ETERNITY I

ETERNITY
curated by Bruno Corà
Villa Foscari - La Malcontenta – during Venice Biennale from may to october 2017

Forme di una scultura estesa nel tempo e nello spazio
Installed on the lawn in front of Villa Foscari, La Malcontenta, in Mira, the spatiality of Janine von Thüngen’s sculptures Eternity I and Eternity II is dialectically fused with that of Palladio’s architecture. Separate in their individual stations en plein air, the two bronze works are also different in plastic terms. Eternity I is a set composed of six elements in bronze, of different shape and size, standing on the green mantle of the lawn and set at distances from each other corresponding to the Fibonacci numerical sequence of natural proliferation. Eternity II, on the other hand, consists of a diptych, again made of bronze, but of a substantially different appearance. The tall, open forms of Eternity I, although defined by an earthy patina, unfurl in the air like sails fluttering in the wind. Counterbalancing them are the two bronzes of Eternity II, placed opposite each other and covered by a matt white patina that makes them resemble two crumpled pages. Both von Thüngen’s creations derive their forms from the rough surfaces of hypogeic cavities that were once the catacombs of the Eternal City, Rome. The conquest of air, light and green by these cavities transformed into works of art is due to the qualifying action of the artist who, with tenacity, has realised her aesthetic and poetic dream. Eternity I and Eternity II, which as sculpture have an objective physical extension, develop the premises of a plasticity intuited as the ‘continuity’ of matter in space (Boccioni) and achieve the goal of emancipation from objectuality (Martini). At the same time, in the context of contemporary sculpture, they enact the miracle of encompassing the zero time of Eternity.
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