Luigi Polillo

Between space and matter

From a young age, the Paduan artist was fascinated by the artistic beauties of his city and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge led him to compare himself with other artistic and cultural realities such as Paris and New York; his path is characterized by continuous evolution, by assiduous experimentation with mostly industrial materials. In this historical period, where an unstoppable process of globalization increasingly intensifies, new ideas are born and converted, but the artistic process that propagated in the 60s and 70s, with the affirmation of neo-avant-gardes such as Minimal Art, conceptual and Land Art has been of fundamental importance for today's artistic experiments. Vinicio Momoli was born and trained on a minimalist thought, in his current works the awareness of the concept centered on the "object-space-user" relationship, characteristic of minimalist research, is evident.

The artist generates aesthetic works of our time and involves the spectator, in an energetic play of volumetric planes and concrete materiality; we are witnessing a return to the element and manual skills; his art is implanted in the community with a pregnant and significant presence. Momoli, through an optical-perceptive message originating from the harmony between space and matter, establishes an emotional and conceptual dialogue with the user. The artist is anchored in a universal dimension of art, in his works he exalts, among infinite spaces, the colors of his own experience, and reveals to us how in the field of sensations and perceptions of life everything is entangled and compensated; he creates with random, monochromatic and contrasting shapes an unrepeatable movement of color and matter, based on the emotions that man experiences across the globe. During his research, Vinicio Momoli works on small / medium format, using rubber, a material coming from natural and synthetic polymers, he uses it for its ductility, assembles it and manipulates it for his purposes until the genesis of Opera; the color becomes a lively and harmoniously contrasting element, but specifically it goes beyond its role and with a strong manual skill it turns into a creative substance. The geometric rigor therefore loses its rigidity, expanding its possible variations in form, consequently becoming softer and concretely active; the use of rubber leads to the creation of sculptural works, generating a play of volumes, compactness and sensitivity; it essentially represents a mysterious imaginary reality. The artist generates, without any premeditation in the forms, an art that emphasizes the vital content of the individual and communicates a positive message. Each work is a sensorial and tactile experience for those who conceive it and for those who contemplate it, it is a positive response to the many questions that existential reality asks us.

Luigi Polillo "Between space and matter"
Civic Museum exhibition Praia a mare
Cosenza 2018.

Luigi Polillo

Material Expansions February 2019

In this historical period, where an unstoppable process of globalization increasingly intensifies, new ideas are born and converted, but the artistic trend that spread in the 60s and 70s with the affirmation of neo-avant-gardes such as Minimal Art, the conceptual and Land Art has been of fundamental importance for today's artistic experiments. The minimalist thought on which Vinicio Momoli was trained is evident in his current works, centered on the concept of the "object-space-user" relationship, characteristic of minimalist research. The artist conceives aesthetic works of our time and involves the spectator, in an energetic play of volumetric planes and concrete materiality; we are witnessing a return to the element and manual skills; his art is implanted in the community with a pregnant and significant presence. Momoli, through an optical-perceptive message originating from the harmony between space and matter, establishes an emotional and conceptual dialogue with the user, anchored in a universal dimension of art, in his works he enhances, among infinite spaces, the colors of his own experience, and it reveals to us how in the field of sensations and perceptions of life everything is entangled and compensated; he creates with random, monochromatic and contrasting shapes an unrepeatable movement of color and matter, based on the emotions that man experiences across the globe.

During his research, the Artist works on medium/large format wooden supports, using rubber, a material coming from natural and synthetic polymers, he uses it for its ductility, assembles it and manipulates it for his purposes until to the genesis of the work; the color becomes a lively and harmoniously contrasting element, but specifically it goes beyond its role and with a strong manual skill it turns into a creative substance. The geometric rigor therefore loses its rigidity, expanding its possible variations in form, consequently becoming softer and concretely active; the use of rubber leads to the creation of sculptural works, generating a play of volumes, compactness and sensitivity; he creates, without any premeditation in the forms, an art that emphasizes the vital content of the individual and communicates a positive but at the same time reflective message. Each work is a sensorial and tactile experience for those who conceive it and for those who contemplate it, it is a positive response to the many questions that existential reality asks us. The matter becomes an expression and form of one's own feeling, of one's own being, through meticulous and patient work it mixes with one's own feeling, through manual and technical procedures such as forms and colors that throb, vibrate in every part, therefore the irregularities of form and matter become two aspects of a single substance, it expands, transforms into a mystical outcome where the identity exploits all the strength and then brings it together in the genesis of the work, a profound relationship between space and who he enjoys it; all this allows you to carry out a sort of archeology of yourself by digging inside your own "I".

Artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have covered, with the use of rubber and plastic, the domain of contemporary art with proposals relating to this material, such as the burnings and plastics of Alberto Burri, the monumental compositions with natural materials and the assemblage of plastic fragments by Tony Cragg, the works denouncing an increasingly artificial lifestyle, made of polyurethane, by Piero Gilardi and many others. The artists mentioned make use, and Momoli's work is also fully included, of the practically exclusive execution method of plastic material for the composition of their works. Vinicio Momoli's path is characterized by continuous evolution, by assiduous experimentation with mostly industrial materials, all of which constitutes an undoubted historical-cultural value, often linked to important transformations of a socio-economic nature, an epochal turning point in the concept of "work" where investigation and artistic research prove to be widely practicable and all the socio-economic and natural events that have directly and indirectly contributed to reshaping the structure of a way of life and a new cosmopolitan vision of being artist in an infinite expansion of art.