The exibition in Palazzo Binelli | Plastic Visions

In the context of WHITE CARRARA 2023 we present an exhibition of 6 photographers interacting on the
concept of sculpture, and a video by Andrea Botto.
Six ways of seeing and reporting the versatility of that ancient, fascinating material which is marble, always
alive and multifaceted, via the interpretation of their “plastic visions”.
Plasticity in the figurative arts is the quality of a work to define itself in space in a more or less marked way.
The real meaning of the term is understood as the capacity for creating a three-dimensional form typical of
sculpture. Its illusory meaning is understood as the ability to create a relief effect which is actually non-
existent. With various stratagems, in painting for example using chiaroscuro, or in low-reliefs a precise
variation of thicknesses, a sense of plasticity can also be obtained by using just interplays of light and shade
which, if observed from the front, give the sensation of three-dimensionality. A typical example is the style
of Donatello, known as “stiacciato” (flattened relief).

Photography, which by nature draws with light and works on depth of field, is no less skilful in interpreting
the splendid art of sculpture. So we can admire images of members and profiles of marble which seem
instead to be bodies in the flesh, thanks to those plastic interplays of light and framing (Bruno Cattani). We
see imposing statues, recovered from the deposits of English museums and covered with plastic sheets: a
symbol of protection, but also of that physical and emotional isolation which we suffered during Covid
(Simon Roberts). Or again, refined superimposed double photographic exposures of ancient works, busts or
sculptural portraits which attempt to give visual expression to the “aura”, i.e. the intrinsic value, of a work
of art, which makes it precious in itself regardless of the material used (Carolina Sandretto). Then a return
(strange for a photographic exhibition) to sculptural physicality, with a perfect balancing of the two-
dimensionality of the image and the three-dimensionality of the marble, in the works of Dune Varela.
Thanks to Giacomo Infantino, we penetrate the heart of the Apuan Alps where the quarries are. Places
where time is suspended and where marble was quarried even before the skilful hands of the artist
transformed it. To complete this exhibition, a video by Andrea Botto, an artist who has been photographing
and videoing explosions for about 15 years, investigating the processes of transformation of both the
material and the landscape, themes in a powerful and evocative dialogue with the installation in wood and
concrete by Stefano Canto.

So, not just photographs as simple documentations of statues, but rather six different ways of interpreting
the theme of sculpture, with differing plastic visions.