Before and After Gianni Colombo

On the occasion of Gianni Colombo exhibition which is currently on view in the Manica Lunga, the first collective work by Gruppo T, Ambiente a volume variabile - Grande oggetto pneumatico (Environment with Variable Volume – Large Pneumatic Object, 1960), is exhibited in this gallery (34), along with Feu d’artifice (Fireworks, 1917), by Italian Futurist artist Giacomo Balla (in gallery 36).
The presentation of important historical works such as Grande oggetto pneumatico and Feu d’Artifice offers an occasion for reflection on the origins of Colombo’s work, which can be traced to Futurism at the beginning of the last century and in particular to the work of Giacomo Balla.
Gruppo T – founded in 1959 by Giovanni Anceschi,
Davide Boriani, Gianni Colombo and Gabriele De
Vecchi, who would be joined the following year by Grazia Varisco – created kinetic objects with the goal of establishing a direct relationship with the viewer. As the letter T indicates, standing for the word ‘time’ and accompanying the name of the collective, the group proposed a temporal art with the purpose of creating perceptual, mobile and participatory experiments. Abolishing all static boundaries between painting, sculpture and architecture, Gruppo T proposed the creation of works in a state of becoming, which shift attention from the level of representation to that of perceptual experience.
Entitled Miriorama 1 (A Thousand Images), the first
exhibition of the group took place in January 1960 at the Pater gallery in Milan, accompanied by a joint
statement by the members. On this occasion the artists exhibited, in addition to Grande oggetto pneumatico, a series of deliberately unsigned collective works. The works were, like reality, considered as a process. Their exhibition included works by historical artists to which the members openly referred; such as Lucio Fontana, Enrico Baj, Piero Manzoni, Bruno Munari and Jean Tinguely. There was also a documentary section with photographs and texts. The photographs included reproductions of works by Constantin Brancusi,
Alexander Calder, Naum Gabo, Antoine Pevsner and Lázló Moholy–Nagy; the section with texts from the principal historical avant-gardes included the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture (1912), since
Futurism was a movement that the artists looked at
above all for the use of industrial materials and for the development of works that moved.
It is precisely within the context of emphasizing the
relationship between Futurism and the Gruppo T,
including that of Colombo, that the installation of
Balla’s Feu d’artifice, which has been part of Rivoli’s
permanent collection since 1997, is being presented.
Balla’s sculpture/performance/stage was shown at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on April 30, 1917, during the tour of the Ballets Russes, directed by Sergei Diaghilev to a score by Igor Stravinsky.
Composed of imposing geometric solids covered with painted and colored canvas, the production, a fleeting synthesis of geometry, music, light and movement, was directed by Balla himself who, working from a prompt box, modulated the light that illuminated the forms, resulting in a great visual impact. The event was intended to evoke Stravinsky’s music and the possible emotional states experienced when viewing the fireworks.
Before the Images (Davanti Alle Immagini, 2009), by Massimo Grimaldi is exhibited in gallery 35 and
traces a third chronological moment in the xhibition
path connecting Balla, Colombo, and the art of today.