Milan, at the Gaggenau space the exhibition tracing 35 years of Paola Pezzi's career

A major exhibition tracing the thirty-five-year career of Paola Pezzi (Brescia, 1963): this is Passaggi di stato, an exhibition scheduled from April 4 to July 31 at the Gaggenau DesignElementi space in Milan. The exhibition opens as part of the 2022 art project Materiabilia promoted by Gaggenau and Cramum. Curated by Sabino Maria Frassà, the exhibition brings together 18 iconic works from thirty-five years of her career, chronicling the evolution of the Brescian artist. “All existence is a passage of state: we too, like matter, are subjected to pressures and mutations of the external environment, which push us to transform ourselves continuously. The challenge is to always remain ourselves,” the curator explains.

Passaggi di stato showcases the continuum of this transformation of matter and ideas, a metaphor for the existence that Paola Pezzi has always chronicled. Acting as the thread of the narrative is the importance of gesture as a tool for designing and at the same time making the final work. If the first works that brought her success, such as Nuclei originari (late 1980s), were the result of a winding gesture, of a centripetal spiral inward (the artist almost enveloped herself in herself, in a gesture hovering between catharsis and the search for protection), in the early 2000s we witness what could be referred to as the opening of the original spiral: the creative movement becomes increasingly centrifugal, always starting from a central origin outward. Examples of this are works such as the cycle A pieno mani, in which work gloves become works in the act of making. As curator Frassà tells us, “from a ball to a nest, Paola Pezzi’s art thus begins to reflect on the impact of the self on others, on the meaning of making and being an artist. Finally, her most recent art exudes a contagious energy: spirals and coils follow one another in different materials, moving through space, giving it ”life.“ Rarely are the works contained in a square form, and there is a sense that the works themselves are in a movement, in a constant becoming generated by the explosion of energy from which they originated.”

The whiteness of the material is the protagonist of this evolution over the years. Sabino Frassà tells how “after the first works, characterized almost by a rejection of light, the last twenty years of her career are dedicated by Paola Pezzi to works that generate and move light, even when the chosen color is black. Darkness does not exist ... anymore. Therefore, there are interesting experiments with new plastic and textile materials, taken from everyday life, in which white is increasingly combined with the tactile, almost sensual dimension, which manages to establish an immediate empathy with the viewer.”

Finally, the exhibition aims to highlight the strong bond between Arte Povera master Marisa Merz and Paola Pezzi. As curator Sabino Maria Frassà explains, “Pezzi is perhaps Marisa Merz’s best heir: not only the materials-from aluminum to textile fibers-but also the swirling movement bring these two great artists closer together. How can we not think of the large aluminum foil sculptures with which Merz began her career in 1966? Paola Pezzi brings a new element, however, and goes beyond that original core. Her art constructs order and a space; it is never chaos or chance that determines the result. Paola Pezzi’s artistic gesture disciplines and dominates matter, giving rise to forms in which the dimension of becoming is clear. A becoming that we cannot but look at with curiosity, waiting for a new passage of state.”

Paola Pezzi was born in Brescia on October 10, 1963. Since 1990 she has been the protagonist of important solo exhibitions, including “Paola Pezzi. Party Taken” at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome in 1995, “Redesigning the World” at the Italian Cultural Institute in Strasbourg and Luxembourg in 2010, and “Forma Mentis” at the Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon in 2018. His works have been acquired by major institutions including Collezione Panza di Biumo, GNAM Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, MAGA, Saatchi Collection in London, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Banca Intesa Sanpaolo and BNL.

State Passages opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. To book a visit: infocramum@gmail.com, gaggenau@designelementi.it phone 02 29015250 (extension 2).

Milan, at the Gaggenau space the exhibition tracing 35 years of Paola Pezzi's career

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