Luiz Zerbini, 'Spacemen/Cavemen'
Marsèlleria is glad to present, in its via privata Rezia 2 venue in Milan, Spacemen/Cavemen, installation by Brazilian collective Chelpa Ferro. Composed by artists Barrão, Luiz Zerbini and Sergio Mekler, Chelpa Ferro is an old colloquial Portuguese term for money, chosen by the artists because of its sound. Chelpa Ferro’s eclectic work explores the plasticity of the sound and its dynamics through sculptures, objects, installations and music performances that challenge the senses of the viewer by using every day objects.
The work will be displayed in Italy for the first time after the presentation in London at Sprovieri in June 2017. Spacemen/Cavemen is composed by different materials, connected and suspended a few centimeters above the floor; they reproduce lights and sounds composed by the artists, with a dense and apparently incomprehensible dialogue among the installation elements.
The insert of technological elements on common materials, also obsolete ones, gives them a new sense and a new voice, creating a confusion in the recognition of sense, time and space coordinates in which the work could fit; but, as it is evident from the title itself, space men and cave men are very different, but coexist in the realm of the same species, making it difficult to find a clear position.
Chelpa Ferro have always worked on the dignity of “modest” sounds and materials, also going back to traditions and examples drawn from art history, together with totally contemporary ideas and creations. The layering of history and the potentialities of the objects, very often different from the usual ones, create a surrounding inviting to interaction, which the public is driven to comply, taking part to the narration of the work, physically “entering” in it and reflecting on use, consumption and cultural attitudes accompanying objects and sounds.
