Edoardo Tresoldi – The Basilica in Siponto

GENESIS OF THE ARTWORK

A common thread inextricably binds companies in the Dino Zoli Group to Art and its various fields of application. A bond characterised by passion, creativity and professionalism. Interwoven stories that mingle together.

In 2014 one of our companies (DZEngineering) was called upon to intervene in the requalification of the Basilica in Siponto and two years later launched the Work Eterea by Eduardo Tresoldi, to give shape to something that had disappeared in the mists of time.

We wanted to strengthen this art-business relationship with a new project in the city of Singapore, where we have been illuminating the Formula 1 Grand Prix for 11 years, with the Cube Temple, The Absent Matter that stood in an industrial space with the sanctity of a Renaissance temple, ethereal in its construction in wire mesh, but present with its sensory references to a purely Italian connotation.

Now, in the Foundation, we are presenting a narrative project tied to the Basilica in Siponto, the turning point in the career of Eduardo and our lighting project. A path through material itself, the woven mesh and the light, because the artist plays with the transparency of the wire mesh and industrial materials to create an immersive experience that transcends space and time and lights up a dialogue between art and the world.

And we want to be part of that world.

THE ARTIST

After the success in Singapore, at the Formula 1 Grand Prix 1, DZ Engineering and the Dino Zoli Foundation will also present in Forlì the work of Eduardo Tresoldi, one of the most influential young artists of Europe (“Forbes”, 2017), recently crowned at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.

In the city-state of Singapore, which has become the Asian hub for many global companies over the years, DZ Engineering, a Dino Zoli Group company that has created the track lighting and communication systems for the Marina Bay circuit since 2011, has also prepared the artistic lighting of some historical buildings such as the National Gallery of Singapore and the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay. The company celebrated winning some international tenders with the spectacular installation “Cube Temple. An ethereal creation of wire mesh in Singapore” by Edoardo Tresoldi, an ethereal work made of wire mesh and light. A project that, on the occasion of the vernissage and subsequent three-day opening was attended by numerous visitors interested in discovering the Italian excellence in the world.

From 13 October 2018 to 13 January 2019, the artist will be a guest at the Dino Zoli Foundation with “La Basilica di Siponto di Eduardo Tresoldi. Un racconto tra Rovine, Paesaggio e Luce” [The Basilica of Siponto by Eduardo Tresoldi. A story of Ruins, Landscape and Light], curated by Nadia Stefanel.

The programme of Saturday 13 October includes, at 6 pm, an open dialogue with Eduardo Tresoldi, during which visitors can explore the artist’s career and experience in Siponto through a question and answer session, with the presence of Mariastella Margozzi, director of the regional museums of Apulia. Next, the opening of the exhibition, organised by DZ Engineering and the Dino Zoli Foundation in collaboration with MiBAC – Museums of Apulia, the Italian Embassy in Singapore and the Emilia-Romagna Region.

With “La Basilica di Siponto di Edoardo Tresoldi. Un racconto tra Rovine, Paesaggio e Luce”, the author tries his hand for the first time at giving the public an important experience, that of the creation of a permanent installation of wire mesh dedicated to the early Christian Basilica of Santa Maria, commissioned by the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities for the “Le Basiliche” Archaeological Park in Siponto. Perfectly integrated into the Apulian context, the transparent sculpture appears as a contemporary artefact capable of opening new scenarios for the preservation and enhancement of historic and archaeological heritage, in which light plays a decisive role in the presence-absence relationship.

The Dino Zoli Foundation project aims to cover, through the use of archival materials, the first meeting between Eduardo Tresoldi and the engineers of DZ Engineering, called in 2016 to illuminate the Basilica of Siponto under the supervision of COBAR SpA. “We met Eduardo,” explains Roberto Grilli, General Manager of DZ Engineering, “when illuminating his first masterpiece.” “Since then,” continues Monica Zoli, Sole Director of DZ Engineering, “we have dreamt about creating a joint project. Now we will do two, one in Singapore and one in Forlì, in the context of an essential dialogue between art and business.”

“The exhibition,” explains Nadia Stefanel, director of the Dino Zoli Foundation, “brings together sketches, photographic reproductions and videos documenting the various steps that led to the creation of the so-called sculptural architecture. The exhibition is divided into three sections: the first dedicated to the history and the analysis of the pre-existing; the second focused on architecture, also analysed through the cutting sheets; the third relating to projects carried out by the engineers of DZ Engineering.”

Edoardo Tresoldi’s research is characterised by the use of metal mesh. In contrast to conventional architecture, which encloses the space creating a landscape modified by man, his minimal structure embraces the context and welcomes the human presence giving rise to an unprecedented experiential reality. An ethereal dimension in constant dialogue with the landscape, considered a contamination of cultural, social and identity-producing languages, the dynamics of which become part of the artwork.