Mark Manders’ Cose in corso is currently on display at Collezione Maramotti until 28 September. Bringing together found, reconstructed and reinvented objects, the exhibition is a kaleidoscopic series of organic constellations. The different elements within the work juxtapose and creative a narrative, like the pages of a diary in a very personal artistic development. The artist often leaves sculptures and objects to settle for long periods of time in his studio, letting them naturally transform over time.

Manders regularly uses clay as a mould for further developments with other materials (epoxy resins, casts) and as raw material for the creation of human and animal figures, which are broken or disjointedly incomplete. Clay is supple and pliable, making it the perfect tool for the artist to construct numerous forms. He uses art to develop the basic shape of his chosen objects, which allows his viewers to stand in a space of reflection. His art triggers a new perception of the world, both for himself and his audience.

Manders’ first work from 1986, Self-Portrait as a Building embodies the central traits of his practice, demonstrating his interest in the life of the artwork and its biographical development in the spaces of memory. The title of the exhibition, Cose in corso, is the name that the artist has given to the project made for Collezione Maramotti, thus demonstrating its continuity with the main elements of his creative process.

The large installation utilises objects that are already present in other works (bathtub, chairs, the unfinished body laid out on the wood plank resting on the chair). For this exhibition these pieces are placed within a new context and thus find a new meaning. The installation rests on a floor made of iron tiles, making the presentation an immersive artwork. There is also a new interjection of pure colour, giving certain objects a strong aesthetic presence within a sculptural framework.

Mark Manders: Cose in corso, until 28 September, Collezione Maramotti, Via Fratelli Cervi 66, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Credits
1. Mark Manders, Finished Sentence (August 2010), ferro, legno dipinto, stampa offset su carta, bustine di tè / iron, painted wood, offset print on paper, tea bags 99,1 x 251,5 x 130,8 cm. Courtesy the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp.