HOPERAPERTA 

ON THE OCCASION OF MILAN DESIGN WEEK PRESENTS  

“THE CELIBATE OBJECT. FOR A CHAMBER ART À RÉACTION POÉTIQUE"

AN EXHIBITION CURATED BY PATRIZIA CATALANO AND MAURIZIO BARBERIS IN COLLABORATION WITH 5VIE ART + DESIGN, WANNENES AUCTION HOUSE AND RADISSON COLLECTION HOTEL PALAZZO TOURING CLUB MILAN

At Milan Design Week 2021, HoperAperta, now in its third edition, proposes a theme of Duchampian memory with the exhibition “THE CELIBATE OBJECT. For a chamber art à réaction poétique”.

The theme of the Celibate Object – namely an object that cannot be reproduced because it is unable to generate anything beyond itself – was launched as a provocation by HoperAperta to a group of artists and architects, asking them for a work that was unique in its main artistic poetic – so much so as to make it a limited edition authorial piece – but also plural in the interpretation of a theme with an impossible solution. 

On display are works by Maurizio Barberis, Alfonso Femia, Dario Ghibaudo, Tiziano Guardini with Luigi Ciuffreda, Duccio Grassi, Mariano Martin, Roberta Orio, Steve Piccolo, Rudy Ricciotti, Davide Valloppi, and two special projects by Gaetano Pesce and Riccardo Dalisi in collaboration with the Galleria Luisa Delle Piane. 

The concept of célibataire is ‘absolutely contemporary’, but has been little explored because it is complex to define it unequivocally. On the contrary, being ‘celibate’ can have many positive values: it means having a clear idea of one’s identity, who I am, where I am and, above all, what direction I am moving in. It means seeking, through one’s uniqueness, a dialogue with others, not by virtue of similarity but through a dynamic integration between differences, which means not falling into a mannerism that is an end in itself – because it is fashionable – but the search for an interpretational figure of one’s own to share with others. This can generate, as in the Milan exhibition, a plural and diversified story, made up of multiple narratives, as many as there are authors on display.

The works were created with the participation of Cromonichel, De Castelli, Disegno Mobile, Fornace Brioni, Julia Marmi, Marmi Faedo, Metalltech, Oemmebi, and Zeus, Italian companies that represent excellence in the processing of natural materials, wood, metal, stone, marble and terracotta, with an eco-sustainable approach and enhancement of the environment in which they operate.

As a corollary to the exhibition The Celibate Object, some projects from past editions of HoperAperta are being exhibited at the Radisson Collection Hotel Palazzo Touring Club Milan, a brand new opening in Corso Italia 10, a short walk away from the Wannenes Auction House. Here the art-design works by Angela Ardisson, Alfonso Femia, Maurizio Barberis, Dario Ghibaudo, Duccio Grassi, Steve Piccolo, and Davide Valoppi interact with the interior design of a historic building, that of the Italian Touring Club which, with a conservative yet contemporary project, has converted it into a 5-star hotel. This setting best expresses the spirit of HoperAperta which, ever since its foundation, has brought together different actors and skills between art, design and high craftsmanship.

Info

HOPERAPERTA, THE CELIBATE OBJECT.

For a chamber art À RÉACTION POÉTIQUE
curated by Patrizia Catalano e Maurizio Barberis

In collaboration with:

For the realisation of the exhibition: Big Broker Insurance, Cromonichel, De Castelli, Disegno Mobile, Fornace Brioni, Julia Marmi, Marmi Faedo, Metalltech, Oemmebi, Candle Store Gallery, Zeus

 Food & Beverage: Cantina Montelvini, Patatas Nana

The video installation brings together images of a sound performance featuring instruments made and played by Luca Formentini and Stefano Castagna and the voice of Steve Piccolo.
What might seem – in normal hands and normal circumstances – an infernal or desiring machine becomes celibate precisely by virtue of the way it is played, with extraordinary sensitivity, by the two musician-inventors, in response to a specific request from Steve Piccolo. Part of a long-term project seeking to find something deeper in karaoke, the epitome of musical obviousness. 

Production: Steve Piccolo with Fabio Selvafiorita for the SOLOS project by ERRATUM

Five large artworks on the wall recount the imaginary furniture by the artist, architect and photographer which, represented in two-dimensional form, is precipitated and embodied in a series of terracotta sculptures-domestic objects. Of Furniture of Invention uses supports for sculptures in oakwood, brought from controlled reforestation areas; the sculptures are in pure unpainted clay.
Production: Disegno Mobile 

This draws inspiration from Constantin Brâncuși’s endless column and his concept of organic modularity. The column, a primary structural element in architecture, becomes a Totem, made from recycled metal, a composite game to define the aggregative modularity of objects, architecture and society. Which by nature, according to Femia, are random. 

Production: De Castelli.

With the contribution of Metalltech

The project consists of three carpets hung on the walls, like Orthodox or Christian votive icons, at any rate Western. On the carpets appear words that designate the deadly sins, among other things. The significant and diversifying element is an overview of the human brain on which, for each sin, the neuronal area involved is highlighted, a sort of post-CT icon. Everyone, of every race and religious belief, when faced with vice, activates the same brain areas. 
Production: Dario Ghibaudo.  

A composite interplay of self-supporting elements in burnished iron and shelving-elements of hand-made glazed terracotta, the oldest and most sustainable of materials. Grassi’s research moves towards the sense of perceived matter, what we see and what we think we see represented by his totems.
Production: Cromonichel, Fornace Brioni, Oemmebi 

A pair of tapestries designed and worked in the logic of eco-sustainability and the circular economy, a philosophy that has always characterized the work of the Fashion Sustainable Designer Tiziano Guardini and the designer Luigi Ciuffreda.

Made with materials from archive fabrics, the two panels are one-off pieces but they dialogue with each other. The work tells a story of awakening to the awareness that we are all part of everything. “The mind sometimes lies,” says Guardini “and it projects us into an isolated vision of ourselves that requires us to act as unique and celibate beings.”But a breath is enough to understand that the entire universe thrives on interdependence.
Technical sponsors: Econyl®, GruppoCinque

Produced in collaboration with – Cesarina Feminis Domenech Cabrera, Giorgia

Asia Lijun Gao, Chiara Cattaneo, Anna Amicucci

A tribute to Bruno Munari’s Useless Machines (published in “La Lettura” for 1940), a project that seeks to challenge the performance of matter, in this case stone, and much else. His is a poetic that works against the obvious and the usual. “For what reason,” asks Mariano, “Does stone always have to be cut orthogonally? Why can’t we disrupt this rigorousness? And above all, Why do we have to consider stone an ‘authoritative’ material and not, for instance, sustainable? Munariano is a work created with discarded pieces of Piasentina stone.

Production: Julia Marmi

The photographic project by the Venetian author explores the concept of identity through the display of gestures, modes, details, forms. An exploration of the personality of the subjects portrayed, revealed by the garments placed at the center of a neutral place. The garments, shoes, become the protagonists of a possible interpretation of the person who has worn them and placed them in a pose, ready for the portrait of an invisible yet tangible self.

Une mer de fous entourée de cinglés…

Une déchirure qui ne cicatrisera jamais !

Tel est l’état de la carte de découpage territorial pour les migrants…

A sea of craziness surrounded by madmen...

A laceration that will never heal!

Such is the state of territorial division for migrants...

A coffee table that seeks to be a hymn to dance and a challenge to the laws of stability. At the center of the table top a tiny ballerina seems to make the table ‘dance’. Since it has a hemispherical base, it rocks and its stability is precarious. For Davide Valoppi célibataire is manifested as a perceptive disorientation that becomes the existential condition of a contemporary frailty. 

With the contribution of: Candle Store Gallery