C.A. Tense

The work C.A. Tense is the result of a collaboration with the artist Carla Accardi, a major figure in postwar Italian abstract painting. One of the founders of the group Forma 1 in 1947 her work soon expanded over the limit of the canvas. The rich world of lines and abstracted symbols spread over numerous materials: from the plastic transparency of Sicofoil, to ceramic, textile, wood and glass among others. Her attitude of infinite expansion of painting vibrating into the material world created environmental works like tents; nevertheless, never reached the body of a human being, which I had seen as a logic evolution of her work. In 2010 I offered her my body as a canvas. The sign, previously drawn with Accardi’s felt pen on my right arm was subsequently tattooed. The work originates from a reflection on time and the physical space of art. Her work C.A.Tense bears the twofold sense of time and physical as well as muscular tension. An abstract line overlaps with the corporeal essence of the canvas. It defines an indissoluble bond and bridges across both generations.