Roberta Bertozzi interno 38

Foundations
In 2011, Verter Turroni, personal exhibition catalogue
Galleria Gasparelli Arte Contemporanea, Fano 2011

abstract

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The object is reborn by entering a new form. However, this form remains at a larval stage, like a chrysalis – a sequence that has been contracted in its act of evolution. There lies one of the aspects that relates these works to the area commonly known as installation art. Some specific dynamic processes are shared by Turroni and this practice, for instance the strong interaction with the site that hosts the execution of the work of art, or the time-based factor that has determined its creation; yet, there are as well more significant differences, if one compares these works with installation art. Turroni’s research is marked by a spirit of permanence, by the will to both enclose and create nucleuses that act as magnets, as circumscribed symbols, and as firesides. Moreover, instead of the dispersion typical of installations, here one can observe a splendid plastic concentration, a kind of thickening or monumental projection even when the piece has been devised on a reduced scale. The attempt to give a formal definition for these works is also provided by the artist himself, who coined the beautiful term archiscultura (archi-sculpture), i.e. the hybrid between architectural and sculptural intention, where the first, by adding volumes and lines, is continuous vis-à-vis the space, while the second performs a series of cuts, thus producing an indefatigable competitiveness against it. The term coined by the artist is absolutely eloquent, because the prefix suggests the proximity between these works and the measure established by an archetype; in other words, these works are very much close to a model that absorbs the dimensions of time and space of a contingency and ends up becoming both its accomplished synthesis and ideal hypothesis. The gap has the features of a banner, the stele is made of grossly consolidated concrete; a glaze of fibreglass, which is an exemplary simulation of the marmoreal complexion, represents, for us, the symbol of an ancient perfection that polishes or creates highlights upon a number of different surfaces. Every component, whether it is stylistic, operational or material, effectively seems to point at the tension pulled against the proportion, the precision, and the inexhaustible nature which we commonly attribute to classical art.
As I observe the works of Verter Turroni, the classicism I think of is not one marked by historical chronology, nor has it anything to do with the existence of canons or acquisitions. It is rather a classicism that, through the equilibrium achieved with the means that every era provides us with, becomes a creator and a referent, as well as an embankment and a perspective; it is a classicism that resides in a determined approach, in order to let itself go to an endless escape; even better, to quote a magnificent definition by the poet Osip Mandel’štam, one that “is perceived as something yet to be, not as something that has already been”.