... come ogni altro. Il vuoto è forma
Pinot Gallizio. Ceramic designs (never completed by the artist), 1957; Courtesy Archivio Gallizio, Turin
On the left: Antonio Siri, Piero Simondo, Luigi Caldenzano and Pinot Gallizio in the Siri laboratory, Albisola, 1965. On the right: Tiziana Casapietra, Alberto Viola, Roberto Costantino, Goshka Macuga and Ernesto Canepa in the Ernan laboratory, Albisola, 2006
Goshka Macuga, ... come ogni altro. Il vuoto è forma. Da Esperimento di pittura notte di Pinot Gallizio 1
Goshka Macuga, ... come ogni altro. Il vuoto è forma. Da Esperimento di pittura notte di Pinot Gallizio 2
Goshka Macuga, ... come ogni altro. Il vuoto è forma. Da Esperimento di pittura notte di Pinot Gallizio 3
Goshka Macuga, ... come ogni altro. Il vuoto è forma. Da Esperimento di pittura notte di Pinot Gallizio 4
I utilise the traditional curatorial display mechanisms that allocate the provision of “total” environments (Gesamkunstwerk) to exhibit other people’s work. In this environment, artworks are individuated from my own work as a facilitator of theirs, yet “my work” is structured by visual agreement, with each participation, into a complicit reading of the whole, as a collective endeavour. Each artwork is poised within the superimposing frames of authorship to suggest the overarching framework of the institution. This imitation of the museum methodology is not an ironic strategy in the direct sense of opposing its authority. It is an indirect and poetic device that loosens categories and pauses, seeking or fixing meaning. These relationships address issues of authorship and confront the individual and his/her singularity and experience.
The total environment, the work, which I assemble, is articulated by specific parameters in the exhibition space, such as the architecture of the display. Consequently, “the historical” loses its primary dimension, and becomes a-historical, non-historical, etcetera. The presence/absence of history is therefore inseparable from the participation of the viewer, which shows the indivisibility of the artist/curator mediation within the institution as a temporary construct.
During my research on the history of artists associated with Albisola, my interest focused primarily on Pinot Gallizio. His projects, such as Caverna dell’antimateria (Anti-matter Cave) and Tempio dei Miscredenti brought to my attention the existing parallels between my work methodology and Gallizio’s.
In 1999, I constructed an environment entitled Cave in Sali Gia Gallery, London. Both Gallizio and I attempted to create a “total” environment where the collective endeavour would take place.
In 1999, I was not aware of Gallizio’s existence, thus it was fascinating to find material at the Gallizio’s Archive in Turin. It created a new, historical frame for my work and a rich area of research. My experiments with making ceramics in Albisola negotiated Gallizio’s first experiments with art making and his collaborations with Simondo. At Siri Studio in 1954 they produced ceramic masks and vases which resembled Roman artefacts. The work has been lost and only exists as a series of photographic images and drawings, which has given me an indication of the aesthetics of the work, but not the process involved in the production of these ceramics.
Goshka Macuga
The ceramics by Goshka Macuga were made in Albisola (Italy) in 2006 during the 3rd Biennial of Ceramics in Contemporary Art.
