Claudia Comte
∗1983, Switzerland
lives and works in Grancy, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany
Comte’s new work for the Biennale Gherdeina is a tour de force of sculptural gesture in regards to its scale and conceptual ambition - a pure expression of precision, radicality as well as a humor Comte just talked about…The artist considers the Dolomites’ mountainous hills as a blackboard where the palindromic WOOOW is spelled out with its boldness and grandiosity by 20 spruce trunks each 6m high. But WOOOW is not only a palindrome, it is also an onomatopoeia, meaning the word can be read with a particular sound in mind, a sound, enhanced by its picturesque surroundings, conjuring sentiments of reverence and awe. WOOOW holds no hierarchy of viewship, it can be read from all orientations, forwards and backwards, in this regard the work’s form of address can be thought of as democratic or egalitarian. WOOOW truly amazes by its monumentality and an accurate site-specificity as it constitutes a sincere tribute to the picturesque landscape of Sassolungo and its sublime quality, evoking both endurance and resilience, and praising the mountains as a site of awe and intimacy. The cyclicality of its utterance forever echoes over the hill tops, with humour and self-reflexiveness, we might wonder whether the sculpture is asking it’s reader to ruminate on what the natural world might be telling us.The new work of Claudia Comte, conceived for the Biennale Gherdëina VI, Morphing Sculpture 1: Donut, Cactus and Snake (Viscosity Range), is a totemic collection of forms, a polyphonic assemblage of shapes, interacting one with another in a seemingly uncontrolled way, a formal carnival of sorts… Comte’s is both - an unconstrained joy of making art as well as an attempt to rethink the relationship between the human being and technology, between the man-made and natural materials. Each work is a study on the nature of transformation and metamorphosis. Comte investigates the properties of the materials, their physicality, as well as their magical properties; wood is her favorite medium in conversing with the nature and the universal reservoir of forms. “But with the wood, you have to take time and be gentle, because it cracks. You cannot push it”, the artist explains, “My fascination with wood is simply that it represents the biggest resource worldwide, it’s a material that was here long before us. Its artisanal quality suggests a counter trend and thus it’s so interesting for me to use. This material grows so slowly in comparison to the speed we communicate and do things today in our digital age. It’s heavy in essence and I am trying to make something precise, radical, and humorous out of it.”
Ha partecipato a:
