Jelly Fish Project

Technogel tra arte e scienza

 

Il percorso di Technogel con l’arte contemporanea ha inizio nel 2001 con la collaborazione tra l’azienda e l’artista inglese Rachel Whiteread, cui segue Mariko Mori nel 2003, Cracking Art Group nel 2008, l'artista tedesca Charlotte Mumm e il giapponese Akira Arita nel 2009.

A partire dal 2009 il Technogel Art Project apre le porte a Jelly Fish, una visiting artists research a cura di fondazione march, che prevede ogni anno l’accurata selezione di un artista internazionale che attraverso un’opera d’arte di nuova produzione utilizzi il Technogel per la propria ricerca artistica. 

 

Jelly Fish, il cui nome rimanda alle caratteristiche del materiale (translucido, morbido al tatto e alla vista), si propone di indagare attraverso il mezzo artistico le qualità del technogel®, ma soprattutto di far incontrare il pensiero laterale dell’artista con il progettare più specializzato di un’azienda. Creando uno scambio reciproco di intuizioni e mestiere.

L’intento di fondazione march è di creare, insieme a Technogel, occasioni di incontro con gli artisti per essere coinvolti in processi di pensiero che generano contributi di ricerca e possibilità inedite. Per gli artisti si presenta la possibilità di lavorare con professionisti che cooperano al meglio nella creazione di un’opera d’arte.

Quando Massimo Losio racconta il suo rapporto con l'arte contemporanea, parla di un sistema di valori che ha al centro l'uomo e di ricerca della purezza.

Perché l’arte? Nella sua visione, l'arte è più vicina alla verità rispetto al design, che per sua natura è legato a una funzione, all'utilità e al mercato che ne consegue. Almeno un certo tipo di arte, dove il fare è un’esigenza interiore di espressione e dove l'artista rappresenta un luogo ancora capace di senso critico e di grandi utopie.

L'arte in questa azienda è fine a se stessa, l'autenticità dell'artista evidenzia l'esistenza di un altro bilancio basilare, quello morale.

Importante è poi l'incontro con la progettazione artistica, che pensa “al di fuori della scatola” e aiuta a trovare quel qualcosa di fenomenale, inatteso e incredibile che è dentro il prodotto, così come dice “La Mucca Viola” di Seth Godin: l’artista così come l’imprenditore parte da un'idea iniziale che poi si costruisce nella sperimentazione del materiale, dagli errori e dagli imprevisti che si incontrano strada facendo, dalle situazioni che le caratteristiche del materiale stesso determinano.

È il senso della possibilità, l'idea che girato l'angolo qualcosa possa accadere e cambiare la vita.

Jelly Fish propone l’azienda come strumento capace di infondere libertà di pensiero e di mettere in gioco l'umano come risorsa fondamentale e imprescindibile.

 

Silvia Ferri de Lazara

direttrice fondazione march

Artworks

Technogel® Art Project

Tra arte e scienza

 

Dal 2001 Technogel® sostiene ogni anno una selezione di artisti giovani ed emergenti, dando loro la possibilità di esprimere liberamente la loro cratività, attraverso lo sviluppo di un'opera d'arte fatta con materiale Technogel®. La continua interazione tra artisti e Technogel® ha portato alla definizione del Technogel® Art Project, che non costituisce solamente una collaborazione a sfondo artistico, ma anche il risultato di una specifica ricerca scientifica.

Technogel® infatti ritiene che gli artisti, grazie alle loro straordinarie doti immaginative e di pensiero laterale, sono in grado di scoprire nuove forme e dimensioni del design, applicando le caratteristiche di tridimensionalità di Technogel® a nuovi concetti, tecniche e settori applicativi. Il risultato che emerge dal lavoro degli artisti, contribuisce a sviluppare ulteriormente la competenza technolgica e innovative dell'impresa, aumentnadone le potenzialità nelle applicazioni industriali. Inoltre, prestigiose esposizioni internazionali hanno dimostrato grande interesse nell'esporre opere d'arte basate sul materiale Technogel®, permettendo all'impresa di ricoprire un ruolo di rilievo in alcuni dei più importanti eventi d'arte nel mondo. Technogel® Project ha finora supportato, tra i vari artisti: Rachel Whiteread (2001), Mariko Mori (2003), the Cracking Art Group (2008), Charlotte Mumm (2009), and Akira Arita (2009).

Artworks

Senza Titolo (Doorknob)

Rachel Whiteread

L'arte di è Rachel Whiteread quasi interamente interessata ai i luoghi in cui viviamo e, quindi,  ai luoghi dove si potrebbe anche morire. Tutto si riduce alla stanza vuota, il tavolo e una sedia, lo spazio sotto le scale, il materasso e il bagno, l'interruttore della luce, buco della serratura e la maniglia della porta, una vita imballata in una scatola di cartone su una mensola.

 

Cube I, Cube II, Cube III

Akira Arita

 

In una sorta di puzzle componibile dalle forme geometriche, il materiale mostra le sue qualità di permeabilità alla luce. L’artista giapponese passa dalla pittura geometrica - che ha già in sé la terza dimensione – alla scultura, interpretando cilindri, coni, cubi, piramidi e altri oggetti come singoli o come multipli, senza voler simboleggiare o alludere ma semplicemente rappresentare le forme stesse. 

Talpa Be

Charlotte Mumm

La sperimentazione e la ricerca concettuale dell'azienda si rispecchia nella collaborazione con l'artista tedesca Charlotte Mumm nella realizzazione dell’opera Talpa be. La talpa è di piombo, estremamente pesante rispetto alla sue ridottissime proporzioni fisiche e si poggia su una montagna di Technogel® che si deforma per sostenerne il peso. 

I want to tell you something about that

by Antonio Guiotto

The project moves, or tries to move, in balance within an invisible steadiness. I consider it as an invasive literary and sound experiment, which stimulates one sense only and tries and set your attention on meditation, suggestion.

You need to close your eyes, breath in and listen, totally similar a dynamic to when you seek inspiration to plan for something, to let yourself go and get where you need to arrive, as so it has to be.

This is the way I have seen and see some aspects of this project, how I have seen and see the company, what I would say to those who founded all this, how I have intended this type of collaboration which boundaries dilate inside and outside their work, the importance I remark in their experimentations, and how I have perceived each artist’s work, both as in method and work of art.

Press play, close your eyes, and enjoy your journey.

Audio tracks

  • Luca Trevisani

    Artist, gel, hair gel, sculpted hair, gel sculpture, gel piece, technological gel piece, jelly, ice cream, shoe laces, five thousand, a disc, walking, going far away, tying hands, staying still, transparency, fluorescence, rope, work, pulling, letting go, holding, suspending, a rotatory movement of the hand on a forelock of hair, remaining seated, waiting and sighing, admiring, speaking, asking, answering, writing, pulling a line, the first line of a plan, the exact moment in which the tip of a pen, a pencil, a chalk is put down on a sheet, a wooden piece, a note-book page, the exact moment in which a finger, with or without glove, is put down on the key of a computer, of the mouse, on the button of a machine that injects a gel that has been chosen for that precise function, 5+5, 5 words, 5 feelings, 5 concepts, 5+5 sounds that remind you of what you have made, and why you have made it, 5 seconds to unwrap a jelly candy, 5+ 5 seconds to look at it and eat it, knots, images, he does not seem happy, a puff, a problem to solve, maybe it works, sticky, a little the material, a little the humidity, Luca Trevisani, Untitled, or one hundred and four (104) in numbers, a code, a cataloguing, no, it’s the number of elements, 520, a boiling liquid, not water, the bubbles in the liquid, for 104 times, no only 104 bubbles, little bouncing balls, at least 3, then, pause, a fan and an iron, the sound we obtain when trying to make the little balls and the iron bounce while the fan spins, and then a pot, the same things and then you switch on a drill and while you record the sound both in the light and in the dark, in the end it’s the same, reflection, which mustn’t take long, poker cards, hands that make the cards slide, noise of an old lift, old Milan ladies chatting, white swans of Berlin, rubbing hands making fast friction palm to palm, hands on the chin, while cars dart in the provincial road to his right.

  • Michael Beutler

    It’s a white noise, it’s a pain in the abdomen, in the arms, in the legs, the more you wiggle, the more you get tangled up, it’s a metal spider web without spider, with thorns, it’s a bramble garden, it’s a garden of coiled briars, cold, it cuts and it pricks, it is the sense of fear of he who puts up the sign “PRIVATE PROPERTY”, all together, so much that he does not sleep at night, that he who puts up the sign has strange dreams, like for example: someone stealing his property. Because in that property, which is private, he thinks there is a treasure, the treasure is the property, he is afraid, he does not sleep at night, does not sleep very well, sleeps little. In the morning the same thoughts of yesterday, ugly thoughts, thoughts of somebody who steals something. Then there’s the other, beyond that bramble garden of coiled metal, that the more you move the more you remain entangled, he drops the rubber, a hard gel protecting that razor wire, protecting the property, that continues being private, but he who has placed the sign now sleeps calm, now sleeps, has beautiful dreams, and in the morning when he wakes up he has new thoughts, maybe he will remove the sign, maybe he will open the doors and the gate, if someone decides to pop by for a visit. Private property, no, it’s a joke…

  • Collaboration

    Work in a team, take the common good towards an univocal direction, but not only that, know how to listen, know how to read the people, say, mediate, decide, choose, have the intuition that on a wrong day time has a different relation from the rest of the days, succeed in picking the essence and talent of every individual. For everyone a common quality, to sense and grasp, to be able to say no, to be able to say, to be able to express ourselves with means that are personal, to be able to pick that way of expressing ourselves, method, order, a bit of madness, to be able to look far away, to be able to wait, to be able to exceed a limit and create a new one to exceed and so on. Ability to solve problems, predisposition, baggage, experience, confidence and friendship, past in the pockets, memories, optimism, arguments, crash, encounter, need, necessity, preparation, do things others don’t have the courage to do, to go against everyone, to say “stop”, to say “finally”, to tell the truth, not say “I told you”, anticipate, run, think, meditate, work, dream, open the eyes, both ours and others’, to sigh in relief, to be afraid, to be worried, to hold, not to change idea, change idea, change direction, remain, skip, delegate, reward, to pardon, to punish, clean, whisper, cry, laugh and get angry, bark, dazzle, fall, to raise ourselves and dust it off, to stand in front of all and say something important, participate, listen, follow, eat, gratify.

  • Experimentation

    Try, try and try again, until we obtain a result, it’s that we don’t know what we are looking for, maybe we have something in mind. Doors are opened, it’s the miracles that attend us, too many to count. A collection of errors is worth as much as the successes, we can be mistaken, we can improve, because we know that, if not tomorrow perhaps the day after, we will find a solution. Sometimes we look for something and we find something else instead, this is not a miracle but it’s near to a miracle, it’s a goal, because some things arrive at night, when we are sleeping, when we are dreaming, and then in the morning, before scratching our head which feels a little numb, that intuition arrives, an outline, an image, like scientific and technological shamans we open our mind and we let it all in, we’ll make a choice later on. We don’t speak about failures, at least not all of them, because we know that sometimes to take the wrong road, just because we have misread the map or not trusted the gps, is to find ourselves by chance in front of a bistro, a bar, a public square, to meet someone that has changed our life. If you don’t experience it in life, if you don’t accept the unexpected, you miss out the pleasure to do things. You lose the pleasure to do things, you lose the pleasure to do things, you lose pleasure, you lose things, you lose stuff.

  • Factory

    The color yellow is in tune with the galvanizing and the sky-blue. Galvanized tubes, turbines and propellers. A fan, another fan! The spin is a movement, the spin is sure noise. Motors that inject a liquid in a mould. The mould was created for a precise shape. Every shape is precise. A technological gel. The gel is injected in the shape, to create other equal shapes. Equal shapes to create a unique shape. A hammer goes bang, a forklift truck, another noise of hammer, closer. People who pass by, people who talk. Something green, the heat, a carousel. Someone works, someone speaks of work. A puff. A hiss. The floor is concrete. The forklift truck silently rolls on the concrete. Outside nature, inside the machineries make noise. Soft and sticky, soft to sleep, to dream, to think, to rest and have new thoughts. Neon lights make a cold light! Meanwhile, the gel continues being sticky. A squirt, a compressor, nylon as to not make hands stick. Careful, precise hands separate different materials. New shapes, different from yesterday’s shapes, different from tomorrow’s. Another dream, a rest, and tomorrow still new thoughts.

  • Michael Fliri

    The force of gravity that always wins, at least on Earth, the force of gravity was discovered by Newton, and before him? Everything up in the air? No, it has always existed, he has discovered, not invented it. There is a giant face, maybe of a giant, maybe a mask to hide that we are sad, maybe a large mask for many small faces, maybe a large mask for a large face, which anyhow sleeps safe and sound, or so it seems. Therefore, behind the mask a face, or in front of the face a dripping mask, which used to be soft and then became solid, and there are no precise calculations, it happened a little by chance, a little thanks to someone’s wish, a little for the type of material, but at a certain point he said STOP! And so that force of gravity that was uncovered by Newton is another component of this recipe, no mould, only a shape, a form of face as base, maybe again the face of a giant, let’s hope a good giant, let’s hope that it aids protect something that’s worth being protected, an idea, a thought, an important plan. If you touch it, it oscillates. 1st the supports 2nd a pole 3rd a face 4th the dripping gel 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th: the time, the force of gravity, the artist who says “stop”, the astonishment of those assisting, the time the gel becomes solid, and chance. Nothing else.

  • Something different

    Beyond the hunger, beyond every expectation, there is like a road that is not marked, almost invisible, but it calls you, and you know that despite the brambles and the tall weeds, despite the sharp pebbles that will crack the shoes, tearing the soles, cracking the ankles, trained ankles however because accustomed to paying attention and to risk in similar yet always different roads. Nonetheless, you are and always will be attracted by those roads, maybe now only from this one, because it will always be one single road at a time that you will have to cover, but you will do it, and you don’t know precisely, or better, you can’t explain it in a way that can satisfy other people. Someone could risk theories that regard something genetic, like a sort of predisposition; some were born warriors, some were born parasites, some want adventure and the unexpected to feel alive, for fear of deluding themselves, because Nature calls, because that’s the way it is. And so you follow that road, or you will repent for the rest of your life, and always for the very reason that all the roads that are barely marked will always be different. And it’s not important if then someone will follow the line of grass which wound down under your every step, it’s not important if, after you, someone will boast of what you were the first to risk, leave him to it, let him enjoy his lie, because you know deep in your heart that you have made it for something else that others don’t understand, but that will improve them somehow. There is a fire, there is that same magnetic substance that is present in the beaks of the pigeons, of the ducks and those who migrate, it’s this substance in the blood, with the fire and all the rest, and this makes you a pioneer, this means you are able to break away, and makes everything possible. We deserve also to be wrong, we deserve also to fail, to pile up hard work and errors to understand a little more, having the exact feeling that every other man could be similar to you and help you reach that exact point, but always a step at a time, or a leap at a time. That’s the way I see it, that’s the way you see it, and you know we are made of the same substance, you know that despite everything, every door is a different room, every echo bounces in different way and every day will be different, because we want it and we make it so.