Madreforma
Leonardo Gensini, Preliminary drawing for the ceramic work 1
Leonardo Gensini, Preliminary drawing for the ceramic work 2
Leonardo Gensini, Preliminary drawing for the ceramic work 3
Leonardo Gensini, Madreforma
Leonardo Gensini, Madreforma
Motherform
The ceramicist has unusual fingers, as sensitive as those of a musician. He has the idea of clay in his head from when he begins to blend, wet, dig, scratch and model the soft, damp material. He gets his hands dirty.
His touch changes, delicate yet still mute, when the dry clay becomes fragile, unpredictably fragile. Then the fire that hardens renders the material strong and vibrant and forges a very different fragility. It requires yet another touch, a ringing fragility. The craftsman truly senses the integrity of the manufacture only when he skilfully plays it and makes it ring at length.
The acid sound of ceramics is, however, known to us all through the daily use to which we put the material. It’s a familiar sound, an archaic, primordial contact, as natural as the sound of water. Ceramics that wants to make itself heard in its forms of us. Keras that contains and protects.
Leonardo Gensini
Madreforma by Leonardo Gensini was made in Albisola in 2003 during the 2nd Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary. Art.
Mauro Castellano - Brevi onde di ritorno (figurazioni pianistiche)
Mauro Castellano, Brief Return Waves (piano figures). Transcription for pianoforte of the sounds of the ceramics by Leonardo Gensini
Mauro Castellano, Brief Return Waves (piano figures). Transcription for pianoforte of the sounds of the ceramics by Leonardo Gensini, 2, 3
Mauro Castellano, Brief Return Waves (piano figures). Transcription for pianoforte of the sounds of the ceramics by Leonardo Gensini, 4, 5
Mauro Castellano, Brief Return Waves (piano figures). Transcription for pianoforte of the sounds of the ceramics by Leonardo Gensini, 6, 7
I have recently seen stunning new cymbals and percussion instruments created on Leonardo Gensini’s wheel that, struck and left to vibrate, release wonderful resonances into the air. These ceramic sounds had colours — a musician frequently sees colours in sounds — similar to the “bells over the calm lake of memories” (De Pisis), memories that for me are the bells of Venice, similar to my research into piano resonances.
... In the work of Leonardo Gensini, the ceramic resonating instruments feature musical markings that, like true musical scores, prescribe their use... My musical piano materials of chords and resonance will superimpose themselves in counterpoint (a long established musical practice) over the ceramic pictographs: in my case I shall adopt only Indian ink on paper.
Mauro Castellano
Mauro Castellano, Albisola Keramik Zentrum
