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Writer's pictureEmiliano Galigani

ANTONIO MANZONI

Altered paper


My background is that of a classical Decorative Painter, the one who prepares walls for painting, who paints in fresco, in dry, who prepares grounds and colors. A house painter. Or Michelangelo. Over the years I painted, exhibited my works, until I reached a point where my painting, despite being refined in construction and technique, no longer satisfied me. I couldn't find inspiration in my work anymore. Everything seemed static, monotonous.

At that point, almost instinctively, I applied Munari's technique related to stereotypes: "... One of the most common ways to nullify any possible act of creativity is to have everyone draw the same theme, with the same tools, markers or tempera paints. So brushes and tempera or clay and other plastic materials are given to boys and girls for three-dimensional work. Often no technical explanation is given, leaving the children abandoned to themselves without any help. Many teachers say: we leave the children completely free to do what they want, we give them colors and clay and they will express themselves freely...


... Large sheets, very large and small, very small. No need to explain anything. Just tell the children to choose their favorite sheet and draw or paint with any means, whatever the shape of the sheet suggests to them. Many teachers have been amazed by the results, some children who had never drawn before have been encouraged to draw, seeing the enthusiasm of their classmates. Indeed, it can be understandable how a narrow and long sheet, seen horizontally, can suggest a snake, a car race, a train, a tree-lined avenue, a submarine in the sea... While if the same narrow and long sheet is considered by the child, vertically, then the resulting image can be: a missile, a tower, a skyscraper..."


Stereotypes also stem from a misinterpretation of the relationship between pencil and paper. So by changing one of the two factors, the mind is forced to find a different solution. What if we used scissors? That's what I did. Scissors, tearing, cutting became my drawing tools, the sheets of my works became my colors. It was a liberating moment.


But it was just the beginning. The papers, initially colored by me, then became just "papers" because they already had a color, their own. It just needed to be enhanced. And then the color overlaid on the paper was almost an artifice, it was giving color to a form, but the form itself existed and I had to materialize it. So the papers, the cardboards were used as hues and I enhanced them with waxes, oils, glues and charcoals, without other colors. The surfaces on which I placed the papers were canvas canvases on frames that were heavily projecting. Very fascinating, too much. Pushing towards the contrast between materials, I started using metal instead of canvas. Initially as a surface, the fragile paper and the hard metal, a powerful contrast. The direction was that but the transformation of the material had not yet taken place. The paper, the cardboard, could be fragile, but also almost return to a wooden state. However, for me the strength of the fragile material slowly materialized.


How did I develop my technique? Research. The support metal became the frame and the paper was tensioned by steel springs, which stretched it on the steel frame to the point of anguish, tense until just before tearing. The paper created the shape, the metal supported it. Contrasts. Of material. Of strength. Of tension. The paper was no longer treated, it was its strength that I sought to express. But the next step was when the paper managed to tension the metal. The metal, hard, apparently rigid, surrendered to the tension of the fragile paper, tensioned by steel springs. The void becomes form. The elements are minimal, the forces are stretched to the breaking point. Without realizing it, I became a sculptor. The works are three-dimensional. The transition from two to three dimensions was natural. But there is still another contrast to materialize, dimension. The works became space, they became environments. With paper and metal I transform the relationship between observer and work, the works become installations. Perceptions of environments are overturned.


What drives me to make art in the contemporary world? For others. In fact, it is not the use of paper that does all this. Paper, metal, springs are the tools and materials I use to communicate. But also, and above all, to satisfy that need for expression and research that is inherent in humans, not all humans are aware of their need for expression and research. It is lost, it is put aside if it has been there in youth. Yet it could be a useful tool in many situations.


The limit between this moment and the next has already passed. My work increasingly focuses on the action that transforms the plane into three dimensions. In current works, still in development, the acting tension is all in the paper. The action is in and of the paper. The flat sheet becomes volume with the fold, and the folds create a tension that activates the sculpture. The balance point - of the folds that become structure - is found in the magnets, placed at the center, balancing the forces. The physical divide between plane and volume is the fold. It cuts into the matter that is stretched, curves bringing the form into an energetic development. The temporal divide, between this moment and its becoming tomorrow, is the transformation between plane and volume. It is the moment when the paper transforms and becomes something else, it becomes form. Hands caress the paper and shape the folds, and the form becomes space, tension stretches the shapes. The divide between now and later. Invisible yet always present. Making art in the contemporary world. A necessity. Of meeting with others.


My making is training directed at other men. I usually don't talk about art, but about how to free the mind. There are no recipes, but activities that produce experiences. They are not beautiful products or ugly products. They are signs of a path.

The future project is to continue. Why with paper? Because I have always used it.








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