What are the elements that stimulate fascination for abandoned places? How does contemporaneity deal with these carcasses of walls? Talking about architectural wrecks is nothing new in the land of unfinished ruins, where the topic of abandoned structures or unfinished works garners attention and debate. The excesses of submodernity have structured the urban and suburban landscape we inhabit.

Aris, Taleggio, Zero, “Nude”, installation view, curated by Claudia Gobbi, courtesy of the artists and Nude Project
Nude is an independent project (directed and curated by Claudia Gobbi) that re-inhabits abandoned structures through one of the languages of contemporary art, specifically urban art. The goal is not only to restore a visual identity to these “nonplaces” but precisely to save them from the oblivion of a common failure by which they risk being devoured. The bare, peeling and decaying walls become vehicles for the expressions and practices of three artists: Aris, Taleggio and Zero. The three artists are established in both the national and European scene as exponents of urban art; Aris has evolved his practice from graffiti in the 1990s toward abstract forms made of geometry and movement, Taleggio is an exponent of post-graffiti art that balances analytical and intimate elements, and finally Zero combines graphic research and architectural influences in disciplined geometries.

Aris, Taleggio, Zero, “Nude”, installation view, curated by Claudia Gobbi, courtesy of the artists and Nude Project
Visiting the ruins of the spaces in which Nude manifests, the echoes of the past and the life of those now-empty skeletons resonate; the places are thus a clear and physical testimony to loss and change. They are fragments of something that does not belong to the present and now convey the cognition of the ephemeral nature of modernity. Their decay is not a natural process as much as a testimony to excesses and today’s accelerated lifestyle, in which the value of things is given by their ability to adapt to an extremely dynamic and fluid reality. Stigmatized as symbols of undoing and obsolescence, architectures are often ignored as heavy monuments of reality that we prefer to avoid; they communicate an integral reasoning about the nature of actions and conduct. They remind us that no construction – and not only – is eternal, that everything is destined to undergo time, wear and tear, and give way to the voracious pace of contemporaneity.

Aris, Taleggio, Zero, “Nude”, installation view, curated by Claudia Gobbi, courtesy of the artists and Nude Project
However, beyond that, these architectures are physically present in the urban landscape but now seem to escape the determinations of the community; they are characterized almost like the “nonplaces” conceived by Marc Augé. These “nonplaces” are devoid of identity, transitional spaces born with the sole purpose of conveying the consumption of modernity; the abandoned architectures that cover our daily landscape have undergone a transformation that has deprived them of any perception of collective belonging. Nude restores through an artistic language such as urban art (which by its nature is accessible to a wide and varied audience, thus not elitist and exclusive) these relics to contemporary fruition and context. Thus, a new link is created between society and architecture by reintegrating these presences into cultural and identity maps. The title of the project is not accidental, but is a reference to the poetic and suggestive thought of the Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings, who argued that architectures were born as naked creatures – mere developed volumes – and that only through social use could they develop. Artistic expression bestows new skins to cover naked presences.

Aris, Taleggio, Zero, “Nude”, installation view, curated by Claudia Gobbi, courtesy of the artists and Nude Project
The Nude project allows us to look at the decadence of our time with a gaze that goes beyond nostalgia for wrecks and spurs reflection not only on the dynamics of today’s art scene but also on the impermanence of human agency. Each work is a conscious testimony destined for decay.
Irene Follador
Info:
Aris, Taleggio e Zero: Nude
curated by Claudia Gobbi
www.nudeproject2024.it

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