennale has the task of investigating the characteristics of a
specific language,
and you need to start from this point in order to avoid the error of
filling the exhibition with empty rhetoric rather than understanding
its important
role as witness to what art is, and specifically as to what the art
of engraving
communicates.
Without
doubt, for many exhibiting artists, the artistic act, especially
painting, may
influence certain choices orientated toward more material outcomes.
Investigating
the potential of carborundum or collography, for example, involves
contamination by different materials.
The importance of the natural
and sensitive element often repeats itself as a starting point that
gives the
final print the impression of having arisen from the careful (albeit
subjective) observation
of reality, as if filtered by a photographic image.
The plate
becomes, for other artists, the plane on which they invent forms not only
in order to render the three-dimensionality of space, but also to
intrigue the
viewer, who is forced to come closer in order to discover where the
combination of
signs intensifies until it dissolves into light, the point where the colours
gives depth to the two-dimensional nature of the geometric figures.
Elements
that emerge then become a metaphor of intimate experience, evocative
of hidden impulses. In some cases these elements are home to daily experiences
steeped in memory, in others they become the search for another dimension,
the quest for oneself, especially when what is being studied are
the spheres of the unconscious, the repressed impulses, which reveal themselves
in a game of intricate delays and postponements.
Complex geometries
and signs follow, defined by the movement of the bulin
that
becomes both
story and memory, capable of evoking elements and characters in
our culture and in our experience, creating a clever contrast between rigour
of execution and freedom from rigid models.
The imagination and the
emotions thus become privileged instruments of knowing.
The sign leaves
room for subtle, skilfully modulated tonal gradations, to unite the essence
of signifier and signified in a pure and complete trace that
challenges imperceptible
variations to allow us to tap into a world we thought we knew.
It
is on this continuous becoming, apparent to us through the more than seventy
works on display, that the original and irreplaceable value of
engraving is
based.
artists:
BULGARIA
Angelov Vasil, Celkoski Pavel, Dimitrova Iva Boykova, Kolibarov Dimo, Kovach Emanuela, Mishe Zoran Kreste, Trichkovski Goran, Vassillo Vasil Kolev, Vatova Kristina Nikolova, Yotov Yohan
ITALIA
Abramowicz Janet, Aller Bruno, Benedetti Mario, Bertaglia Lisa, Bindella Marina, Biondin Alice, Bracchitta Sandro, Braida Silvia, Ciampini Paolo, Colò Aldo,Delhove Luce, Diamanti Elisabetta, Frangi Giovanni, Gabardi Silvia, Geronazzo Francesco, Kravos Mariano, Lorenzetti Carlo, Lovaglio Salvatore, Mancini Stefano, Mannino Roberto, Molena Elena, Montessori Elisa, Murasecchi Gianluca, Napoleone Giulia, Panno Laura, Rossi Camilla, Santoro Pasquale, Toni Maria Chiara
"Engraving",
Pierre Restany said, "has
for centuries had the monopoly of visual information and the engraver
was the first reporter of visual journalism."
All
of this has been delegated to other art forms for some time and the
urgency for etching seems too often that of defining itself as a
place set apart for research, where one reiterates one's belonging to
"pure" doing, to an art form that does not betray ancient
artistic canons. A place deliberately set apart from modern debates
about the crisis of language.
In
a system where the one who shouts dominates, the engraver exempts
himself, closes the door, and withdraws.
The
limits of his art becomes the triumph of the micro sign, the control
of atoms and of their combination. The stuff of high technical
expertise, of alchemical competence. Acids, powders, fats, and
specialised, sometimes obsolete, instruments ... a forge of Vulcan,
where everything is brought under control, leaving little to chance.
But
this is the risk. That the engraver will fall in love with the
technique and close himself in, within a reassuring "secure
border" reserved for initiates.
At
the same time, throughout the twentieth century, engraving was in
many countries in Europe and Japan, a place of experimental processes
equalling, in their expressive power, parallel experiences in other
artistic areas. Thus, not a "minor art" known and promoted
in closed circuits and often little known to the general public.
Its
important baggage of techniques, its very serial possibility, can
therefore fully occupy an emblematic place in visual research.
In
this sixth edition of the Biennal, artists especially known for the
originality and strength of their work, as well as for their
expertise in other fields of expression, were invited to participate
alongside other significant figures of Italian contemporary
engraving. They are painters, sculptors ... who practice engraving as
well as other techniques. For many of them the etching process has to
do with the slow definition of the elements, a sort of filing of an
experience, fixed once and for all on a plate, a more contained
territory compared to the wider gestures of ordinary experience.
For
all of them this more intimate dimension is in contrast to an
outside, that world and that time to which we all belong and where we
weather every crisis.
Giancarla
Frare Rome, July
2013
The
VIth National Engraving Biennial, "Giuseppe Polanschi"
2013, proposes a study of contemporary Italian engraving.
This
project has two aspects.
The
first is the exhibition of ten Bulgarian artists. Thanks to the
intellectual and artistic ferment within a constantly evolving
European context, cultural boundaries are proving to be the pretext
for fixing the terms of comparison in the visual arts. This
encounter, made possible by an exhibition of graphic arts, is
equivalent to placing a magnifying glass on the connective tissue of
expressive techniques in their specificity as part of the emergence
of the personal sign.
Auto-graphos.
The writing of the self.
The
second aspect is to be found in the analysis of the expressive
meaning of the engraved sign. In defining a creative act like the art
of engraving, the etymology of the word incidere
helps: to cut into. It is poetry straight away, an act of
composition, of putting together. Perhaps from the very beginning,
the burden of one sign set against another has been a semantic
metaphor of communication itself. Step by step, one groove after
another and the resistance to difference falls away, revealing the
heavy cloak that conceals being in the coldness of solitude.
The
pace of the emerging gesture invites the other in an act of sharing.
The physical act of perception yields to the intellectual game of the
abstraction of the sign. The eye turned inward towards the optic
nerve: a spasm, not necessarily physical, tears asunder the
separating retina. The groove opens us up to the abandonment of our
world as unique subjects, initiating us into a system of visionary
communication. The world, which to our eyes appears as a sequence of
coloured planes, in the art of engraving reveals itself as an
intricate universe full of the traces of signs. There are several
interpretative possibilities. The work takes off. This implies
translation, that is, relation with the source. It leads and it
seduces at the same time. Contact is made.
Everything
that in this communicative activity still insists on a
self-referential traditionalism is often the echo of a reverse
countdown inherited from the last century, a refusal to engage with
modernity.
In
a different way, the freedom to determine the self through the
artistic research of one's own autographic sign, cannot be separated
(in the sense of making an exception) from tradition (in its sense of
delivery). Only forcing it to take place can cause it to excel, move
outwards.
Ex-press
itself.
Alberto
Balletti Venezia, 2013
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