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Nicola Toffolini (Italy, 1975) |
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Nicola Toffolini makes sculptures and installations of varying dimensions combining artificial and technological materials with organic elements, generally conditioning their balances and growth rates. Toffolini’s art is a sort of visionary empiricism aimed at rethinking the forms of the world according to alternative models of sustainability and development. His installations act through both the semantic potential of their elements and the natural or artificial processes that link them, appearing as a third kind of reality, founded on scientific knowledge and parallel to criticism of it. On the basis of this contrast, the interpretation of Toffolini's work is always expressed and complicated by possible contradictions. |
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Toffolini also uses drawing as a means of expression. The artist’s notebooks meticulously record the stages of development of his installations, mixing analytic desire, naturalistic representation and artistic invention. With an approach more akin that of an engineer than an artist, Toffolini reveals the becoming of his thought, in the transition from idea to work, somehow imbuing the formality of scientific drawing with poeticism and visionariness.
For Green Platform the artist presents a new work, made from recycled materials combined with waste collected from industrial manufacturing processes. The piece consists of two cultivated cells, arranged parallel to each other, which are self-sufficient in terms of energy. The energy produced by the external artificial light shining on the case is recovered by a simple technical apparatus with a small solar panel and is converted into a beam of additional light that is conveyed directly onto the plant. The spectrum of light produced – blue in one showcase, red in the other – interferes with the development of the plants and has a different effect on their growth in the two separate environments.
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Volumi mutevoli a regime di crescita disturbato, 2009
2 self-sufficient energy cultivation cells
160 x 30 x 10 cm each
installation produced by CCCS, Florence
Courtesy the artist; Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Firenze
Photo Credit: CCCS, Firenze; Valentina Muscedra |
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Stralcio da taccuino progettuale:
Volumi mutevoli a regime di crescita disturbato, 2009
drawing with Pigma 0.05 and 0.1 black pens on Moleskine Japanese Album
14,8 x 18 cm
Courtesy the artist |
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