Non c'è niente da vedere

About

For more than a century now, what we see has increased exponentially. The visible world has been technologized. Photography, cinema, advertising, TV, the internet, Google Street View, smartphones, Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, Instagram, virtual reality and augmented reality create a flood of new ways of looking at ourselves. Especially today, during a pandemic, we find ourselves exploring more of the world online than offline. This increase in visual information, could cause a panic according to renowned documentary maker Mark Cousins. So where could we possibly go to take a break from it all?

Hidden behind a wall of smoke, Paltrinieri, explores the space between the void, through a series of sculptures titled, W/Smoke, that block the view of a world beyond a window. You, the viewer, activate her sculpture, through a series of strategically placed sensors. A small hole placed at the bottom of the sculpture allows for a pipe, connected to a smoke machine, to quickly inject smoke between the insulated windows, instantly blocking the view of the beyond. A commonly used window turns into a wall between two spaces. When the gap between the windows is filled to the brim, a moment of respite, allows for an exploration of this smooth, almost creamy greyish cloud. Slowly the sculpture deflates, releasing the smoke through some punctured apertures situated on the top of the sculpture, allowing the viewer to slowly travel back again between two worlds and creating a moment of rest from all the visual distractions around.

While Paltrinieri blocks our view, Pinelli invites you to open a pair of shut curtains, examining the space beyond the void, through series of works which examine time and its flow. Tucked behind the curtains, are ephemeral works, where shadows and lights of everyday objects are fixed on the surface thanks to the action of the sun's rays that stimulate a sensitive support (foam rubber), on which daily life crystallises, creating landscapes of memory. Like a plant that must be watered, his work must be cared for, protected and hidden, when not in use, playing with the idea of conservation and preservation. Therefore, each time the work is uncovered it undergoes transformations that are imposed on it by human activities thorough the passage of time. The title originates by the hours of exposure to atmospheric agents (eg “380”).

If this line represents the spectrum of existing electromagnetic wave, including visible light, this is what we see: - is invisible to the human eye. We must limit life to that small, beautiful fragment, visible to the human eye. The world of Paltrinieri and Pinelli. Our lives are visual tapestries woven from thinking, feeling, moving, creating, laughing, loving, fearing, touching, reading, playing, remembering, hurting, dreaming and much more. Paltrinieri and Pinelli focus our attention on what is present, on that fragment of a line, forcing us to take our time to truly examine what is hidden behind a wall or a curtain. Focusing on the present to build a more constructive and solid tapestry of life.