Superficie in vibrazione

Posted in Artworks

Superficie in vibrazione is an elastic surface with steel pins attached to it in a regular configuration. Pins move as a result of the motorized passage of a propeller that rotates under the rubber and breaks the ordered alignment of pins. Initially, they were moved by a mechanism triggered directly by the audience.

As a result of the elasticity of the surface, all pins are set back to their original positions. These movements, together with the direction of light, change the appearance of the different areas of the surface, making it vibrate in a continuous metamorphic process.

Superficie in vibrazione was realized in various sizes and with different configurations of pins.

Giovanni Anceschi writes about Gabriele Devecchi’s Superfici in vibrazione: “I think Devecchi is the most Calvinist of the Gruppo T members because he is the one who made the most progress towards what we might call ‘multi-sensoriality’. Despite not requiring the gestural intervention of the audience, his Superifici in vibrazione, which consist of pins, did involve touching, and not just in the sense of perceiving the tactile values. We see an invisible hand, which could be our own, brush across them and set them in motion”.

Giovanni Anceschi, Brachiestesie, in Silvio San Pietro (a cura di), Gabriele Devecchi, I Menhir, Edizioni L’Archivolto, Milan 1995, p. 14.

Artist
Gabriele Devecchi

Title
Superficie in vibrazione

Date
1959

Collection/owner
Archivio Gabriele Devecchi, Milan

Exhibition
Miriorama 3, 7, 9, 10

Medium
Wood (or in alternative aluminum or aluminum and methacrylate), natural rubber, steel pins, v220 motor – 2 rpm (or in alternative battery motors)