Stelle che sorreggono altre stelle

Stelle che sorreggono altre stelle is a multifaceted project that has evolved over months of mutual exchange between the artist and the curators. The exhibition aims to connect with people and be woven with relationships, welcoming viewers and mimicking a vital process through its own internal rhythm and the presence of an active workshop designed to stimulate transformation in its participants. The very circularity expressed by the words of the title evokes a breath that renews itself and marks the passage of time.

Born organically from a series of informal conversations, Stelle che sorreggono altre Stelle has found a home in Milan, in the Porta Romana neighborhood, within the headquarters of the Elpis Foundation. All of this brought to the fore the need to give concrete form to a shared vision, to connect with a specific place, and to find the right spatial context to accommodate the life of a group. This led to decisions that influenced various aspects of the exhibition: from designing the installation in collaboration with an architecture firm to help interpret the space, to creating a workshop for Milan residents following an open call publicized through neighborhood flyers. The idea of creating an environment centered on people is already evident in the layout of the exhibition’s ground floor, where the three works on display serve to introduce some of the artist’s lines of inquiry. Madre, Edilizia di un pensiero, and Stellario are visible simultaneously, coexisting while remaining autonomous. Between them exist connections to be understood as sensory movements on different scales, through which assonances and contrasts play out

On the upper floor, visitors enter a space dedicated to the collective work of twelve people, including the artist. The exhibition’s life cycles, marked by the continuous modification of Edilizia di un Pensiero and the activities of the workshop, signify a true transformation of the exhibition layout. Over time, the open and versatile structure of a space dedicated to work and exploration crystallizes into a more conventional structure, dedicated to presenting each individual path and its conclusion. The small, generous gestures of those who experienced the exhibition and opened themselves to a collective acquire their own autonomy in the form of photos, notes, and physical exercises, becoming translations of an organic process. In mutual solidarity, every single voice converges into a complex plurality, according to the connections established on the lower level. Months of work and collaboration with ceramicists, architects, and a researcher in the field of edible materials prove fundamental to defining self-portraits in the form of vases and activating within them a further physical and symbolic transformation.

Stelle che sorreggono altre stelle is a circular exhibition that opens and closes in contact with terracotta, activated by the emotional investment of a small community. What binds it together in its entirety and appears as the cornerstone of Lucia Cantò’s research is the written word, composed of notes, traces on the works, and signs that blend into the exhibition space. Language is the foundation of every work by the artist and serves to connect her installations, working with fragile forms as necessary yet non-functional expressions and problematizing the power inherent in every body, revealing it through its weaknesses and its inevitable corruption.