Hub Aterno: di pietre e di acque (Hub Aterno: of stones and waters), curated by Marcella Russo, is an artist’s residence that took place at Spazio Matta, Pescara, between June and September 2022.
After exploring some urban areas of the Aterno river Laura Viale made a series of small format frottage drawings. The drawings are made with a graphite bar on tracing paper – a semi-transparent support – on some river stones.
The frottage takes shape on physical contact with the stones. The paper detects the mineral surface but also shows something of its internal structure, as well as the inner structure of the person making the drawing, of her/his emotions.
During the residency two group actions took place in which the participants were actively involved in the project, creating themselves a series of frottage drawings on the stones collected on the river bank.
The drawings made by the group, together with those of the artist, form a collective composition that was exhibited at the conclusion of the project in September. Viale’s permanent workParticolari (d’après l’Aterno) was inaugurated at the same time, installed outside the Spazio Matta.
This piece is a diptych made up of two Trani marble slabs (162 x 62 x 2 cm and 162 x 69 x 2 cm). On each one there is a numerical engraving deriving from a detail of one of the frottages that the artist created in June.
Working on the urban stretch of the river also means making contact, for better or for worse, with what has produced the encounter of our species with the countless natural and mineral life forms of the planet that hosts us. For worse, because of the evident signs of human invasiveness. For better, because this river, like others, shows us how Nature, despite the damage that man continually inflicts on the environment, continuously regenerates itself even in the city.
Hub Aterno: di pietre e di acque was part of MATTATEXTURE, the winning project of the Creative Living Lab - III Edition, promoted by MIC, Italian General Direction of Contemporary Creativity.
See the video Hub Aterno: di pietre e di acque
Read the article Hub Aterno: di pietre e di acque/of stones and waters, by Alessandra Gabriele, www.arshake.com
