1+1+1/2022

The sixth edition of 1+1+1 is an ode to the collective, a 1+1+1+1+1+1+…. welcoming the previous editions along with the new installations. Through the method of layering, new life is breathed into past works, thanks to the participatory presence of the visitors who will find themselves walking through the space and, if desired, will actively interact with the new proposals. The Swiss artist Zilla Leutenegger creates a dialogue with the wooden cabins of Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck with the improvised movements of th dncr (the dancer) involving visitors in a delicate play of shadows and reflections, the architect duo of Studio Ossidiana with Wandering fields creates a chromatic carpet of natural materials to be combed and drawn upon or simply mixed as the visitor passes. Whereas with the open stage of Ouroborobeats by Chiara and Cino Zucchi the visitor is taught how to transform single sounds into a collective rhythm, celebrating music as the universal language par excellence. (F.S)

Supported by:

In kind sponsor:

Fratelli Gelmini SRL
Bacchi SPA
Tecno Canapa by Senini
Fratelli Ingegnoli SRL
Fuoco e Fiamme

Biographies

Zilla Leutenegger (*1968) lives and works in Switzerland. The focus of her artistic repertoire is the repeated discourse of space, the person in relation to space and the dialogue between space and light: her drawings grow out of the plain and merge with sculptures and video projections into three-dimensional installations.
Despite being foremost known for her signature drawing style made of clear, bold strokes and strong color accents, in the past years Zilla’s repertoire has been extended by the monotype as a medium. For her, drawing provides a way of creating an immediate gesture. Accordingly, her works on paper or video installations appear light-hearted and unpretentious. Only when examined closely one starts to sense the technical construction behind each piece. Zilla usually works simultaneously in her various mediums, so her drawings and video installations can often be read as single scenes or chapters of a larger whole. Her works have been exhibited internationally since 1996 and became part of the permanent collections of many art institutions in Switzerland in Europe and in the US.

https://www.zilla.ch/index.html

Studio Ossidiana (founded 2015) is a practice based in Rotterdam working at the crossroad of architecture, visual art and design, led by Giovanni Bellotti and Alessandra Covini. Balancing research and fabrication, the practice explores innovative approaches to design and is always in search of new material expressions to translate visions into tangible spaces and objects. In 2018, SO was awarded the Dutch Prix de Rome, the most prestigious prize in the Netherlands for architects under the age of 35. The practice’s work has been published in both printed and digital media, and exhibited in collective and solo exhibitions, for example at Venice Biennale 2021, Arkdes 2021, Istanbul Architecture Biennale 2021, Chicago Architecture Biennale 2021, Istanbul Art Biennale 2019, CIVA 2019, Het Nieuwe Institute 2019, Jan Van Eyck Academie 2017 and 2020, Dutch Design Week 2016 and 2021.

http://www.studio-ossidiana.com

Traversing and overcoming traditional patterns that appear to direct the relationship between father and daughter, Cino Zucchi and Chiara Zucchi revel in putting together their heterogeneous methods and points of view to create pieces with ambiguous boundaries between art, design, architecture, and multimedia.
Chiara (1992) is an interaction designer and multimedia artist. Her works, which explore contemporary issues such as the environmental crisis, new interpretations of ancient symbols, and the evolution of behaviours related to technology, have been exhibited at Fuorisalone in Milan, at the Tate Modern, and at the Science Museum in London.
Cino (1955), a full-time professor at the Politecnico di Milano, is the author of numerous articles and books. He has taught in many universities, including Harvard and ETSAM, and with his studio CZA has designed and implemented, among other projects, the reform of the Ex Junghans-neighbourhood in Venice, the Nuovo Portello in Milan, the Auto Museum, and the Lavazza Campus in Turin. He has participated in various editions of the Triennale and was curator of the Italian Pavilion during Venice Architecture Biennale in 2014. He is passionate about low-brow art and indie music and is occasionally asked to DJ by his students. Chiara and Cino often disagree about which compilation to listen to when travelling.

https://www.zucchiarchitetti.com
https://chiarazzzucchi.com

Elio Marchesini is an eclectic musician, open to many musical genres, from classical to avant-garde, from pop to non-western. He has collaborated with opera and symphonic bodies such as the Teatro alla Scala, RAI Symphony Orchestra, G. Verdi Symphony Orchestra, Florentine Maggio Musicale, and with chamber music ensembles such as Contemporartensemble, I Percussionisti della Scala, and the Naqquara percussion group. As a curator, he collaborates with art galleries and for events in Milan. With equal enthusiasm, he has devoted himself to composition and his works appear on posters of important seasons such as that of the Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan. He is the curator of the works by Milanese composer Davide Mosconi. For several years he has been involved in training courses and management, leading a training program demonstrating work dynamics through the didactic use of music. The performance with the Pozzi Sonori ensemble as part of the work by Cino and Chiara Zucchi for 1+1+1 came about through the Scuola Civica Pozzi di Corsico where he has been teaching for 20 years.

Federica Sala is an independent curator and design advisor. After having studied Design at the Pompidou Centre, she returned to Milan in 2008. Since then she has collaborated with Fabrica, miart, 5VIE Art + Design, Airbnb, Vogue Italia, Cassina, and others. In 2018 she curated with Patricia Urquiola the great ACastiglioni retrospective at the Milan Triennale and the exhibition on Giulio Castelli on the occasion of the ADI Design Museum’s inauguration. In 2021 she published her first book with Rizzoli International and has a regular column with the magazine Interni. Sala has curated the past two editions of 1+1+1, including Michele De Lucchi, Loris Cecchini, Pentagram & friends in 2020, and jan de vylder/inge vinck, Claudia Losi, Caretto/Spagna in 2021.

Elena Quarestani, editor and journalist in a previous life, has conceived, developed and edited magazines, encyclopaedias and limited edition works. It was only after her first exhibition in 2002 – considered a one-off event, a rite of passage for a former printing press establishment – that she decided to merge her passion for art and the building that hosted the family business.

Press Release

For the sixth edition of 1+1+1, curated by Federica Sala, the artists were invited to share the Assab One space to interact with one another and with the public through three large participatory installations.

Zilla Leutenegger presents th dncr (the dancer) on the occasion of 1+1+1, an environmental installation that incorporates all the Swiss artist’s work, which has always been characterised by spatiality.
The site-specific installation engages with the wooden cabins created by Inge Vinck and Jan de Vylder during the previous edition of 1+1+1 with a video projection made from several drawings, or rather portraits, of the artist herself. Th dncr, therefore, establishes a dialogue with the space and its pre-existence yet simultaneously also with the visitor, whose presence casually interrupts the projection beam until it becomes, if desired, a performative act itself. In a delicate play of shadows and surprises, the artist’s dancing figure appears in the form of the video projection but also from the large monotypes on a mirror, whose illusion assists in creating the delicate enchantment of dance. On Thursday 30th June the dancing figure will eventually come to life in a performance by Zilla Leutenegger with Simon Specker and Mario Scarton aka Chico Cream.

Studio Ossidiana (Alessandro Covini and Giovanni Bellotti), the Rotterdam-based duo of Italian architects and designers presents the project, Wandering fields. A “geographical” installation conceived to transform the spaces of Assab One into a surface capable of bringing us closer to the earth. The imaginary sequence of fields is composed of organic materials (such as coal, sand, shells, hemp, clay, red soil, and loam) as a tribute to the Dutch and Po Valley plains home to Studio Ossidiana but at the same time a conceptual bridge between people through a series of volumes made with the same materials as found in nature. Rakes and other large wooden tools, designed and created by hand by the designers for this exhibition, encourage the public to undertake participatory and playing actions on the ground, to literally draw on the surface of the installation, and therefore become an active participant. At the end of the exhibition this carpet of materials, which will have lost its chromatic and material definitions, will be converted into an accumulation of fertile materials. The work made in unison with the public will be transported to Trotter Park as a donation to the city’s community, with the intention of its integration into the landscape over a period of twelve months.

Cino Zucchi and Chiara Zucchi have created for 1+1+1 the participatory installation, OUROBOROBEATS. Consisting of two complementary parts that accompany the participant on a path of sounds, vocalisations, and noises which, through the filter of art, transform what is abstract and individual into something that becomes shared. On the one hand, a large structure, made with metal pipes and support rods, forms the geometric shape of the lemniscate, the horizontal 8 – the symbol of infinity. An “endless colonnade” that devours itself much like the Ouroboros snake.
Its suspended layout creates an “open stage”, in which visitors are invited to interact and generate sounds using percussion instruments. The second part of the installation includes a gallery of musical Lares and Penates, which bring us back to the theme of memory, reproducibility, and the transmission of knowledge throughout generations.
The piece will be inaugurated on Tuesday 31st May with a performance by Elio Marchesini accompanied by the Pozzi Sonori ensemble and with the participation of Cino Zucchi.

Rediscovering spontaneity - Federica Sala

The sixth edition of 1+1+1 wants to be a continuation of the collective, a 1+1+1+1+1+1+…. which at the same time welcomes the previous editions within the new installations. Through the method of layering, new life is breathed into past works, thanks to the participatory presence of the visitors who will find themselves walking through the space of Sala Roland and, if desired, will interact with the new proposals. Giving a shape and a name to a process already underway at Assab One, the exhibition underlines the aspect of the legacies of some of those who have previously intervened in the space. Perhaps because we are approaching an important birthday (twenty years of activity) or because we realised that every time certain works remain and are not dismantled – or are moved – thus becoming a part of Assab One in an organic way, adding ulterior notions of space to be dealt with. 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+…. today it represents an artistic agglomeration in constant change, almost a living organism and in this vitality, the human element takes on a renewed centrality. The three installations this year, designed by Zilla Leutenegger, Studio Ossidiana, and Cino Zucchi ad Chiara Zucchi are all united through the importance of the relationship with the visitor and consequently its spontaneity. The past few years have pushed us to live in a stricter manner, planning the smallest details: tickets for exhibitions and cinemas are booked and bought in advance, restaurants are unthinkable if not booked prior, and diaries locked in a sequence of physical and virtual appointments. Even phone calls are planned.

The exhibition at Assab One wants to bring back that spontaneity and randomness to the centre of our lives. We are capable of surprising ourselves, we are curious and we can deviate from the predetermined path, doing so with joy and without worry.

Swiss artist Zilla Leutenegger combines her main means of expression (video and drawing) in a site-specific installation that engages a dialogue between the wooden cabins of Jan De Vylder and Inge Vinck and the improvised movements of th dncr (the dancer) involving visitors in a delicate play of shadows and reflections. Visitors continually interrupt the beam of the projectors, having been purposely placed on the ground. The visitor is brought into the dance with an extended hand and invitation to free oneself from formalities and start dancing.

The second work of a spatial nature is by Studio Ossidiana, a Rotterdam-based duo of Italian architects who, with Wandering fields, relate the Po Valley where they grew up with the Dutch plains where they currently live. Their geographical dialogue brings soil to the forefront, designing fields where the visitor is invited to care for them, comb them, play with them, and mix the composition. The organic carpet will in turn become a fertile composition that will continue its life in the neighbourhood, teaching us a lesson on sowing: not only plants but also relationships.

The OUROBOROBEATS installation by Cino Zucchi and Chiara Zucchi, which lays on the floor work by Andrea Mastrovito, addresses the theme of collectivity and spontaneity through the filter of music, a universal language par excellence. A kind of training ground for dialogue that, thanks to an open stage, teaches us how to transform single sounds into a collective rhythm, to take the time to tune one’s own rhythm to that of others. At the same time, the installation emphasises the legacy of music, which, being able to be reproduced, reinterpreted, and transmitted beyond the temporal sequences, becomes not only a universal language but also an atemporal one. (F.S.)