Technogel® believes that artists, thanks to their outstanding imaginative and creative thinking, are able to discover new shapes and dimensions of design, applying the 3D properties of Technogel® to new concepts, techniques and industries. The results that emerge from the artists' creative work contribute to further develop the technological and innovative knowledge about Technogel, thus increasing its potentiality in industrial applications. Furthermore, prestigious international galleries have shown great interest in exhibiting artworks based on Technogel® technology, which allows the company to have a significant role in some of the most important creative venues around the world. Technogel® Art Project has so far supported, among others: Rachel Whiteread (2001), Mariko Mori (2003), the Cracking Art Group (2008), Charlotte Mumm (2009), and Akira Arita (2009).
Technogel Art Project
Between art and science
Since 2001 Technogel® has sponsored an annual selection of young and rising artists, allowing them to independently express their creativity by developing an artwork made with Technogel. The continuous collaboration between artistic thinkers and Technogel® has led to the establishment of the Technogel® Art Project. The Technogel® Art Project, however, is not only an artistic collaboration, but it also comes from a precise scientific interest.
Artworks
Untitled (Doorknob)
by Rachel Whiteread
As Adrian Searle accurately described on “The Guardian”: “Rachel Whiteread’s art is almost entirely concerned with the places where we live, and the places where we might also die. In the end, it all comes down to the empty room, the table and chair, the space under the stairs, the mattress and the bath, the light switch, keyhole and door knob, a life packed away in a cardboard box on a shelf”.
Cube I, Cube II, Cube III
by Akira Arita
In a sort of stackable puzzle of geometric shapes, Arita’s artworks show the gel’s qualities of permeability to light. The Japanese artist translates his geometrical painting – which already carries within the third dimension – into sculpture, interpreting cylinders, cones, cubes, pyramids and other objects, single or multiples, with no intention to symbolize or allude but to simply represent the very shapes.
Talpa Be
by Charlotte Mumm
Technogel’s experimentation and conceptual research is reflected in the collaboration with German artist Charlotte Mumm and realization of her Talpa be. The mole is made in lead – therefore extremely heavy compared to its small physical proportions – and it lies on a hill of Technogel®, which deforms under the mole’s weight.
Oneness (Aliens)
by Mariko Mori
Six “alien” figures, linking hands on a circular base, connected through magnetic infrared proximity sensors, which – set inside the aliens’ chests – respond to the visitors’ embrace by sending a signal amplifier enhancing heartbeats through a low frequency diffuser.
Penguins
by Cracking Art
An art close to people, not thought for galleries and museums, but an interactive art for anyone – from children to elders – to touch, move, stir, and participate. Without exception. Their themes are also close to people: artists, being men of the present day, must get involved in daily problems and issues. Environmental emergencies, safeguard of life and freedom. And plastics.