Scultura da prendere a calci

Posted in Artworks

As in the title, Scultura da prendere a calci (“Sculpture to be kicked”) is a sculpture designed to be kicked by the viewer. It is a cluster of synthetic sponge blocks, linked by an elastic thread to a weighted base. Once they are kicked in, the parallelepipeds unfold in the air and assume a new random plastic configuration and a new spatial dislocation. The effect of continuous kicks is the extinction of the sculpture for wear.

As Devecchi writes, the multi-sensorial action produced by the body and all over the body privileges: “foot over hand; socialization over Michelangelo’s ‘Why don’t you speak to me?’; ephemeral lifespan over the eternity of sculpture; participation over contemplation; chance and randomness in the variation within a determined field. For the production of the Sculpture to be kicked, no artist dress or shoes are required”.

Artist Gabriele Devecchi
Date 1959
Collection/owner Gabriele Devecchi archives, Milan
Exhibition Miriorama 3, Miriorama 7
Medium Synthetic sponge, elastic thread, weighted base, animation through kick.
Trivia In 1962, Gabriele Devecchi could climb three meters up a wall, giving the impression that the force of gravity did not apply to him […] So it is clear that this is someone who has always had a keen awareness of what his body could achieve. And talking about what he considers his extreme masterpiece of the whole production of kinetic and programmed art, the Scultura da prendere a calci: “It is surely time that the shocking aspects of this work – as well as that of the Gruppo T in general – should stop being seen as its main function. For, despite the fact that the idea of a sculpture designed to be kicked is painful – particularly to sculptors – it should not detract from the enjoyment to be derived from the sensory richness of this task/event. It should not inhibit us from focusing on the physical pleasure of flinging ourselves onto it, and the psychological thrill of showing off and having people watch as we knock the stuffing out of an object that has been created to change shape and then bounce back in unexpected ways”.

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