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P420 riapre i propri spazi ai giovani e grazie alla curatela di Chris Sharp, tre artisti internazionali si uniscono a formare Where the trees line the water that falls asleep in the afternoon. La scelta curatoriale trova in Afternoon*, poesia di Pierre Reverdy, il suo punto cruciale; ragionando sugli intensi spunti tematici e visivi suggeriti dalle parole del poeta francese, Sharp crea nello spazio libero delle sale, un ambiente.
“I just Reverdy because like the mood of his work. As for the artists, no one in the show made specific works in response to the poem or title. But I know they all really like it and identified with it.”
Non si tratta unicamente di una scelta di opere che riflettono, più o meno intensamente il contenuto del testo, ma dell’interazione delle opere con lo spazio ospitante e con gli agenti che su di esso agiscono, luce, aria e interazione. I tre artisti presentati, Rodrigo Hernández , Clare Grill e Kate Newby, si ricavano uno spazio proprio, e una propria interpretazione degli spunti poetici di riferimento. Parlando del lavoro di Kate Newby Sharp sostiene: “In Kate Newby works is easy to feel a strong connection to the enviroment that host the piece. Kate has been known to install her work both inside and outside a given exhibition space, she is always mindful of context. Even the works that are installed in the actual space are very involved with the environment. For instance, the wind chimes are in front of windows, some open, some closed. They are never just merely objects.”
Diversamente, nel caso di Clare Grill, si assiste a una trasposizione visiva delle parole che Reverdy utilizza nel racconto delle immagini, e proprio nella frase di chiusura “And, against the trembling background of the woods, the motionless man” si ritrova l’essenza dell’esposizione. In questo fondersi e distaccarsi delle opere, riconosciamo la potenza dell’unione tra poesia e arti visive che, sebbene in uno spazio chiuso e non caratterizzato, consentono la creazione di un’atmosfera, di un tempo rallentato, sospeso, di un istante che si distende nel tempo.
“The atmosphere I hope to create is one of a meditative or contemplative stillness. Even a preternatural calm. Like the dead of afternoon.”
In mostra fino al 19 settembre Where the trees line the water that falls asleep in the afternoon offre la possibilità di accedere a uno spazio altro, non tangibile, in cui le opere fungono da portale e le parole di Reverdy, da chiave.
Federica Colle
* Afternoon by Pierre Reverdy
In the morning that comes up behind the roof, in the shelter of the bridge, in the corner of ?the cypresses that rise above the wall, a rooster ?has crowed. In the bell tower that rips the air with its shining point, the notes ring out and already the morning din can be heard in the street; the only street that goes from the river to the mountain ?dividing the woods. One looks for some other words but the ideas are always just as dark, just as simple and singularly painful. There is hardly more than the eyes, the open air, the grass and the water in the distance with, around every bend, a well or a cool basin. In the right-hand corner the last house with a larger head at the window. The trees are extremely alive and all those familiar companions walk along the demolished wall that is crushed into the thorns with bursts of laughter. Above the ravine the din augments, swells, and if the car passes on the upper road one no longer knows if it is the flowers or the little bells that are chiming. Under the blazing sun, when the landscape is on fire, the traveler crosses the stream on a very narrow bridge, before a dark hole where the trees line the water that falls asleep in the afternoon. And, against the trembling background of the woods, the motionless man.
The space within – Where the trees line the water that falls asleep in the afternoon
The exhibition Where the trees line the water that falls asleep in the afternoon, opens Thursday, June 4th from 6pm to 8pm. Curated by Chris Sharp, this group exhibition features artists of different backgrounds, nationalities and mediums. If they are united by anything, it is a penchant for the so-called natural and a certain ambient quality. Prioritizing thoughtfulness over thought, the work presented here is more interested in the creation of mood than the transmission of ideas.
The Mexican, Basel-based artist, Rodrigo Hernández’s work, which is executed with a typically disarming simplicity, appeals to the sensuous, handmade character of objects while inquiring into the nature of the most fundamental media, such as sculpture and drawing, and the distinctions that supposedly separate and define them. The carefully crafted, multilayered paintings of the US-born, New York-based painter Clare Grill possess an atmospheric and muted character, variously reminiscent of textiles or shimmering surfaces. Finally the sculptures of the New Zealand, New York-based artist Kate Newby, fashioned out of everything from ceramic to textiles, generally engage the architectural aspects of a given space, subtly renegotiating it into something more meditative than functional.
Together they form the mood at the heart of Where the trees line the water that falls asleep, which comes from a poem by Pierre Reverdy, Afternoon, and which could be just the title, but also the press release of this exhibition.
