Fondazione Antonio Ratti

Richard Nonas

Bones – the western shore (Mappa Mundi 3)

ARTWORK
2003
Park of Villa Sucota

This emblematic installation is characterized by the use of local industrial materials, it is made of 35 granite and porphyry curbs previously used to delimit the sidewalks of the city of Como and now placed geometrically into the landscape. It feels as if Nonas let the shape and texture of this material guide him to this configuration, the result is a minimalist arrangement, horizontally oriented, which has the power to alter our sense of landscape creating a single visual experience in dialogue with its location. Nonas’ work is rooted in Minimal and post Minimal art and is characterized by an interest in the expressionistic possibilities offered by crude materials, which invoke gravity and weight and involve spatial definition and manipulation. In Nonas' body of work there is a balance between the use of minimalist and organic aspects, opening a dialogue between urban elements and natural ones. In this installation the curbs represent a unit of measure, a rhythm, an archetypal element, a natural stone echoing the tradition of its region and a shape coming from the world of crafts and industry tying itself to the territory. Bones – the western shore (Mappa Mundi 3) is a quietly powerful sculpture which retains an intimate and human scale and becomes a way of thinking about ourselves, as individuals and as collectivity.

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