AXLOR by MATTEO MELOTTO

SAMANA emerges as a continuation of the thesis in collaboration with the Rick Owens brand: a ceremonial performance in the form of a deconstructed parade following the devotional act of religious circumambulation - associated with symbolic meanings of purification, veneration, or consecration - and three installative phases that rework the anthropological ritualistic theory of Arnold Van Gennep first and Victor Turner later.

The space is divided into two sections: one related to the performance and the other to the exhibition, also tripartite in itself in three sculptural groups representing the corresponding phases related to the Theory of liminality: a phase called "separation", a "liminal" one, and one of "aggregation or reincorporation".

If Matteo Melotto's entire practice is influenced by this rhythm marked by the number three, the performance and the exhibition create a double, a synchronous and parallel element: the performance that sees us as spectators of that same rite that Melotto leads us to perform, on ourselves, through the occupation of his installative space not as visitors but as practitioners.

The first stage is characterized by a phase of "isolation", called SIPKA and realized in the form of a portal with a proto-architectonic trilitic structure.

The second stage, KREIJN, is the one of the liminality phase, central to the rite, in which the individual or group finds themselves in a state of transition.

The third phase, that of aggregation or reincorporation, is represented by AXLOR, which combines technology and nature with its sculptural elements.

In all installative situations, six of the nine garments from the collection in collaboration with Rick Owens are present: first inhabited by the covers of two handmaidens, deconstructed into two casts, and finally dematerialized into the form of a bodily essence. Lucrezia Nardi

AXLOR is a votive installation inspired by the ritual phase of reintegration, composed of four brutalist totems made of concrete and hydraulic pipes, a circle of gray canvas, and a glass amphora containing an MP3 player. All elements of the installation are sprinkled with gray cement, a material derived from the context of the popular and degraded neighborhoods of the suburbs, and transposed into a context of artistic-religious value, in line with Melotto’s alchemical practice. However, the main relic is immaterial, like the concept of asceticism it represents, and is constituted by the technological element of noise music: three original tracks contained in the MP3 player, composed by the artist integrating synths and digital distortions with samples of South American indigenous chants recorded in the mid-20th century by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax.

UNIQUE PIECE

3 MQ

PVC, COTONE

VETRO, CEMENTO,

LETTORE MP3, AUDIO

AVAILABLE