Open Studio #1 | L’inizio del tempo

The protagonist of the first Open Studio is L’Inizio del tempo n. 2 (1958 – 230 × 270 cm), a large bas-relief in lead, zinc and tin, coming from a private collection in Cologne, restored during 2021.

It is an emblematic work, that highlights the climate of overcoming the Informal, in which Pomodoro investigates the spatial development of a surface no longer structured by the writings that characterize its beginnings, but concrete and consistent, animated by a gestural and absolute sign.

Alongside L’inizio del tempo will be exhibited a group of sculptures, drawings and design studies – some on loan from the CSAC of Parma – and numerous archival materials (photographs, catalogs, magazines, press clippings, correspondence…). Together, works and materials give account of the genesis of the work and the period of activity between 1957 and 1964, up to the realization of the Grande omaggio alla civiltà tecnologica (1960-1964 – 24 × 8 m) for the facade of the Popular University of Cologne, poetic synthesis between the investigations on sign-writing and sign-matter, of which the original design collages are exhibited.

In the Grande omaggio – the first proof of the artist’s interest and commitment on an architectural and urban level – Pomodoro brings into the sculpture, on the vast surface of concrete and bronze, a piercing of touches, grooves, knots, footprints and footprints: an illegible language, rich in history, almost symbolic and at the same time premonitory of the circuits of the first “electronic brains”.

This new course of the Open Studios is linked to a new course of the Project Rooms, the cycles of exhibitions of under 40 artists that take place every year in the exhibition venue in Via Vigevano 9. In fact, starting from the 2022 cycle, curators and artists will be invited to give their personal interpretation of the themes of the Open Studio. The Foundation thus intends to create a direct link between its historical investigation activities and those on the most recent developments in the contemporary art scene.

Starting from Wednesday 16th November, the Open Studio exhibition expands with the Archive Focus on La segretaria dell’astronauta, one of the artist’s dresses designed in 1961 by Arnaldo Pomodoro for the collection Modelli – Forme – Idee for the seamstress Bruna Bini. Deteriored over time and irretrievably destroyed, La segretaria dell’astronauta has been the subject of a remaking, authorized by the artist to commemorate his playful encounter with the world of fashion: it will be possible to see it until the end of the exhibition alongside La macchina del tempo (1960 – 145 × 150 m), bas-relief from which the dress borrowed its extravagant shape dominated by the smooth tubular element, very unusual in the artist’s catalog. The Archive Focus, set up on the occasion of the makeover of the dress, tells its story through the suggestions of photographs, magazines, drawings, and other materials.

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with the Patronage of