T14 inaugurates its new gallery space with a collaboration between the Italian designer Pietro Russo and the Swiss artist Maya Rochat. The show marks the beginning of a new curatorial program that rethink the exhibiting space and works on the uniqueness of the presented artworks. The interaction between image and design gives birth to the whole visual experience that is beyond just seeing and touching, and T14 invites the visitors to live it fully.
Maya Rochat & Pietro Russo: LIVING IN A PAINTING
17 November - 23 December, 2018
Twenty14 Contemporary, Milan
Thinking about how we wanted to open the new T14’s exhibition space, we asked ourselves a fundamental question: what do we want to convey? The answer came from a negative statement: we do not want people to have to read
instructions before being able to approach the artwork. What you will find in the following lines is only an in-depth notes on the work of two artists who need no introduction to the reading of their poetry.
When we met Pietro Russo for the first time, it was like rediscovering that (rare) feeling of pleasant astonishment when a concept finds its expression in form, but with absolute simplicity, preserving the poetic tension proper to intuition.
During an interview Pietro told us:”do you remember when you pick up an old proverb that as a young person you did not understand and rediscover its value?”. Here is that immediacy, "that little absolute truth, which anticipates
knowledge without knowing how to explain it: the explanation it would be a limit. Besides, you can not say everything, but you can feel it.” For Pietro the space itself is a feeling, that is why each of his creation is vibrant and contains deep echoes. "Everything sounds" and everything is synthesis of memory, intuition, emotion and intelligent craft, with the noble intention that a feeling will become subject to live in a perpetual consecration of the everyday life.
So, why a dialogue between Pietro Russo and the creative explosion of Maya Rochat?
The Swiss artist takes us back to a process where the form is decomposed, in a creative magma that continues to
regenerate as a cellular organism. The works and photographic projections of Maya invade the space in a suggestive way, involving the public in a fluctuating and constantly moving world, which awakens in us a pure feeling of wonder. Everything becomes art, a manifestation of life, of color, of fusion between reality, perception and creative impulse. This is where Pietro takes over, creating a dramatic structure to this "chaos", a pillar, an object, an appearance, which in its strength yet retains an ambiguous character.
This exhibition marks the beginning of a new curatorial line for T14, which will see artists and designers collaborating together in a continuous reinterpretation of the art space, both in the physical and conceptual sense of the term.
Twenty14
Maya Rochat (b.1985) lives and works in Lausanne, Switzerland. She holds a bachelor degree in visual
communication at ECAL (Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne) and a Master at HEAD (Ecole d'art et de design Genève). Her work has been exhibited in several collective and solo shows in international institutions and galleries such as: Unseen - Amsterdam, Tate - London, Seen Fifteen - London, Palais de Tokyo - Paris, Lily Robert - Paris, Kunsthaus Langenthal. In 2017 she released the book “A rock is a River” published by Self Publish Be Happy. “Living in a painting” is her first show in Italy.
Pietro Russo (Ostuni 1967) works as an interior and product designer in his Milan-based atelier, together with a team of experts and in close partnership with a network of skilled Italian artisans. He has been called by the press «homo faber of the design industry», for his ability to combine his passion and creative exuberance with a meticulous manufacturing procedure, always looking for the perfect balance between the imaginary and the earthly dimensions.
