Propulsioni | Ako Atikossie | @VSM
Viasaterna is pleased to present together with Volvo Studio the exhibition “Propulsioni” by Ako Atikossie, curated by Rischa Paterlini, with special thanks to Nashira Gallery.
“Born in Togo, [Atikossie] first moved to Italy to continue his studies. He brought with him a visual culture rooted in sign, geometry and repetition. In African traditions, the sign preserves and transmits meaning, giving form to what is not immediately perceptible. Over the years, he has put this matrix in conversation with Western art and, above all, with science, a lifelong passion of his.
You have to move close to the surfaces to understand how. What from a distance appear to be fields of color, geometric forms, nuclei, cells or almost cosmic structures, at a few centimeters' distance break down into thousands of tiny marks. Ako calls them his ‘minus sign.’ The reference is to the electron, the elementary particle with negative charge. But here a reversal takes place: for him, that minus has nothing negative about it. It becomes instead the starting point of an energy that accumulates and transforms into painting.
It is in this passage that I also begin to understand Rebondissement du Vide better, literally ‘rebound of the void,’ which is not simply nothingness or what remains when matter is taken away. It becomes an active space, a condition in which something can still happen. Another way of questioning the invisible: no longer only what matter is made of, but also the space that exists between things and makes new relationships possible.
According to the Treccani dictionary, propulsion is ‘the action by which a body is given the energy necessary to cause and maintain its motion.’ In Ako's studio, this energy seems to run through everything: it starts from a minimal mark, connects forms and particles, opens up the compositions, crosses the void and ends up putting under tension even the edges of the canvas. Nothing seems truly still or concluded. Every element already contains the possibility of transforming and pushing itself elsewhere.”
Excerpt from the curatorial text by Rischa Paterlini
Propulsioni by Ako Atikossie
Opening Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 pm
On the occasion, a talk with curator Rischa Paterlini and writer Eugenio Alberti Schatz
Open every Saturday, 10 am to 7 pm
More info: info@viasaterna.com
@ Volvo Studio Milano
(Viale della Liberazione, corner of Via Melchiorre Gioia)
REGISTER TO THE EVENT
“Born in Togo, [Atikossie] first moved to Italy to continue his studies. He brought with him a visual culture rooted in sign, geometry and repetition. In African traditions, the sign preserves and transmits meaning, giving form to what is not immediately perceptible. Over the years, he has put this matrix in conversation with Western art and, above all, with science, a lifelong passion of his.
You have to move close to the surfaces to understand how. What from a distance appear to be fields of color, geometric forms, nuclei, cells or almost cosmic structures, at a few centimeters' distance break down into thousands of tiny marks. Ako calls them his ‘minus sign.’ The reference is to the electron, the elementary particle with negative charge. But here a reversal takes place: for him, that minus has nothing negative about it. It becomes instead the starting point of an energy that accumulates and transforms into painting.
It is in this passage that I also begin to understand Rebondissement du Vide better, literally ‘rebound of the void,’ which is not simply nothingness or what remains when matter is taken away. It becomes an active space, a condition in which something can still happen. Another way of questioning the invisible: no longer only what matter is made of, but also the space that exists between things and makes new relationships possible.
According to the Treccani dictionary, propulsion is ‘the action by which a body is given the energy necessary to cause and maintain its motion.’ In Ako's studio, this energy seems to run through everything: it starts from a minimal mark, connects forms and particles, opens up the compositions, crosses the void and ends up putting under tension even the edges of the canvas. Nothing seems truly still or concluded. Every element already contains the possibility of transforming and pushing itself elsewhere.”
Excerpt from the curatorial text by Rischa Paterlini
Propulsioni by Ako Atikossie
Opening Wednesday, October 14 at 7:30 pm
On the occasion, a talk with curator Rischa Paterlini and writer Eugenio Alberti Schatz
Open every Saturday, 10 am to 7 pm
More info: info@viasaterna.com
@ Volvo Studio Milano
(Viale della Liberazione, corner of Via Melchiorre Gioia)
REGISTER TO THE EVENT