Alberto Gianfreda

Once again, yet again

Once again, yet again, the solo exhibition by Alberto Gianfreda, curated by Ilaria Bignotti and Francesca Guerisoli, developed specially for the Spazio Arte at Torre Unipol in Bologna, brings together three sculptural groups by the artist – one site-specific, two from his recent works – which, as if in a crescendo, guide the visitor through a landscape, first horizontal and then vertical, of white fragments.

In his work, Alberto Gianfreda recycles domestic and everyday ceramic objects, such as plates, cups and vases, shattering them and reassembling the fragments on movable metal mesh frames, to create structures open to ever-changing potential reconfigurations. Once shattered and reassembled, the objects lose their original integrity. Each fragment retains a trace of what it once was, but acquires meaning only in relation to the others. The fracture thus becomes the origin of new forms and new possibilities of existence.

In this process, the public – invited by the artist to interact with the sculpture and move its fragments, thereby altering their form – does not complete the work, but rather its meaning. In doing so, visitors become an active and fundamental presence within the work itself, while the exhibition space becomes a realm of possibility and responsibility.

As a result, the sculpture is never definitive. Rather, it becomes a space for encounter, its configuration continuously renegotiated through the relationship between material, sculpture, space and the public. The artwork becomes a collective asset and the material a connective tissue capable of forging relationships and fostering community.

At the heart of the exhibition project as well as the artist’s research and practice, therefore, lies an exploration of the relationship between fragility and resilience, between individual experience and the collective dimension, and between identity, relationship and change. Through the ceramic material, its capacity for adaptation and continuous transformation, and our involvement in constructing the meaning of the work, the artist invites us to reflect on the contemporary human condition: to recognise ourselves as incomplete and imperfect and, in the ceramic object – first shattered and then reassembled – to rediscover once again, yet again our own fragile, imperfect and ever-changing nature, which becomes the premise for encountering others, yet without subordinating them. The exhibition invites us to recognise our own vital condition in imperfection, change and the encounter with others.