Exhibitions & Events:
Saint Petersburg _ 2014 "Yellow Korner Art Gallery" _ Daniele Basso "Special Guest" at "Saint Petersburg Design Week 2014". The Renaissance overcame the Middle Ages in developing a new relationship with Nature by rediscovering the ancient humanistic knowledge and applying technical expertise to any human activities, including daily chores. Within this scope, Art helped shape society, and provided both testimony and reports of the age, thus disseminating the long-standing principles that modern society is based on. As custodians of humanistic knowledge, artists drew upon their perception and talent to turn the technology of their time into something meaningful for society and mankind at large.
Similarly, today we can draw upon the huge technological revolution that has been developing since the 20th century – a true Renaissance, rich in scientific knowledge and discoveries – to create a new approach and relationship with nature through technology and IT, the real expressions of contemporary world. We therefore need to find a simple, tangible application for the new learning, actually exploiting knowledge to contribute to human growth. If we fail to do so, we risk falling back into a current version of the Middle Ages, characterized by savagery and warfare, destructive power instead of constructive learning, as well as economic, religious and social tension which may repress Knowledge and Research, with uncontrolled intolerance and change-hindering fear.
Anybody who wants to shape and design future is now faced with the task of acting for the moral progress of society, by turning technical and technological learning into social, cultural and humanistic Renaissance, based on the relationship among different cultures and with Nature itself. Through Technology and Art - meant as man’s highest creative expression to seek blissful inspiration and beauty, we can foster the development of new interpersonal relationships and interaction between individuals and objects, the man-made industrial world and the Nature we live in, in order to ditch our Medieval society to grow into a new techno-cultural Renaissance, rediscovering meaningful human and social relationships, our sensitivity, warmth and compassion, and cultivating these qualities to build up tomorrow’s society.
This concept is embodied in Naturae, unique in its core, yet endowed with a plural name and many different facets.
Made in steel with innovative manufacturing techniques, it expresses a multifaceted modern language through its sharp edges and triangular fractal shapes, as an aesthetic revelation of new digital technologies and a physical metaphor of the many changes that have led us to the present world.
It is Venus redux, whose posture and shape are inspired by Botticelli’s Venus as an absolute symbol of femininity. As such, it embodies the contemporary ideal beauty ad recalls the trim and slender body of a sensual model, displayed when rising from the clear water of a remote mountain source among plants and flowers, set in a scenery where elements are fighting in a precarious balance that involves mankind and the life of everybody who is reflected in it.
Polished by man’s work and hardship, expressing the Italian cultural and social setting as well as handicraft abilities, this object displays pure light and shade, where men can look at their reflections and, at the same time, reflect upon the very essence of life.
This work effectively expresses everybody’s need for a relationship, which I think has lately driven true Nature to forcefully be revealed through an unnatural outburst of affection for man. By surging forward, Nature alerts us and ideally grants us our last opportunity, showing proof of the decline caused by our failure to abide by the rhythm, seasons and limits of the planet we inhabit.
However, this Naturae appears strong, safe and aware of giving us shelter, yet almost uncaring of men and their endeavours; it will outlive us, whatever we do. Appealing and heedless of our lack of concern, it is caught in the act of reclaiming its space to conquer the global balance and stability that nothing and no one can actually unsettle.
It is a vision that the mirror surface makes ethereal, a mystical epiphany whose beauty tries to stimulate all those who look at their reflection in it, in order for them to take action so as to create a better world and future.
(Daniele Basso, Biella April 21st, 2014)