fornasetti's emblematic female face cracked and recomposed by carlo dell'acqua

inside its milanese store in corso venezia, fornasetti presents s/oggetti parziali, an exhibition by artist carlo dell’acqua. the show, incited by barnaba fornasetti and valeria manzi, is part of fornasetti presenta — a broader initiative by the studio which sees the store as a space for dialogue between the arts that creates and preserves creative exchange and cross-fertilization.

‘it is not about producing fully formed, marketable new ideas – that is not my intention, but rather to let circulate the thinking. I remain convinced that creativity and imagination are fundamental tools of understanding and that they are profoundly connected to freedom. this encapsulates the deeper meaning of what I do,’ says barnaba fornasetti.

images courtesy of fornasetti unless otherwise stated

throughout history, from monet to banksy, artists have destroyed their own work. in her 1931 novel the waves, virginia woolf wrote, ‘but beauty must be broken daily to remain beautiful,’ a quote that possibly inspired dell’acqua for his s/oggetti parziali exhibition, where he broke fornasetti’s plates to reconstruct them and like that, create a new piece. this approach was executed to understand, not just the materiality of the plates — in this case ceramics — but also to highlight its infinitude.

throughout his career, carlo dell’acqua has conceptually intervened glasses and ceramics, a trait that called on barnaba fornasetti’s attention. he was then invited to work on some of the most iconic pieces created by the atelier, through a process — that of destruction — that can be considered by many both a symbolic and a physical violation. that artist focused his attention on lina cavalieri’s face or the emblematic fornasetti face. by manipulating, tearing to pieces, destroying and then reconstructing, dell’acqua has managed to create new variations on the topic, becoming something else. because, after all, a work of art is not a work of art if it can’t be destroyed.

image © designboom