1669 is the new sculptural project by Nicola Martini presented and created specifically for Clima’s venue in Milan.

The date-title refers to the year of the great eruption of the Etna volcano that led to the destruction and burial of most of the Etnean villages up to the western outskirts of the city of Catania.

For the occasion, the artist works with natural basalt peels extracted from the quarry located in today’s Belpasso, reconstructed on the ashes of the ancient Malpasso buried by the aforementioned eruption.

The sculptures in the exhibition feature expanding polyurethane grafts that embrace the structure of the lava basalt. The polyurethane thus exposed to UV rays begins its slow process of degradation by photodeperation.

The works are thus characterized as amplifiers of contrasts; weights, density and origin of the material result at the antipodes, two polarities that coexist in a hybrid “object,” unconquerable.

The union of two living materials blows up the distinction between natural and cultural in a continuous poetic balance between reality and interpretation.

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Nicola Martini (b. Florence, 1984) lives and works in Milan, IT. Recent solo exhibitions: Testimone Perpetua, Toast, Florence (2022); Appunti dall’Inframezzo, Clima, Milan (2021); And welded skin, Galerie Philipp Zollinger, Zurich (2020); Molten, DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin, Nicola Martini & Jacopo Menzani, Mega, Milan (2018); THE SOBER DAY, kaufmann repetto, New York (2015); Sippe, kaufmann repetto, Milan (2013); NERVO VAGO, curated by Alberto Salvadori, Museo Marino Marini, Florence (2012). Group exhibitions: 2020 Year of the rat, DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM, Berlin (2020); Performativity, curated by Denis Isaia and Sara Enrico, Centrale Fies, Dro, #80 | #90, curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto, Villa Medici, Rome (2019); figure di spago. pratiche di narrazione, Fondazione Baruchello, Rome, Black Hole, Gamec, Bergamo, TBT (Turn Back Time), Magazzino Arte Moderna, Rome (2018); As If We Never Said Goodbye, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin, Lea Porsager, Gizela Mickiewicz, Nicola Martini, Galerie Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Intuition, curated by Alex Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2017);  A occhi chiusi, gli occhi sono straordinariamente aperti, curated by Luca lo Pinto, 16th Quadrennial, Rome, Art club #7 / memoires d’été curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto Accademia di Francia a Roma, Villa Medici, Rome; Il principio è solo e solo un centro spostato verso il centro, Bugada & Cargnel, Paris, Inside David’s Thigh, curated by Nicola Martini, Roomservice, New York (2016).

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Courtesy: The Artist and Clima, Milan

Photo: Flavio Pescatori