Expowall Gallery in Milan has recently proposed KIN 金, a photographic exhibition that connects the ancient Japanese art of kitsugi and photography.
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KIN 金 (gold in Japanese) is a selection of 14 photographs printed in the darkroom by Carola Guaineri, then torn and reassembled through the preciousness of a golden thread by Anita Cerrato. Their work lasted three years, between the time of analogue photography and the basins of photographic development in front of which waiting for the image to take shape, and the patient and measured time of the gold thread that, following the irregularities of the fractures, slowly reassembles the fragments, awakening the form of the object.
"It took all these years to do extensive research on materials and techniques, since the photos are really torn, glued, plastered and gilded using urushi lacquer and pure gold. The great technical difficulty is due to the fact that the paper used for printing, baryta and polythene, is very delicate and fears humidity, while the urushi lacquer needs a so-called wall in order to polymerize: a wood-lined room where there are at least 20° and 65% relative humidity," Carla and Anita explain.
Carola Guaineri was born in Milan on December 30, 1975. She began her career as a photographer in 1991, after seeing an exhibition of the photographer Ansel Adams. Since then, black and white have become the means of expression. She works in her darkroom, developing and printing her own photos in a continuous stylistic research.
Anita Cerrato was born in Milan on May 20, 1975. Writer and restorer, she learned the original kintsugi technique from some Japanese masters. In 2015, together with Giancarlo Bozzani, artist and designer, she founded Kintsu Handmade. The passion for design also leads her to do a lot of research, to probe new creative ideas, she experiments by applying the ancient technique of kintsugi on unusual materials.
The concept and the message that this exhibition wants to convey is the urgency of a return to needs often neglected, but that strongly belong to us. For this reason it is necessary a work of recomposition so that these needs can emerge again in all their human need for their value, as precious as gold.
Kintsugi is an ancient technique, but recently used by major international brands, from automotive to cosmetics to jewelry, as a metaphor for rebirth after the countless losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fascination of a technique such as kintsugi lies in the fact that it does not hide itself, it does not pretend to restore the object to its presumed originality. On the contrary, its intervention is clearly visible and shiny, becoming an integral part of the object instead of a scar. Underneath the skillful weaving of that golden thread there is the echo of the sound of a torn photograph. The intervention of kintsugi acquires here the valences of the game and of the reference, of the calls and of the echoes, and intends to suggest an invitation to question ourselves on some aspects that concern us, not only individually.
The exhibition will be open on until June 19, 2021.
Discover all the available works of the KIN 金 exhibition on Kooness .
Written by Caterina Ippolito
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