On February 23, 2018, Habitar la Línea and Galleria Opere Scelte are pleased to present A Perdita d’Occhio [As Far As I Can See], the first solo show in Spain by Marco Cordero (born Italy, 1969) as a collateral exhibition of DRAWING ROOM MADRID fair. The exhibition is also the first collaboration between the drawing workshop and art space Habitar Línea (Madrid) and Galleria Opere Scelte (Turin, Italy) with DRAWING ROOM fair.
A Perdita d’Occhio [As Far As I Can See] explores how sculpture and drawing can be considered two fields, which energies at play are out of any labelling medium categories. In fact, The artwork on display is the result of a process of transformation and experimentation of materials. By employing wood, marble, metals, minerals, and especially burned books transformed into tools are but a few of the materials the artist carves to shape new landscapes.
At the entrance, it is displayed Indignarsi [Being indignant], a series of large drawings realized in 2010. In this work, the artist collects some images from daily newspapers and retraces them on paper with repeated insistence. The sheets of paper, in turn, become the surfaces to scratch. Close-ups of people and headlines are intertwined in a blurred, grayish-colored mass which is respectively outlined with Cordero’s hand-shaped silhouette on the upper side. Cordero’s hand has represented the common theme over the course of his career, establishing his style. Another body of drawings is Probabilmente non serve a niente. Potrebbe [It is likely useless. It might be], 2013. The work relates to a participatory project carried out in a jailhouse in Alessandria (Italy), and it consists of a collection of book pages. Page after page, Cordero drew several symbolic images inspired by the conversations he entertained with the inmates.
At the core of the exhibition are two environmental-sized installations. They cover the walls, taking control of the gallery space. Ombre lunghe [Long Shadows], 2016-2018, consists of a long dark line engraved on the wall with an incinerated scrap of a book and some indigo-colored sentences written around it. Since, chemically, the burned books become graphite, the artist uses them as the pencil lead that in his hand allows him to occupy and shape the space. The shred of the book is left suspended on the wall: it is, at the same time, half stuck in the wall and hangs out towards the room.
Finally, it is A Perdita d’Occhio [As Far As I Can See], 2018, Cordero’s new, site-specific installation for Habitar la Línea. A patchwork of sheets of paper is used on the wall as if it were a blackboard, reminding the viewer of the drawing classes that take place in the same school. The artist scratches the surface repeatedly, employing a fragment of a burned book. As he did in the previous installation, what is left of the incinerated book is now hanging out as a sign of his performative strokes.
Marco Cordero’s work represents an act of resistance against the loss of words and their messages. In fact, once the books are being burned, their texts are no longer legible. However, every book carries the memory of the words that were once written in it.
