Pure Light: Emptiness and Space by Michel Vergaux. exhibition in Milan

The personal exhibition can still be visited until July 13 at A arte Invernizzi in Milan Michelle Vergaux. Découper plier éclairer: des corps et du vide? On the screen, in the vast expanses of the basement, four éclairages The works made of pure light, among the most recognizable works by the French artist, were envisioned as site-specific interventions that make the most of the nature of the architectural space available. Upstairs, the stainless steel statue steals the show Découper / plier, à Hauteur d’homme Which, as the title says, “at eye level”, the artist did not reach the dimensions of in his previous productions. The corollary to the exhibition are some smaller copies of the work and some preliminary sketches, which show the complexity of his creative path.

The exhibition revolves around themes that have always been dear to Verjux, such as emptiness, space and space. The artist argues in the paper accompanying the exhibition

[…] Are these three nouns only to refer to the same “thing”, something which, like air, relates to that which is intangible, and we cannot touch it? But isn’t the intangible only intelligible when we put it in relation to the tangible, such as elementary particles, objects, or bodies? “.

Thus light becomes a preferred material tool in Verjux’s research, as an element that intersects with others: fragile but enduring, and indispensable to any form of visual or plastic art, which could, “trivially”, in its absence be of no Experience.

The inspiration was born, and not from the work of artists who, like Verjux, work with light, from those of the generations who had matured in the first and second centuries and had – according to the artist himself – an artistic practice than I work in a studio more traditional, elementary, simple and positive. Few names, between abstraction and simplicity? Pete Mondrian, Barnett Newman, On Kawara, Karl Andre, Neil Toroni.

The éclairages

in case if éclairages Displayed within the spaces of the gallery A Arte Invernizzi, it is particularly evident how it relates to the specific characteristics of the architectural environment in which it hosts. Verjux defines in this sense:

[…] When we shine fragments of light on the lines, levels, and volumes of space, we are not only playing with fullness and emptiness; The “reality” that is “essential” to a body that feels that it is crossing “emptiness” (in fact, air), that it is within a “place” and moving within a “space”, becomes tangible, practical and intelligible “”.

sculptural works

Verjux uses emptiness, space and space as keys to interpretation also in relation to physical sculptures, whether large or small: works – thanks to the folds and cuts made on a stainless steel plate, a material “heavy but not too heavy,” in search of balance, which gives Sculpture is ‘bodily as well as raw beauty’ – reproducing the same architectural forms that Verjux’s luminous works continue to evoke thanks to research he conducted in the early ’70s and ’80s. The same plays of light that form the core of many of his immaterial works actually trace back to sculpture: through Semi-circular pieces made in steel, light passes through and reflects off the surface of the metal forming circles in an illusion Giotto’s precision Material and moral are two sides of the same coin: the real.

Michelle Vergaux. Découper plier éclairer: des corps et du vide?
Gallery Arte Invenizzi
Monday to Friday 10-13 15-19, Saturday by appointment
Via Domenico Scarlatti 12, Milan

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