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air shapes is an in situ installation of ten photographs by italian artist salvatore calì created and developed for the mdina cathedral contemporary art biennale 2015. two metres by hundred thirty centimetres filled with sky and dynamic gestures, propel the viewer to what is immediately perceived as an invitation to open, to depart, to imagine. the depicted series of actions can represent a familial greeting gesture like waving a handkerchief, as well as an action to support a handkerchief in the breeze, a handkerchief that belonged to the artist’s mother.
multiple levels of meaning, from greeting to surrender, or calling for attention: a flag or a handkerchief, held up high in a gesture of salute, can also be an affirmation of identity or a declaration of surrender, besides representing a membership, an identity.
air shapes however is also a search for a powerful lyrical image that makes air visible: air reveals itself through the shapes that it forms. giving form to air it is manifesting the invisible. this is calì’s territory, this is the fundamental effort in calì’s art.
air shapes, steering the viewer to a journey towards acknowledging the invisible, articulates calì’s main interest: the relationship between landscape and human presence, the interaction between physics, energy and culture, art’s embrace of the complexity of reality.
Renata Summo O'Connell, Curator.
Flags are not only an expression of a people's geographical and political identity ... but above all expressions of cultural identity in which anyone can recognize themselves ... and they shape the air ...
Air Shapes develops further Calì ‘s research around themes like the invisible, borders, identity and territory.
The series finds its origins in Calì’s Guazza, a “digital performance” and video. Interested in the relationship between landscape and human presence, in Guazza, Calì responded to the lyrical, iconic presence of an Italian flag flapping in the breeze on a lakeshore. Beyond the flag’ geopolitical significance as expression of a specific people, of a given cultural identity, with its possible conflictual connotations, Calì sought a different opportunity.
As the water in the lake and everything around him moved, he stayed motionless, in a still journey towards his own identity as well as an affirmation of the artist ‘determination to be part of the world, of that moment in time.
Later, going to Malta within a personal and artistic quest, Calì kept an object of particular significance to him, the handkerchief his mother gave him before dying.
He realized that the flag ‘movement in the wind, just as the handkerchief’s held in the breeze, gave shape to air, air that by definition does not have form, cannot be touched or seen. The viewer is similarly invited to unknown destinations of thought and understanding.
Giving shape to air, make way to manifest the invisible: this is Calì’s territory; this is the fundamental effort of Cali’s art.
Renata Summo O'Connell, Curator
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