Tags: Alex Angi, Carlo Rizzetti, Cracking Art, Harald Szeeman, Kicco, Marco Veronese, Renzo Nucara, Treviso, WIlliam Sweetlove
Cracking Art are now back in Treviso with a sensational exhibition, a peaceful invasion of plastic animals along the city streets ideally guiding spectators all the way to the inner yard of Ca’ dei Ricchi. The relevant initiative is aimed both at making art popular and at bringing about social solidarity, in fact it will support the ‘Consorzio per mio figlio’ Onlus Association in its fund-raising campaign to provide the Paediatric Ward of Treviso Hospital with up-to-date medical equipment. Labelled “Cracking Art Revolution”, the display is a wide-ranging event, the work of an art group that stands out on the contemporary scene. Born in 1993, on Omar Ronda’s initiative with the signing of the “Millennium End Manifesto”, the group is at present composed of William Sweetlove, Renzo Nucara, Marco Veronese, Alex Angi, Carlo Rizzetti and Kicco, who have shown their creations in countless exhibitions and events all over the world. It is enough to mention their exhibition at the 2001 Venice Biennial, under the management of Harald Szeeman, still remembered as the ‘Turtle Edition’. Their idea consists in using plastic, a material that has in many ways characterised modern life, as an artistic medium to foster social commitment, to safeguard the environment, and to rediscover a meaningful relationship between nature and art. Cracking is the process through which oil is transformed into virgin naphtha, the basic element for countless synthetic products. The group’s aim is to do away with the idea that plastic is a harmful material, to show that, despite it has often been misused, its potential qualities are exceptional and that, far from being artificial, it is the outcome of our planet’s organic life. Their aim is also to expose fake natural things: “ from silicone breasts, to synthetic lawns”, as Ronda declared in an interview a few years ago. The Bear, the latest creation to join “ Cracking Zoo”, is among the novelties in the Treviso exhibition, itself the embodiment of a new attitude of respect to nature.