Since the late 1990s, Dutch artist Jan Van der Pleug has made yearly pilgrimages to the subalpine confines between Italy and Slovenia. Over the years, and thanks to the Stazione di Topolò/Postaja Topolove festival, this painter left many traces of his presence over the village’s walls, in both indoor and outdoor spaces. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, Jan gifted Topolò with the restoration of two exterior works: a mural in the “dutch embassy” (Wall Painting No.551, previously No.62 and no.xx) and a painting over the public fountain (Wall Painting No.98). I followed him through this process and recorded his work with my video camera.

During one of the morning painting sessions, Jan told me about second thoughts he had when he was asked to paint the fountain piece for the first time, back in the 2000s. “Was it just decoration?” As a reverberation of that, this short-film features what may be described as the less autonomous, less visible, but perhaps more gathering work.

When the flush of a newborn sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mold;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves: "It's pretty, but is it Art?"

-Joseph Kipling. The Conundrum of the Workshops (excerpt)

Untitled, Unnumbered (2024) features the painter Jan Van der Pleug at work, through the gradual appearance of shadows, brushes, hands, voices, faces and full bodies, which help build a sense of community around his work.

Video link coming soon.

Following the engaging workshop on placeful websites guided by Benjamin Earl and Kirsten Spruit (hosted by Robida in early 2024), I decided to code my own website “by hand.” After a few months of intermittent html, ccs and java coding, and thanks to a little help from artificial intelligence, I am glad to finally see the thing online.

I usually present myself as an undisciplined architect, and, being a bit of a flat ontologist, I have decided not to display my work according to any particular hierarchy: writing, radio, installations and video work equally interest me and are presented on the same level of practice. Therefore, the sequence in which projects appear is a product of chance, and each time the browser is updated a new order is curated at random.

I have also decided to claim the informality of Brazilian Portuguese speech when attributing a domain to this website. My surname is omitted from the url and, as it is usually the case when people address strangers in the tropics - and it is indifferent if one is speaking to a neighbor or to the president of the country - I simply declare my first (two) name(s).

After holding the “Qui non si balla” workshop in Topolò in 2023, I had the pleasure of contributing with a short reflection for the “Academy of Margins: An Experiment on Learning With” publication by Robida.

Alongside the discourses centered around conviviality, care and marginality familiar to discussions in and regarding Topolò, Qui non si balla intended to bring forth these same themes, except, it proposed to do so in a way unmediated by reasoned discourse. Put differently, abstract concepts such as dependency and collaboration were to be embodied by participants throughout the proposed exercises in such a way that they would experience lived theory, or praxis.

I have always been reluctant towards the expressivity of the body. Not that I find it inherently impossible, but rather that, for myself, any spontaneity in movement was dragged away from me the moment I became aware I was trying to express something. That's the drawback of self-awareness, which was described to us by Jean as we exchanged impressions at the end of the Qui non si balla workshop. According to her, the delightful thing about our morning practice was that the cadence of exercises allowed for movement to slowly and spontaneously develop, in such a way that she “got tricked into dancing.” By not putting a label on it, we were able to disinhibit experience and investigate usually avoided or stigmatized forms of relating to people, such as rolling on top of each other.

The universality of being a body is only matched by the inevitable specificity corporified by the nuances of anatomy: every human person exists singularly in the manner they occupy and move in space. And yet, this abundance of diversity, even though it is easily acknowledged, is seldomly put to use. What can we do from the consequences of being physical things? Such a question has been pursued by choreographer Steve Paxton in his early career and in the 1970’s led to the creation of the self-explanatory form called Contact Improvisation.

When I was first exposed to Contact Improvisation, I became completely mesmerized by its spectacle of becoming. The hybrid sight of casually coordinated bodies was an open window to, as it seemed to me, bottomless insight. After a few years of practice and thought, its vastness has only increased. While trying to come to grips with it, I initially thought that what interested me was its powerful accomplishment of diluting agency over choreographic compositions between the engaged dancers. Impromptu resolutions that were mutually beneficial seemed like a potent model for anything, really. Lately, however, I have been trying to comprehend Contact Improvisation further than its acute disclosure of symmetry. If we think of Contact Improvisation under the light of assemblages, we can appreciate the consequent enlargement of the possibility space that an affiliation between heterogeneous bodies implies.

Between the reflections that we left and leave after the Academy of Margins, I share a growing question: What impressive realities can be unveiled through the relationships we undergo - that are not merely derived from us, but outreach individual contributions because they spawn from unpredictable resonances that are formed by the encounter?

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From the Margins: An arborescent reading and listening room is an installation imagined by Robida Collective for the exhibition T3rza Terra: Michelangelo Pistoletto e Cittadellarte a Villa Manin in Codroipo (Udine).

It takes up some of the practices and themes that the collective explores from Topolò/Topolove (Grimacco), the village in which the collective is based. Nature/culture, individual/collectivity, centre/margins, rootedness/rootlessness are some of the main dichotomies of our time that are presented in a reader, audio piece and installation in their ramifications and are made porous to be finally deconstructed through a collection of texts read by a multiplicity of voices.

This reader offers multiple entry points into the rethinking of four binary oppositions: nature/culture, individual/collective, centre/margins, and rootedness/rootlessness and the borderlands between them. Each of these oppositions constitutes the (meta)physical tissue of Topolò/Topolove and all of the other places (re)configured throughout the process of Modernity. The purpose of this reader is not to dismantle borders between these terms but to make them porous. The border itself, if porous, unites, and creates affinities between the two sides. Therefore, this reader is an arborescent reader. More than articulating and hierarchising multiplicities we understand it functioning as a tree which simultaneously belongs to subterranean and heavenly realms. In this sense, to be arboreal mens to articulate opposing realities of light and dark, up and down. One and the other.

The question then emerges: How can we think of conceptual oppositions so as to let them intermingle, mix, or even hybridise? How might we imagine a world where borders remain, but are fluid, dynamic, and open to exchange? This reader provides insights and pathways toward exploring this porous borderful world.

Texts read by Vida Rucli, Elena Rucli, Antônio Frederico Lasalvia, Aljaž Škrlep, Dora Ciccone, Lijuan Klassen, Moritz Gansen, Rebeca Pérez Gerónimo, Jack Bardwell, Sophie Mak-Schram, Margherita Cogoi, Heike Renée de Wit and Sasha van Aalst.

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On the occasion of father and daughter showing their paintings together for the first time, I had the privilege of writing a critical text for the exhibition of Renzo Rucli and Elena Rucli, which took place at SMO [Slovensko Multimedialno Okno].

EN

Other than the surnames and the fact that both have studied architecture, the Ruclis share an interest in the manuality of painting, a theme that has been marginalized in contemporary art practices ever since the ready-made displaced skill and the hand from artistic discourse. However, the way Renzo and Elena relate to the medium of paint and what they seek to achieve through it differs radically.

Renzo Rucli is after absolute abstraction, in a dialectical opposition to the mimetic drive that characterized European painting since the renaissance. This is hinted by his predilection for the perfect square, a platonic abstraction which is absent from nature. The only representational element to be found in the canvas - a curious originary exception - is the form of the egg. However, even in this figurative residue, the author is more interested in its geometrical construction and historical allusion to Piero della Francesca than in its organic meaning.

The self-imposed imperative of not contradicting the bidimensionality of painting finds expression even in Renzo Rucli’s choice of support. By moving away from the traditional framed canvas, he embraces a metallic surface which reduces the physicality of painting to a single plane. This artifice is the concrete instance where his life-long experience as an architect finds expression in his recent artistic practice.

Other two tectonic aspects are to be found on the way Renzo Rucli builds his paintings: one comes from the almost project-like character of some works, which display the disintegration of geometrical shapes into seemingly chaotic patterns. However, this process follows strictly rational rules derived from operations based on the golden section, which transforms the artwork into a notation which communicates to the viewer how it was composed. The idea of construction also becomes explicit when attention is drawn to the joining of squares. This tension is often emphasized by a playful chromatic contrast and, in another instance of an exception which confirms the rule, by a freely drawn stroke right at the line where two squares meet.

Elena Rucli has her visual research situated in the context where she dwells. Her interest does not lie in the study of intangible forms, but gravitates around the concrete things she can see with her own eyes. From the framing of close details to the evocation of atmospheric mountain horizons, her compositions exist somewhere in the middle between representation and abstraction.

Within the investigation of her immediate environment, Elena Rucli avoids the unattainability of an objective account. By depicting the fleeting traces in forest paths, scattered compositions of light and shadow or the crooked arrangements of mineral strata and vegetal entwinements, her subjective point of view suspends the different time scales behind these actual formations and transfigures them into imagined shapes and colors.

In other work, Elena Rucli displays painstakingly detailed illustrations in black and white. Lately, however, she has been drawn to the medium of painting because of the freedom it affords. From a technical point of view, her paintings avoid the precision of the straight line and mobilize the pleasure of free brush strokes over different layers of color. The only right corners to be found in the work lie on the square frames, but even these are not an unconditional commitment: she is also eager to experiment with the compositional and thematic implications of a round support. When it comes to pigment, her chromatic choice is intuitive and varies from ton on ton to high contrast compositions.

Chance and order, nature and artifice, intuition and deliberation, naïveté and discipline are juxtaposed in contro-sguardo. Within this exchange, the spectator finds themselves in the middle of a multifaceted dialogue which results from the confrontation of the visual worlds familiar to Renzo Rucli and Elena Rucli.

IT

Oltre al cognome e al fatto che entrambi siano laureati in architettura, i Rucli condividono l'interesse per la manualità del dipingere, tema che è ai margini delle pratiche artistiche contemporanee da quando il ready-made ha allontanato l'abilità tecnica e la mano dal discorso sull’arte. Tuttavia, il modo in cui Elena e Renzo si rapportano al mezzo pittorico e ciò che cercano di ottenere attraverso di esso differisce radicalmente.

Renzo Rucli cerca l'astrazione assoluta, in opposizione dialettica alla spinta mimetica che ha caratterizzato la pittura europea fin dal Rinascimento. Lo suggerisce la sua predilezione per il quadrato perfetto, astrazione platonica assente in natura. L'unico elemento rappresentativo che compare sulla tela - curiosa eccezione originaria - è la forma dell'uovo; ma anche in questo residuo figurativo l’autore è più interessato alla sua costruzione geometrica e al suo riferimento storico a Piero della Francesca piuttosto che al suo significato organico.

L'imperativo autoimposto di non contraddire la bidimensionalità della pittura trova espressione anche nella scelta del supporto. Scostandosi dalla tradizionale tela incorniciata, Renzo Rucli sceglie una superficie metallica che riduce la fisicità della pittura a un unico piano. Questo espediente è il modo concreto in cui l’esperienza di una vita da architetto si riflette nella sua recente pratica artistica.

Altri due aspetti tettonici si ritrovano nel modo in cui Renzo Rucli costruisce i suoi dipinti: uno deriva dal carattere quasi progettuale di alcune opere, che mostrano la disintegrazione di forme geometriche in pattern solo apparentemente caotici. In realtà, questo processo segue regole strettamente razionali derivate dalla sezione aurea, che fanno dell'opera d'arte una notazione, comunicando all'osservatore come è stata composta. L'idea di costruzione diventa inoltre esplicita quando si richiama l'attenzione sull'incastro dei quadrati. Questa tensione è spesso enfatizzata da un giocoso contrasto cromatico e, in un altro caso di eccezione che conferma la regola, da un tratto disegnato liberamente proprio sulla linea di congiunzione di due quadrati.

Elena Rucli situa la sua ricerca visiva nel contesto in cui vive. Il suo interesse non risiede nello studio di forme intangibili, ma gravita intorno alle cose concrete che può vedere con i suoi occhi. Dall'inquadratura di dettagli ravvicinati all'evocazione di orizzonti montuosi, i suoi lavori si collocano a metà strada tra astrazione e rappresentazione.

Nell'indagine sull'ambiente circostante, Elena Rucli evita l'irraggiungibilità di un resoconto oggettivo. Raffigurando le tracce fugaci nei sentieri del bosco, le composizioni sparse di luci e ombre o le disposizioni irregolari di strati minerali e intrecci vegetali, il suo punto di vista soggettivo sospende le diverse scale temporali dietro queste formazioni reali e le trasfigura in forme e colori immaginari.

Tra le altre opere di Elena si vedono illustrazioni minuziosamente dettagliate in bianco e nero. Ultimamente, però, è stata attratta dal mezzo pittorico per la libertà che offre. Da un punto di vista tecnico, i suoi dipinti scansano la precisione della linea dritta e mobilitano il piacere della pennellata libera su diversi strati di colore. Gli unici angoli retti che si trovano nell'opera sono le cornici quadrate, ma anch’esse non sono un impegno incondizionato: l'artista è altrettanto desiderosa di sperimentare le implicazioni compositive e tematiche di un supporto rotondo. Per quanto riguarda il pigmento, la sua scelta cromatica è intuitiva e varia dal tono su tono alle composizioni ad alto contrasto.

Caso e ordine, natura e artificio, intuizione e razionalità, naïveté e disciplina sono accostati in contro-sguardo. All'interno di questo scambio, lo spettatore si trova al centro di un dialogo sfaccettato che emerge dal confronto dei mondi visivi familiari a Renzo Rucli ed Elena Rucli.

SL

Poleg priimkov in dejstva, da sta oba študirala arhitekturo, Renza in Eleno Rucli druži zanimanje za ročnost slikanja, temo, ki je bila v sodobnih umetniških praksah marginalizirana, odkar je ready-made iz umetniškega diskurza izpodrinil veščino in človeško roko. Kljub temu se njuna načina uporabe medija barve in odgovora na vprašanje, kaj s tem medijem doseči, radikalno razlikujeta.

Renzo Rucli išče absolutno abstrakcijo, ki jo najdemo v dialektičnem nasprotju mimetičnega zagona, ki je zaznamoval evropsko slikarstvo od renesanse. Na to namiguje njegova naklonjenost popolnemu kvadratu, platonski abstrakciji, ki je v naravi ni. Edini element reprezentacije na njegovih platnih – nenavadna in izvorna izjema – je oblika jajca. Toda tudi pri tem figurativnem residuumu avtorja bolj kot organski pomen zanimata njegova geometrična konstrukcija in zgodovinska aluzija na Piera della Francesca.

Samopredpisani imperativ nenasprotovanja dvodimenzionalnosti slike se v njegovem delu izraža celo v izbiri podlage. Namesto tradicionalnega, uokvirjenega platna se odloči za kovinsko podlago, ki fizičnost slike reducira na eno samo ploskev. Ta izbira je konkreten primer, kako njegove življenjske izkušnje arhitekta najdejo izraz v njegovi nedavno oblikovani umetniški praksi.

Druga dva tektonska vidika je mogoče najti v načinu, kako Renzo Rucli gradi svoje slike. Prvi se kaže v skoraj projektnem značaju nekaterih del, ki prikazujejo razgradnjo geometrijskih oblik v navidezno kaotične vzorce. Vendar pa ta proces sledi strogo racionalnim pravilom, ki izhajajo iz operacij, narejenih na podlagi zlatega reza, ki umetnino spremeni v zapis, ki gledalcu razkriva način njenega nastajanja. Ideja konstrukcije postane eksplicitna tudi takrat, ko pozornost pritegne sklepanje in stikanje kvadratov. Ta napetost je pogosto poudarjena z igrivim kromatičnim kontrastom in — še en primer izjeme, ki potrjuje pravilo — s prostoročno narisano potezo tik ob stičišču dveh kvadratov.

Vizualne raziskave Elene Rucli so umeščene v kontekst, kjer biva. Njeno zanimanje ni usmerjeno v preučevanje neoprijemljivih oblik, ampak se giblje okrog konkretnih stvari, ki jih lahko vidi z lastnimi očmi. Njene kompozicije — od kadriranja detajlov do priklica atmosferskih gorskih obzorij — se nahajajo na presečišču med reprezentacijo in abstrakcijo.

V raziskovanju svojega neposrednega okolja se Elena Rucli izogiba nedosegljivemu objektivnemu prikazu. Z upodabljanjem bežnih sledi v gozdnih poteh, razpršenih kompozicij svetlobe in sence ali ukrivljenih razporeditev mineralnih plasti in rastlinskih prepletov njen subjektivni pogled premosti različna časovna merila teh tvorb in jih pretvori v domišljijske oblike in barve.

V drugih delih se Elena Rucli predstavlja s črno-belimi ilustracijam, ki skrbno in natančno poudarjajo podrobnosti. V zadnjem času pa jo slikarski medij vse bolj privlači zaradi svobode, ki jo ponuja. S tehničnega vidika se njene slike izogibajo natančnosti ravne linije in mobilizirajo užitek svobodne poteze čopiča preko različnih barvnih plasti. Edini pravi vogali v njenem delu so vogali kvadratnega okvirja slike, a niti tem ni brezpogojna zavezana: vneto eksperimentira namreč tudi s kompozicijskimi in tematskimi možnostmi okroglega platna. Ko gre za barvo, je njena izbira intuitivna in njene kompozicije lahko variirajo od tona do tona ali pa vsebujejo velike kontraste.

Naključje in red, narava in umetelnost, intuicija in premišljenost, naivnost in disciplina so si postavljeni nasproti v kontra-pogled. Znotraj te izmenjave se gledalec znajde sredi večplastnega dialoga, ki izhaja iz soočenja dveh vizualnih svetov, ki sta tako zelo dobro poznana Renzu Rucliju in Eleni Rucli.

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Graphich design by Francesca Lucchitta

This article presents a transdisciplinary investigation carried out between the spheres of art and industry through the work called Matriz 45. The exercise carried out by FAHR 021.3 arises from the opportunity to manipulate factory production using non-instrumental logics, which leads to the unveiling of possibilities untried in the techno-industrial complex. Based on the notion of the ‘end of art’ proposed by Arthur Danto, and in relation to the problem of ‘technical reproducibility’ raised by Walter Benjamin, the analysis of this contemporary experience allows us to deepen our understanding about a possible lineage for art today: an orientation that takes technique as a pretext to expose its own poietic character, that is, generative or creative possibilities beyond human determination.

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