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‘Spolia is a Latin word meaning “the spoils” which is used to describe works of art and architecture made with materials salvaged from old works. “
in Wikipedia
Departing from the notion that history , comes to us inevitably through fragments subject to interpretation , ‘ Spolia – Mute Speak ‘ sets out to explore the appropriation of materials , artifacts and collected imagery into the creation of new work, whilst addressing paradoxes between fragment and whole , material and meaning and the creative potential of fragments, traces and the residual.
Drawing from processes close to archeological research and architectural restoration , the gathered ‘archive’ and locally salvaged/found elements and materials are here employed , not only as means of documentation and research, but equally to propel and articulate new artistic vocabularies evoking a multitude of meanings, thus unfolding other possible narratives .
Although proposing other ‘realities’ , these somewhat differ from the concept of hyperreality (as described by Jean Baudrillard *) : they do not operate as replacements to the real with an idealised version of itself, but aim to stimulate alternative insights on the socio – political contexts of the local , informed by cross-cultural pollinations across time , embed both with historical and mundane references and direct quotidian experiences.
Recurring to a plethora of medias , through juxtaposing and layering strategies , revealing and concealing , the work here presented is per si ambiguous , intertwining past, present and future, reality and fiction.
History becomes somehow a construction, still in the making…