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Buddha's corner | 2015
Buddha's corner,
2015
(Das)
Dimensioni: ambientali (151 pezzi ognuno cm 20x20x20)
Foto: Roberto Marossi
Courtesy: Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
(Das)
Dimensioni: ambientali (151 pezzi ognuno cm 20x20x20)
Foto: Roberto Marossi
Courtesy: Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
In the artist’s house, both inside and outside, are 71 corners and 80 edges: 151 corners edges
overall. The installation includes 151 corner elements made of DAS, a modelling material. Each of these elements is formed of 3 20 cm long bars (a total amount of 453 bars that are each 20 cm long), whose sum is 91 meters, corresponding to the heights of the two colossal Bamiyan Buddhas that were destroyed by the Talibans on March 12, 2001. The two Buddhas, from 1500 and 1800 years ago, were respectively 53 and 38 meters high. The 71 corners and 80 edges occupy all corners and edges available in the space. The choice of the material, as usual in Francesco Arena’s practice, is not unintended. DAS is air-drying, it’s not ceramic, but it’s moulded by hand and the artist found it necessary to model the elements himself: as the Buddhas were made by hand, so are the corner-edges, which represent a sort of exploded version of the colossal sculptures, like ruins that lie down in corners and around the edges: just like dust does.
