photo © Andrea Anastasio and has been at the centre of a great number of ethical and poetic narratives . In the stunningly beautiful book written by Roberto Calasso on the Indian mythology , titled L ’ Ardore , this has to do with the god of fire Agni , a name with the same root as the Latin Ignis , fire . The book gives us food for thought on how much light , seen as heat , or ardour , is at the origin of the domestication of the unknown . Having for the first time experienced , in a physical and real way , the darkness of space in which luminous bodies move , the terror of seeing the sun set , and feeling the cold along with the darkness : these are things that are part of our DNA . In a more or less conscious way , all my designs with light start from a reflection on these infinite footprints that can be traced within the extraordinary path of millennia of human interaction with the phenomenon of light .
And what does philosophy teach us instead ? We know well how Plato had imagined the relationship between life and man , and conscience , precisely through the reflection or the shadow in the cave . And this is something that has always been with me , even when , especially at the beginning of my career as an artist , I preferred to make use of a playful dimension . I am thinking of Artemide ’ s Milano- Venezia collection in 1990 , which , in reality , was born from a lamp presented at Antonia Jannone ’ s gallery the year before . It was called Children ’ s Corner that took inspiration from the compositions of Claude Debussy and was a playful creation using Murano glass , the most varied and colourful in the world . Ernesto Gismondi wanted it rearranged in Artemide , and that gave rise to the collection , that is to lamps such as Ina , Efesto and Giocasta , the latter is the most famous of the three . These lamps were all designed using a variety of colourful glass elements with vaguely organic shapes . They were like coloured flower bulbs , bright , cheery and colourful and provoking wonder in its simplest sense . It was was the beginning of my research into light .
Are you fascinated by the shadow too ? Yes , especially since the moment I had the chance to approach the Shadow Theater , which is a truly powerful tool of mythical tales involving deities throughout India . In this performance , the deity ’ s character passes through the puppet , which is not directly exposed to the public ’ s view , but projected onto a large canvas , so as to be magnified and brought closer to the impalpable . For some months now , I have been working on the Shadow Theatre with two communities
Scultura luminosa realizzata nell ’ ambito di un progetto finanziato da Kaash / Light sculpture of the project funded by Kaash
that still survive in South India , one in Kerala and the other in Andhra Pradesh , carrying out a project funded by Kaash , a foundation that keeps alive craft and knowledge processes related to lesser-known Indian traditions . We are working on a series of sculptures of light and lamps made entirely of goat or buffalo skin , like the puppets . It is a material that has a semitransparency giving the light an extremely warm and soft temperature . Animal skin was man ’ s first protection , it covered the body and was , in fact , the first inhabited space . This semi-opacity transforms them into a luminous diaphragm and leads us to imagine a playful - but also tragic - dimension of entities that rob man of fire and light .
And we come to art that expresses itself with light … For me , the artists who have worked with light are the most important of modernity , particularly Dan Flavin and James Turrell , both Americans , but bearers of two very different Americas . Flavin through the luminous and chromatic rhythmicity of neon tubes defines space , but he uses a tool borrowed from street lighting , advertising and the world of consumption , whereas Turrell makes an entirely abstract reflection on light , on the infinite spaces of American nature , and the relationship of light with the Earth . We are inside this narration because the Earth is surrounded by the atmosphere : if it were not there , we would not see the sunrise and sunset , but photo courtesy Foscarini
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