Bertozzi & Casoni: Il Capitale Umano. Tra Consolazioni e Desolazioni / Human Capital. Between Consolations and Desolations

On Friday 16 September the Galleria Antonio Verolino inaugurates the solo exhibition of in its exhibition space in Modena, a few steps from Palazzo Ducale Bertozzi & Casoni “Human Capital. Between Consolations and Desolations”.

The exhibition, curated by Franco Bertoni, architect, art critic and expert in twentieth-century ceramics, is included in the program of the festivalfilosofia of  Modena (16-18 September 2016). Starting from the theme of the event, “competition”, the exhibition develops starting from “Polar Bear, 2016”, a sculptural installation,   depicting a gigantic white ceramic bear, which the artists Giampaolo Bertozzi and Stefano Dal Monte Casoni imagined caged, prisoner and at risk of extinction due to the geological and climatic changes determined by the invasive intervention of human activity.

Around this figure, emblematic of the evolutionary struggle, other works such as the baskets full of waste paper and snails, piles of dirty dishes, pipes in which objects of common use and captions, indicate the dialectic of composition and decomposition, death and regeneration that cross the existence of individuals and societies, in a continuous pendulum between consolations and desolations: they are the waste that everyone leaves behind, small local extinctions that agitate the world of things even in the era of abundance.

Particularly significant for the mission and identity of the gallery, the project of a textile work born from a design by Giampaolo Bertozzi and created manually by the workers activated by Antonio Verolino, who inherited the passion for precious carpets and tapestries from his father Raffaele Verolino, the antiques dealer who unquestionably represents the point of reference in this field in Italy and beyond.  < /span>The expertise acquired over the years has already led Antonio Verolino to collaborate with historicized artists of the caliber of Enzo Cucchi, David Tremlett, Luigi Ontani and Joe Tilson, who have been able to expertly combine their own visual suggestions with this ancient decorative art giving rise to textile products that are true works of art.

The new textile work by Bertozzi & Casoni, depicting a beehive which in turn draws a skull, is entirely hand-knotted in silk, a material that gives it a particular “movement” thanks to the change in color based on the light. The work is completed by a ceramic frame which also reproduces a beehive from which more than a thousand ceramic flowers arise.