FORNACE 77 EXHIBITION

WarmtHub the artistic and cultural area of the Warmthotel, presents the temporary installation by Fornace 77. The creative genius of two talents from the Lazio region, Andrea Micheletti and Alessia Dionisi, expresses itself through the use of waste materials that take on new life through a mixture of different styles and techniques. Glass takes centre stage. Glass as the product of volcanic eruptions, river and sea sand, from lightning that hits a beach or just from a mixture of silica, soda ash and chalk. It has ancient roots that go back to refined civilisations such as the Egyptians and Phoenicians, and which is told in a new way and in an unmistakable style in Fornace77’s workshop. The collection of work presented by Andrea is called FLOAT. The project has its origins in sheets of glass salvaged from old windows, then cleaned, milled and remodelled by being fused at 830°. We asked Andrea to explain the essence of his work:

“The material that I have chosen, or which chose me, is glass. Nowadays it is an industrial product that has become part of daily life in windows, lamps, bottles, mirrors and lenses. Where these objects end, my work begins. My work is the product of the need to create something tangible from reused material. And that doesn’t just mean the ability to use one’s hands, to handle tools, and to master techniques, but above all the affirmation of the chance to think and reveal in a real physical form something that had only existed before in another form, thereby uncovering its enormous potential that brings it close to the divine: this is a marvellous dimension, an ‘initiation’ experience that FLOAT can make me experience, and which contributes to my spiritual elevation.”

In the exhibition space at Warmthotel, special shelves hold the complete series of FLOAT sculptures in fused glass on iron or stone supports. On the walls hangs Alessia's work, engraved on slabs of glass and set in wrought iron frames. The collection, which is entitled HUMAN MECHANISM was created using grattage.

Grattage, literally “scraping”, or “erasion” is a technique from surrealist painting that consists in scraping paint when it is still fresh on various materials so that the colours of the underlying layers of paint are revealed through the scratches, creating chromatic contrast and chiaroscuro. With this technique Alessia gives life to spectacular subjects that express a way of thinking. As we looked more deeply into it, she explained the meaning of her exhibition:

“In my search I decided to let myself be led by marks and by light, using a reworked grattage technique: by scraping away the paint, I allow light to emerge from the darkness, and come into it before then prevailing and showing the picture. Humankind is characterised not just by the self-awareness of its nature and its mortality, but also (and above all) by its own contradictions and instinctive mechanisms which guide existence in an unknowing way. It is a critical dialogue, with notes of memories and a labyrinth of thought… from the birth of a mechanism, to following an illuminating thought that like a spider spreads its web, the meeting between the rational and the irrational part, an encounter and a meeting that is outside the bounds of time.”

The exhibition can be seen at the Warmthotel at no. 5 Via Giuseppe Prezzolini in Rome.
It is open all day, every day!