One of the most difficult things for man is surely to transform a thought or idea into something palpable. Ever since we are children we are explained the difference between abstract and concrete and that they are two diametrically opposed, almost irreconcilable things.
This is precisely why the work of Italian sculptor Aron Demetz is so visionary. 

Aron Demetz uses different materials, from wood to bronze, from plaster to glass, and moulds them to his liking, letting himself be inspired by the human figure and by states of mind. 

One of his latest projects is entitled “Autarkeia II – Il richiamiamo della materia“, a site-specific exhibition conceived specifically for the spaces of the MARCA Museum in Catanzaro and which will remain open to the public until 31 March. 

This event is just one of the many initiatives that make up the programme of the Rocco Guglielmo Foundation, one of the most important cultural institutions in Southern Italy. For 12 years, the Foundation has been a laboratory of ideas, offering citizens exhibitions, workshops, seminars, readings, study days, all organised in the various places it manages, including the MARCA Museum. 

One of the Foundation’s various projects is “GLOCAL” which – as the word itself suggests – aims to create activities that deal with cultural content from a global point of view. 

Visit the website of the Rocco Guglielmo Foundation for all the information about the exhibition “Autarkeia II – The call of matter” by Aron Demetz and the next events. 

Tonight was the 56th edition of the Super Bowl, hosted at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which saw the Los Angeles Rams win 23-20 over the Cincinnati Bengals. The night is not only the final of the NFL championship, but includes a series of shows and official launches that for years has been considered one of the most important events of the year. In addition to the Halftime show that saw Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar take turns at centre field, during the night various brands entertained the public with their commercials and production companies unveiled trailers for some of the most anticipated films and TV series.

We’ve selected the ones we liked best, which was your favourite?

Can I Get Uhhhhhhhhhhhh – McDonald’s

Lizzo in Real Tone – Google 

“Goodbye Cable” – Verizon

New Generation (The Sopranos) – Chevrolet 

Doctor Strange nel Multiverso della Follia

Il Signore degli Anelli: Gli Anelli del Potere

The 2022 edition of Desert X AlUla opened on 11 February. The exhibition, now in its second year, is the “Saudi version” of the traditional Desert X hosted every two years in the Coachella Valley in southern California. Hosted in AlUla, an ancient desert region in Saudi Arabia, this year’s event was curated by Reem Fadda, Raneem Farsi and Neville Wakefield on the theme of “Sarab”. 

15 artists presented their works exploring the ideas of mirage and oasis, transforming the ideas of dream, fiction, illusion and myth into something concrete that dialogues with the desert. In this way, the artists created site-specific installations based on the relationship between the natural and artificial worlds. 

Dana Awartani

Dana Awartani’s sculpture draws inspiration from the vernacular architecture of AlUla, taking the form of a concave geometric sculpture that refers to Nabatean tombs and imitates rock formations.

Claudia Comte

Claudia Comte’s work presents a progression of walls that impose their architectural presence within the natural order of AlUla’s canyons.

Jim Denevan

Land artist Jim Denevan creates ephemeral drawings whose interlocking patterns speak to the shifts in size and scale that so often shape our experience of the desert and our attempts to position ourselves within the vastness of boundless space.

Sultan bin Fahad

Sultan bin Fahad’s is a mud structure shaped like a desert kite.

Alicja Kwade

Alicja Kwade’s architectural structures reflect and frame the natural artefacts she has encountered on the desert floor, which she has reorganised and integrated to create ever-changing perspectives somewhere between reality and illusion.

Abdullah AlOthman

Abdullah AlOthman’s work is made of stainless steel plinths that interact with light and create a radiant space that seeks to manifest the experience of capturing the mirage for the first time.

Monika Sosnowska

Monika Sosnowska’s sculptural exploration of memory speaks to AlUla’s historical position as a centre and passageway of trade and its more recent cultural revival; using the rails of the Hejaz railway. The linear steel forms have been transformed into gigantic dry grasses full of possibilities for growth and transformation.

Shadia Alem

Shadia Alem’s sculptural installation adapts the art of origami, applying the basic principles of geometry and beauty to create forms that reference the literature, mathematics and mythology of the Arabian desert.

Serge Attukwei Clottey

Serge Attukwei Clottey’s installation addresses the experience of globalisation, migration and water equity by wrapping slabs of rock in meticulously crafted tapestries made from gallons of yellow kufuor, which are plastic containers used in Ghana to store and transport water.

Shezad Dawood

Shezad Dawood’s work explores ideas of deep time and the geo-biological relationship between the desert floor and the nearby Red Sea through a pair of coral-like forms whose temperature-sensitive surfaces reflect the effects of climate change and man’s ongoing struggle to find a sustainable relationship with a rapidly changing ecosystem.

Stephanie Deumer

Working at the intersection of nature and technology Stephanie Deumer has created an underground greenhouse where a large array of solar panels capture the sun’s energy which is stored and transformed through photosynthesis.

Zeinab AlHashemi

Zeinab AlHashemi’s interactive sculpture uses discarded camel skins on an abstract, geometric base that resembles a rock formation in the desert; like a camouflage, these camel skin sculptures blend in with the mountains.

Shaikha AlMazrou

Shaikha AlMazrou’s long, swollen steel structures are embedded in the voids of the rocks, occupying the liminal state between stasis and movement, creating a silent but imposing composition suspended in inertia.

Khalil Rabah

Khalil Rabah creates the mirage of an orchard of olive trees, which stand here in the desert as living beings removed from their indigenous land and longing to be returned, as an exploration of territory, survival and citizenship.

Ayman Zedani

Ayman Zedani’s soundscape installation in a rock cave comprises horizontal sculptural threads and an audio projection of music, voices and footsteps, creating a cacophony of sounds that add to the chimes of nature.

Martina Odoli Caravajal, together with the advertising agency Wunderman Thompson, created illustrations for La Rinascente to launch the new women’s spring-summer collection, to launch gift ideas for Valentine’s Day and to introduce the public to the new selection of chocolates and spirits with the DeGusto illustration.

Martina‘s passion for drawing began at school, due to her shyness. “I didn’t talk much, but I used to dream a lot with my eyes open. Drawing was the best means of expression for me”, Martina tells us. Taking refuge in drawing was a place where her inner voice could fully express itself. Having grown up in Brazil, it was in Italy, at an art school, that this childhood passion became something more, almost a need for her: “I used to do it as a hobby, but after I started studying art it became a duty. And by ‘duty’ I don’t mean a bad thing, but for me it was therapeutic to spend hours and days drawing at a time when my life had changed completely”.

For this project Martina Odoli Caravajal worked closely with Wunderm Thompson (an agency where she is art director). The campaign aims to bring Rinascente’s historicity back to life, by honoring Dudovic, the illustrator who made La Rinascente famous with his works in the early 20th century, re-adapting it in a modern way. “I’ve always enjoyed creating imaginary worlds that had a disturbing and unexpected element to them, and that’s what was needed to show the variety of worlds found in the Rinascente shops.”

Strong, elegant illustrations, reminiscent of an Art Nouveau style, are the perfect synthesis of a new vision of La Rinascente that fits well with the name itself of the shop chosen by Gabriele D’Annunzio: “La Rinascente is a strong, particular name: a verbal form that indicates an action that happens “the rebirth” as if it were continuous, infinite”.

Autor: Francesco Fusi