La strada di sotto by Massimo Bartolini © Massimo De Carlo Gallery

Massimo Bartolini | La strada di sotto

Massimo Bartolini (born 1962, Cecina, Italy) makes immersive, experiential, spatial work. Rather than put work in a space, he tends to make work out of the space itself, modifying it, sometimes subtly, sometimes with maximum impact, to produce sculpture which is activated (sometimes literally, always conceptually) as the viewer occupies it. La strada di sotto is a glowing field of colored lights of the kind used during street celebrations in Sicily.

La strada di sotto by Massimo Bartolini © Massimo De Carlo Gallery

Bartolini‘s work embraces various materials and techniques, from sculpture and performance to photography. His works have included an elevated floor that created the impression of distorted space; an installation in which a device on the heel of a visitor’s shoes altered the light in the exhibition space; and rooms suffused with perfume and the sound of leaking water. These, often sensual, artworks induce in the viewer a meditative state that is still highly experiential, making us reflect on the relativity of what is stable and unchangeable.

La strada di sotto by Massimo Bartolini © Massimo De Carlo Gallery

Bartolini’s work is often talked about in terms of metamorphosis and experimentation – work which changes space and our experience of it and which acknowledges, in its finished form, the processes by which it was made. This present decision to look at one major sculpture in the context of a selection of small studioworks seems part of this, and works to draw the viewer further into the magic of Bartolini’s visual appeal.

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