Memorie is a new project by Francesco Meneghello and Davide Lanfranco for We Don't Design, the platform conceived by Francesco Meneghello himself to host radical projects, abstract experiments, and experiences that originate in the elusive grey space between art and design.
Memorie was born from a minimal gesture that freely and adventurously retraces the steps taken by Piero Manzoni in his search for an 'infinite' artistic trace, a search that led to the creation of his famous Linee in 1959.
Memorie is a carpet in its origin and textile nature. However, the material consistency is so reduced that it no longer has any utility value. Like a ruined temple, we can only imagine what it was like. The irreversible consumption of material consistency makes time the most obvious dimension of the object. Time, whether as an infinite entity or as tempus edax rerum, the corrosive force that leaves ruins as testimony to the past.
'Once again, rational logic is not enough to understand the object; a different look is needed that has to do with imagination, abstraction, and metaphor.'
Memorie is an 'extreme act', a reflection on the fatal transience of things that finds its only possible resistance in the world of memory. Recollection counteracts oblivion and gives time an intimate, somehow in(de)finite dimension. Experiences, memories, and emotions do not compose an organic plot. They form an uneven, complex, and fluctuating sequence. Sometimes dense, sometimes evanescent, as represented in the discontinuous and jagged essence of the carpet.
Memorie is produced in a single edition of 1959 linear meters, the same year Piero Manzoni created his first Linee. Francesco Meneghello and Davide Lanfranco have added the paradox of 'divisibility' to the infinite nature of the geometric concept of a line. This allows the idea of possessing a 'fragment of infinity,' ranging from the minimum length of 1.23 meters, the start of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, to the symbolic limit of 1959 meters.
Memorie is crafted in Nepal, hand-woven from natural black silk yarn. Its production follows ethical codes of sustainability towards the environment and people, promoting inclusion and support for local communities. Each 'fragment of infinity'—identified by a progressive serial number and double certificate of authenticity—is a unique work of art, characterized by its individual length and random arrangement of fringes.
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