- 8 Apr 2023 3 pm UTC
- dur 7 min
Genius loci is part of the video performances of that branch of the hybrid arts that the artist develops by naming them as chem-art. The Latin term means spirit of the place, in fact the site specific project is designed for Villa La Cartiera in Pontremoli, the northernmost municipality in Tuscany, where the “Oscillazioni” exhibition takes place every summer. The performance in the park is filmed by linking the work to the “Studio visit” installation exhibited in the pavilions, bringing part of the equipment and works being performed into a room, so as to give the possibility of seeing everything in a temporary and long atelier at the path shows. The name of the villa derives from the paper mill built in the early 1800s next to the manor house, where a sawmill and an ice factory will later be built. The performance records the ambient sound of nature surmounted by the bubbling of molten metal, an induced action similar to the geological processes of the earth. In a rite of procedures, the artist passes from the first poetic part to a documentary conclusion, with the mystical concentration that sometimes the actions in a given place require.
Manfredi\’s art has developed since adolescence by observing people and places, working on imitations and still leaving some space for abstraction and concept. But he never left the commitment to the technical part and the lesson on substances. He was always very hardworking, eager to progress and learn more. He focused on chemistry, substance melting and exothermic reactions. This is a very new and innovative area and Manfredi is a pioneer in this field. The knowledge of Materials, great imagination are producing a new type of hybrid Arts focused on chemistry. ARTIST’S WEBSITE