An exhibition for young Nicolo Cecchella at the Ex Ceramica Vaccari in Santo Stefano Magra

From July 30 to Sept. 15, 2022, the Cardelli & Fontana gallery in Sarzana is organizing a solo exhibition of the young Nicolò Cecchella (Guastalla, 1985) entitled Una sola traccia opposta alla luce, curated by Mario Commone and Lara Conte, at theEx Ceramica Vaccari venue in Santo Stefano Magra (La Spezia). Cecchella’s research addresses the dynamics of representation by declining them through the themes of identity, the body and human presence. Through a continuous and skillful traversal of materials and languages - sculpture, photography, video, installation - the artist investigates the relationship that the image of the body assumes with the environment that surrounds it and with the natural and organic dimension in which it fits.

Trace, imprint, cast are some of the processes through which Cecchella investigates her own body as a measure and phenomenological relationship between the self and the world, as a possibility to investigate the roots of representation and the visible. His research connects a conceptual investigation nourished by philosophical and theoretical references with a skillful ability to relate to the materials and processes of sculpture, as well as to the processes of photography and video, understood as a concrete and archaeological investigation of the medium.

On display will be sculptures such as Earth Face, Teeth Trace, Head, Eyes - casts and impressions of parts of the artist’s body, made using materials such as terracotta, platinum pigments, aluminum and brass castings -, a photographic plate presented and declined in sculptural form, made through the use of wet collodion, silver nitrate and gold. In addition to these, there is a work such as Marsyas, belonging to the sculptural series of the same name, in which the artist makes use of cement, silicone rubber and vulcanized latex, and, finally, the video Only with Eyes from whose frames two photographic prints were also derived.

Of the project Only with Eyes, presented for the first time on this occasion, Cecchella writes: “This is the title of the work. And it could not be more appropriate and real than that. For that is only how we are. So is the artist’s gaze and so is the man: alone, with eyes. So, too, is the work. The video itself, stripped of all tinsel and artifice, presents us exclusively with this close-up cut of eyes. An elided face, of which only eyes remain. A face brought down to the bare minimum of a gaze, a gaze that stands as a revealed identity and precedes its name. Only and only the opening and closing of the eyes that is repeated. The viewer watches and waits only for the moment when the eyes will open again restoring his sight. Restoring to him the possibility of seeing - seeing what, who? The other’s gaze that is his own. True motive and motive for his existence. In this alternation, the gaze becomes almost totally corporeal, it opens to its physical dimension, we perceive the trembling of the eyelids, the dilation of the pupil, the moist edge of the eyelashes, everything that is normally imperceptible becomes visible and sensitive. Everything about seeing that is normally taken for granted becomes visible. It is the becoming of the body of the gaze. A way of light through flesh. Nothing more.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with writings by the artist and texts by Mario Commone, Lara Conte and Andrea Cortellessa.

Niccolò Cecchella, who lives and works between Reggio Emilia and Rome, recently participated in the exhibitions Trees and Leaves curated by Paola Stacchini Cavazza and Mario Peliti, Galleria del Cembalo, Palazzo Borghese, Rome, 2021-2022; Verde Brillante curated by Leonardo Regano, Galleria Antonio Verolino, Modena 2022; Fotografia Italiana Contemporanea curated by Galleria Indice, Milan, 2022; Lido Contemporaneo AIR - Lido La Fortuna, Fano, 2022; Abecedario Palazzo del Governatore, as part of Parma Capitale Italiana della Cultura 20+21; È sempre un problema capire come devono stare questi corpi curated by Luca Zuccala and Andrea Tinterri, State Of, Milan, 2021; Hole curated by Andrea Tinterri + Tatanka, Adiacenze, Bologna 2021.

The artist’s projects also took part in the exhibitions Impronte curated by Angela Madesani, Galleria Passaggi, Pisa 2019; Spatium curated by Angela Madesani, Palazzo Barbò Torre Pallavicina, Bergamo, 2018; In Posa curated by Paola Stacchini Cavazza and Mario Peliti, Galleria del Cembalo, Palazzo Borghese, Rome, 2016; L’ Uccisione, Loft Project ETAZHI, St. Petersburg, Russia 2010 and Gallery Vychiod, Petrozavodsk, Independent Republic of Karelia. He has exhibited at the 2016 Francesco Fabbri Prize for Contemporary Arts and the 2011, 2012, 2013 European Photography Festival. He was awarded the NEXT Award for Theatre - Regione Lombardia 2016 and Portfolio Europa, Festival Fotografia Europea 2013. For La Triennale di Milano CRT Teatro dell’Arte he curated the set design of the play Mi Richordo Anchora, 2016. He is a founding member of the Teatro Sociale di Gualtieri.

Pictured: Nicolò Cecchella, Marsyas (2015-2022; concrete, river sand, iron, paper, platinum silicone rubber, 103 x 82 x 23 cm)

An exhibition for young Nicolo Cecchella at the Ex Ceramica Vaccari in Santo Stefano Magra

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