The lightness of the female touch

Imagine large drops of water lying still on a base of sand, photographed the moment after they break up on the shore, or impalpable, weightless female figures sitting by themselves, almost self-absorbed. These images are not from the mind of Lewis Carroll, the father of Alice in Wonderland, who would certainly have been able to include these figures in his famous novel, but can be found at Whirlpool, in Comerio, at the European headquarters of the American multinational, where, last Saturday, “Progetto Impronte”, a sculpture exhibition, of works by six young female artists from Varese and Milan, was inaugurated in the large reception.

The artists are Manuela Ciriacono, Federica Ferzoco, Claudia Canavesi, Marianna Gasperini, Elisa Rossini, Eva Reguzzoni.

Sculpture is an art form that is so strongly rooted in traditional iconography that it is almost foreign to these light, somewhat weightless figures on display: semicircles that look like umbrellas turned inside out, pillows that climb gracefully up the walls, and the superfine glass shapes lying on a sandy base, in the middle, incidentally, of an artistic "accident", with one of the sculptures that a visitor trampled on by mistake.

“The idea was to reveal, in a very spacious setting, the artist’s intention, which is expressed, through shapes, as concepts of freedom and light,” Manuela Ciriacono explained. “It is with these materials, like tissue paper and the cotton gauze, that we take the visitor on a kind of journey of the senses, that is striking, that fails to leave him unmoved.”

The inauguration, which is part of the Glocal12 initiative, which is underway in Varese, was greatly appreciated by the more than forty representatives of newspaper present, who had come from all parts of Italy, and who then gathered for their annual meeting in the Whirpool auditorium. The President of Lombardy Regional Council, Fabrizio Cecchetti, was there too, and he enthusiastically praised the initiative.

“The delicate sensibilities of these artists,” said Giuseppe Geneletti, the Whirlpool EMEA corporate director for communication and learning & development, “allow us to explore an emotional universe, where there are everyday, domestic materials, lights and colours, female shapes and graphics.”

The exhibition will remain open until the end of 2012, and can be visited, by appointment, from Monday to Friday (from 9 am to 5 pm), by writing to adele_ferrari@whirlpool.com.