Matteo Ferretti

THINKING ENERGY

"Shall we ever provide art the same deed the world commits to energy?". That was a question Gropius used to worry about, and one I similarly questiond myself, not to find many an answer. I ended considering that question as the only possible.
The passage from a just-sensed notion of modernity, opposed to a conscious read of present times, is only availed to whom is in possess of a receptive stare onto contemporary society.
That is a statement for Matteo, whose intention about art is to stretch its boundaries over non-artistic territories, operating with an inter-disciplinar approach and accepting the mutual exchange that goes between art practise and society's production.
That's Sinergy, or as Wharol simply said, "That's tomorrow" - the envision of an artistic vision that refutes rigid separations, a flowing and unrestricted creation that finds Matteo between a modern "combines", a combinatorial play between paintings, installations and mind – a mind that has been quested, expressed and mentalized.
The current artistic research by Matteo Ferretti, directed to merge renewable energy and forms, stems from a path of art and personal life; that path led to enquires concerning the connection Mind-Nature, the union that enerates the creative energy behind thinking, ideas and actions of beings.

BRAIN puts man and the sun at the heart of its quest. Forces enpowered to transform, create and convey solar energy, linked by a crase - the one between the mind's energy and the brain, that reflects the separation between the sun and the energy it irradiates. On one side, the human brain – that breeds ideas and converts these into actions, such is its power; on the other, the photovoltaic cell – that convert solar energy, a pure, unatoning, unjudging total force. This work by Matteo means to deepen towards the essential with an objective meaning, aiming to a goal of absolute harmony, a near-platonic state of absolute idealization. The identification of ethical concept, a "green" filosophy other than economy, constituting a circle that encompasses a global vision of the world, as opposed to the partial copy of one lone manifestation of creation.

BRAIN is a project that points high and plays dangerously, elevating to a new world that is attainable only by exiting individualism. That's not a vision: on the contrary, it's the intimate need, for an artist, to create in order to refer to himself, and carry out what's dependent upon.
Tireless in the activity of promotion of happenings, Matteo is a sensible player of realism met with over-abundant humanism, spoken through a lucid technical-artistical mean, that makes the BRAIN o tool of life, an ever-present opus, such as egyptian idols, prosopopoeias of a definitive event.

The work by Matteo is based on the stylization of a human brain covered by silicon cells - the component of photovoltaic cells – symbolizing the iteraction between Man and Nature, through the pair of spotless energies that life donates us. The brightest matter in existence meets the synaptically fastest, in an immaterial embrace, where the light pierces through and reaches above all, as a speechless teaching. The solar light stands as a metaphor for adaptability, gifting the present of life through the form of adehernt surface.
Ferretti's research finds him craftings pieces of striking efficacy for their tension towards creativity.

The Brain Project is intended as a social call-up about the availment of energy on Earth, displayed as a path that crosses art, science and technology, sending open invitations to reflect about the role played by solar energy in past civilizations, and most certainly about that role for generations to come.

The history of energetic usage, infact, is largely the history of solar energy in its renewable forms – as direct and indirect solar radiations or photosynthesis. On the other side, the employment of non-renewable energetic sources as carbon, oil and gas only started in the very recent times of post-industrial revolution. This history may and should constitute a huge teaching for men, that happen to be us, living a period of pressing environmental issues related to energy availability.

BRAIN also stands as a new type of artistic piece connected to the reality of urbanization, in search of public spaces that can incorporate new solar technologies. The aim behind each piece is concurring in the generation of clean energy, through the development of a new relation between citizens and areas of artistic and energetic relevance.

I often pose myself a different, second question, that is “what's an artist?" - and is such a basic enquire to sound almost irritating; but the common reactions raised by this question, mostly among art insiders, are so aggressive to convince me I've violated a taboo. In my opinion, the work of an artist may be depicted as a play, if we agree to mean play as a very serious matter...

Marco Pegazzano