Alberto Scodro: Spannung

The almost empty room becomes a field of tension. A series of intermittent micro-actions unfold in the dimly-lit space, all implying energy and, ultimately, relating to light. The large French windows overlooking the courtyard are boarded up with yellow planks. On the facing wall, a window opens and closes and in the centre of the space, a single large root suspended from a rope slowly rises, rotating. Weight, power, suspension, circularity, squeeze, grip, and traction are some of the leitmotifs in Alberto Scodro’s work, and all were on display at a recent exhibition in Milan’s Viafarini exhibition space. Titled “Spannung,” the exhibition was curated by Simone Frangi.

Scodro tends to consider both the specificity and the overall configuration of an exhibition space. More or less intentionally, he culls the essential parameters for his installations from the space that he continues to reference and modify by introducing active elements. Scodro creates environmental installations based on the relationship between independent, yet interconnected, elements, creating composite dynamic systems, which are, in turn, connected to the interior architecture and exterior space.

"Spannung" is based on the original use of the exhibition space as a bus depot in the Fabbrica del Vapore complex, a series of industrial warehouses in northwest Milan. "Spannung was conceived by looking at the space from the outside,” explains Scodro, “from the street where the trams are.” Looking in, the artist saw the striking image of a square of golden light created by rays of sunlight filtering through the window. In the exhibition, the front window opens when the tram passes so that, for a moment, rattling noise and sunlight penetrate the interior. This light inspired the exhibition becoming the wall of suspended yellow panels. Inside, it is impossible to know exactly when the tram will pass by and when the window will open: an invitation to passers-by and tram passengers to perceive the golden vision and perhaps enter the exhibition space.

The large root in the centre of the room replicates an original that the artist found along the outer perimeter of the Fabbrica del Vapore and that is still there. It is suspended from the ceiling with a rope exactly in the place where a pillar once stood to support the whole room. A mechanical device moves it up and down in a slow, laborious screw-like rotation. The window opens the circular motion to the circularity of the trams that run through the city.

Paradoxically, if the room’s perimeter is what counts in “Spannung,” with walls becoming diaphragms and meeting points between exterior and interior, the void is charged with even more powerful tension. Everything is apparently unproductive energy, process, exchange: a useless invitation that is barely suggested; unresolved action moving in a circle. The piece has the vitality of a ghost, and this is why it is surprising. Gabi Scardi