2023-09-25 13:19:54
“We don’t need another Michelangelo: in Italy, it’s robots’ turn to sculpt,” was the headline on New York Times a couple of years ago to talk about the active presence of machinery in sculpture. That we have now entered a new era there is no doubt, but can the artist’s hand really be replaced? A less provocative, but more prudent (and romantic) reading instead reflects the harmonious fusion between human skills and technology in stone processing.
MARMOMAC in VERONA Marble and stone, the hunt is on. All over the world we are looking for varieties of colors and grains never seen before by Francesca Gugliotta 25 September 2023
This is what visitors to Marmomac will be able to see in person from 26 to 29 September at The Plus Theater (pavilion 10) where it will be set up The Applaud, a dynamic installation curated by architect Giorgio Canale. Dynamic, because for the first time during the fair, a work of art will take shape over the days: is called Fragment and is signed by Andreas Senoner who, with the help of latest generation machinery, will reproduce on a monumental scale two crossed fingers in Cammeo Imperiale marble, as if to symbolize the close alliance between tradition and innovation.
But how do we overcome this apparent idiosyncrasy between mechanical touch and manual touch? «In contemporary art it is now a backward concept», states the South Tyrolean artist, «we should no longer talk about technical virtuosity in the creation of a work, but about what message it wants to convey. Clearly the process changes: instead of intervening on the stone myself, I act by giving instructions to the robot which is constantly monitored. The machine therefore does not carry out the creative part, but the manual one, it represents only a tool that helps to achieve the result. In this specific case: working on large dimensions starting from the traditional method would have been obsolete, requiring, among other things, much more time and effort”.
And the health aspect should not be underestimated, also recalls Luca Donatoni, sales manager of the group of the same name, which provides the robot that models this sculpture. «A musculature proven by years and years of work does not benefit the artist at all. Removing the heaviest and most stressful part allows him to work better and concentrate on finishing which is the living soul of sculpture. We are not talking about collision or substitution: the machine is just a tool like the hammer or the drill.”
DESIGN&INNOVATION Mario Bellini, Raffaello Galiotto, Paolo Ulian. The future of marble between digital stonecutters and new processes by Manuela Mimosa Ravasio 26 September 2023
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