Eight urban installations take center stage in Gorizia | Nova Gorica, European Capital of Culture 2025, until September 8.
The peaceful invasion of Cracking Art’s colorful animals has been inaugurated in Gorizia. The initiative is promoted by the Chamber of Commerce of Venezia Giulia for Nova Gorica and Gorizia, European Capital of Culture 2025, in collaboration with the Municipality of Gorizia.
“We aimed to animate the city’s visit in every sense,” commented Antonio Paoletti, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Venezia Giulia, “with the presence of oversized, colorful animals to create a contemporary fable that engages visitors of all ages through direct interaction with the artwork. The material used—regenerated and regenerable plastic—addresses themes of sustainability and the relationship between human beings and technological progress.”
The Cracking Art artistic group consists of Italian, Belgian, and French artists and was founded in Biella on December 1, 1993, exactly one month after the Maastricht Treaty came into force, establishing the European Community. With their works integrated into urban settings, the artists have created over 500 installations worldwide, promoting themes such as collaboration and inclusivity.
“Placed in various locations around the city, the installations aim to engage and make all visitors protagonists of this special occasion, emphasizing that culture belongs to everyone and should be accessible without borders,” highlight the artists of the Cracking Art group.
The installations guide visitors through the city’s hidden corners at a time when it is buzzing with cultural activities.
“A fable of colors and symbols, where each animal represents a message,” concludes Paoletti, “with an itinerary linked to a digital map: by scanning the QR Codes on the totems near the installations with a smartphone, visitors can access information about the artwork and its location (in Italian, English, Slovenian, and German), ensuring a complete interaction between place, artwork, and audience.”
DAV – Department of Visual Arts in Soresina (CR) Hosts “CRACKING ART LOVES HISTORY”
A monographic exhibition dedicated to the internationally acclaimed artistic collective, as part of the celebrations for their 30th anniversary.
Founded in the early 1990s (1993), Cracking Art has been committed from its inception to radically transforming the perception of art history through a strong social and environmental engagement, combined with a revolutionary use of plastic materials that highlight the increasingly close relationship between natural life and artificial reality.
Three key aspects define their approach:
In addition to iconic works that have defined Cracking Art over the decades, the exhibition will feature an exclusive new sculpture created specifically for this event. Handcrafted, it will depict a modernized version of the Ephesian Artemis (2nd century CE), a symbol of the goddess Artemis’s worship in Ephesus, where she was venerated as queen of nature and ruler of wild beasts.
The exhibition will also include three vibrant and immediately recognizable urban installations. Located between the DAV and Soresina’s most prominent squares, these majestic and playful sculptures will integrate into the city’s urban fabric for the duration of the event, spreading Cracking Art’s poetic sincerity—full of ideas, joy, strength, color, and determination.
CRACKING ART LOVES HISTORY
December 15, 2024 – January 26, 2025
DAV – Department of Visual Arts
Via Matteotti 2/4 – Soresina (CR)
OPENING
Sunday, December 15, at 5:30 PM
HOURS
FOR INFO AND VISITS:
Email: dav.soresina@gmail.com
Phone: +39 340 5419476
FREE ENTRY
The Fabbrica Eos gallery presents, in its space at Viale Pasubio 8/a, from November 28, 2024, to January 11, 2025, the solo exhibition by Cracking Art titled CAOSMO – The Memory of Matter.
The exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of Cracking Art’s activity, taking a journey back to the origins of its artistic path. In fact, the programmatic manifesto of the movement was first presented in the spaces of the Fabbrica Eos gallery in December 1993, with its exhibition activity beginning in 1994.
The exhibition will feature some of the iconic sculptures made of regenerated and regenerable plastic that have characterized over 500 installations created throughout these years, bringing the collective to all five continents of the planet.
However, rather than a celebration of the past, this exhibition aims to present the transition to a series of new works that place an even greater focus on the concept of regeneration.
The artworks in the “Caosmo” series, displayed in a gallery for the first time, are made from material derived from the shredding of sculptures used in previous installations. This emphasizes that plastic, as Roland Barthes once wrote, is less a substance and more the very idea of its infinite transformation.
Chaos here does not so much signify disorder as the infinite speed with which any form dissipates the moment it arises. It is a void, not a nothingness, but a virtual space containing all possible particles and evoking all possible forms—forms that emerge only to immediately vanish, lacking consistency or reference. (G. Deleuze / F. Guattari, What is Philosophy?, 1991)
Thus, the particles of the sculptures, bearing the memory of their origins, take on unpredictable new directions in an attempt to restore order and rebuild a new cosmos through art, which, through its irrational processes, keeps us profoundly human.
Returning to Fabbrica Eos represents, for Cracking Art, a return to the origins of its universe.
A silent presence of wolves, sculptures dressed in intense colors (austerus indeed). Enigmatic figures that evoke the lives and dreams of magnificence of those who, in the Roman era, built a sumptuous villa, the powerful remains of which we can admire today in the archaeological area known as the Grotte di Catullo.
The installation is part of Back to PIETRA&Co., a mosaic of works forming an exhibition route from Punta Grò to the Grotte di Catullo, which will be open until October. These works emerged from the encounter between the creativity of the artists and the poetry of Sirmione: contaminations of public spaces and everyday places that come into contact with the public in unexpected and surprising ways.
“Bringing art back to the public and the public back to art without losing intensity and the ability to experiment,” said Lillo Marciano, the creator of the event, to whom this presence is dedicated.
The exhibition is organized by the Consorzio Marmisti Bresciani in collaboration with the Municipality of Sirmione and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage – Regional Directorate of Museums of Lombardy.
“Ceramicrack – the regeneration of matter” is an exhibition dedicated to the encounter between the plastic art of Cracking Art and that of the master ceramists of Albisola Superiore on the occasion of the Maiolica Festival.
A city route of six installations starting from the ceramic school passing through the archaeological area of Alba Docilia, winding along the promenade to lead to the Manlio Trucco Museum where an exhibition will showcase the works created by the ceramists of Albisola Superiore in dialogue with Cracking Art sculptures.
The installations and the exhibition will be open for visitation until September 5th.
On SATURDAY, MAY 4th, at 5:30 PM at PALAZZO MANDAMENTALE in Cannobio, the inauguration of the Cracking Art MOVEMENT EXHIBITION will take place.
The exhibition project – curated by Marco Albertella, cultural director of the City of Cannobio, and Cracking Art – aims to celebrate the important milestone of the 30 YEARS SINCE THE FOUNDATION of the movement with an EXHIBITION-EVENT TITLED “CREO,” set up at PALAZZO PARASI, featuring some UNPUBLISHED WORKS, and a CITYWIDE EXHIBITION, “URBAN FABLES” showcasing the colorful oversized animals by Cracking Art hosted in some of the most emblematic and poetic places of Cannobio.
The “Creo” exhibition at Palazzo Parasi will then be open for visits UNTIL SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2024, on the following days and times:
The “Urban Fables” citywide exhibition, on the other hand, will be freely accessible throughout the streets of the city UNTIL SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2024.
The Cracking Art x Coccinelle project features the new Coccinelle Rabbit Bag, which is more than just a cute rabbit-shaped purse – it is a genuine prêt-à-porter work of art celebrating the colourful creativity and the shared sense of responsibility that links the two brands.
The material used to craft the new and exclusive miniature bags comes from the pulverisation of artworks that are no longer used in Cracking Art installations.
Starting from a blend of 99% recovered plastic and with meticulous attention to details, Coccinelle brings the Rabbit Bag to life. A playful, refined, and at the same time, nomadic accessory, available in the three most iconic pop shades of Cracking Art – fuchsia, orange, and green – in a limited number of pieces.
You can purchase an exclusive Rabbit Bag at the following link https://www.coccinelle.com/it_it/coccinelledesignweek2024
From February 8 until May 8, 2024, Soave (Verona- Italy) will be peacefully invaded by animal installations along a guided tour of the medieval village. The enchanting atmosphere already provided by the walls and the Castle to the landscape is thus enhanced by the appearance of fantastic animals that, with their presence, narrate the contemporary urban fables of Cracking Art.
Geese, frogs, snails, meerkats, and other sculptures will interact with the historical architecture of the place, conveying their own messages that illustrate the relationship between nature and artifice.
The installation is promoted by the Municipality of Soave.
