Galleria Expowall in Milan presents the KIN 金 exhibition by Carola Guaineri and Anita Cerrato.
On show the fruit of three years of work to apply the kintsugi technique, the Japanese art of repairing with gold, to photography.
KIN 金 (gold in Japanese) is a selection of 14 photographs printed in the dark room by Carola Guaineri, then torn and reassembled through the preciousness of a gold thread by Anita Cerrato.
A strong union between Carola and Anita, between the times of analogue photography and the basins of photographic development in front of which the image is expected to take shape, and the patient and measured times of the golden trace which, following the irregularities of the fractures , slowly reassembles the fragments, reawakening the shape of the object.
The choice of images made by Carola Guaineri and Anita Cerrato has to do with needs that are often overlooked but which strongly belong to us. For this reason, a work of recomposition is necessary so that these needs can emerge again in all their human necessity for their value, as precious as gold.
Kintsugi has recently been used by major international brands, from automotive to cosmetics to jewelery, as a metaphor for rebirth.
Carola and Anita explain:
our project, more relevant than ever today, was born more than three years ago. We start from the photos printed in the dark room, we tear them, and we restore them with the original kintsugi technique. It took all these years to do a thorough research on the materials and techniques, as the photos are truly torn, glued, plastered and gilded using urushi lacquer and pure gold. The great technical difficulty is due to the fact that the papers used for printing, baryta and polythene, are very delicate and fear humidity, while urushi lacquer to polymerize needs the so-called wall: a room covered with wood where there are at least 20 ° and 65% relative humidity
What’s under that gold filament? – asks Luigi Guaineri, author of the presentation text. What’s underneath the frozen moment in a photograph? What if it’s a noise, or a sound? Maybe a word? The sound of a breaking vase.
The sound that surrounds the moment in a photograph. Beneath the skilful weaving of that golden thread is the echo of the sound of a breaking vase, the sound of a photograph being torn.
Yes, because the charm, or for some just the curiosity, of a technique like that of Kintsugi, is not to hide. It is in the non-being-invisible, in not having the claim to return the object to its presumed originality. On the contrary, his intervention is clearly visible. To the point of being an integral part of it, and not just a scar. That golden thread doesn’t just repair, it creates. What if it is a photograph that breaks? A vase is a concrete object, it refers to a use. What does a photograph refer to? And what the intervention of the kintsugi evokes.
It is here that the collaboration between Carola Guaineri and Anita Cerrato takes on the values of play and reference, of references and echoes, and intends to suggest an invitation to question some aspects that concern us, not only individually.
Carola Guaineri was born in Milan on December 30, 1975. She began her career as a photographer in 1991, after having seen the exhibition of the photographer Ansel Adams. Since then black and white have become the means of expression. She works in her dark room, developing and printing her own photos in a continuous stylistic research.
Anita Cerrato was born in Milan on May 20, 1975. Writer and restorer, she learned the original kintsugi technique from some Japanese masters. In 2015, together with Giancarlo Bozzani, artist and designer, you founded Kintsu Handmade. The passion for design also leads her to do a lot of research, to probe new creative ideas, she experiments by applying the ancient technique of kintsugi on unusual materials.
The exhibition will be open by appointment until 19 June 2021
Information and appointments: T. +39 02 87287961 M. +39 338 8684605
www.expowallgallery.com
