A maximum or a minimum of brightness is enacted by light sources of different shapes and sizes, in a continuous and slow alternation of intensity. The light sources can be incandescent opaline bulbs or parallelepipeds made of wood and methacrylate, driven by an intermittent electrical system. This version of the work is a limited edition of 80 copies.

The day Giovanni Anceschi saw for the first time 0 ↔ 220 volt, he immediately fell in love with the work and nicknamed it “eclipses”. He asked Gianni Colombo if he could have a copy of it. To which he replied – harshly – “Do it yourself!”.

As Anceschi writes, “there is no need to quote the provocative dadaist ‘fait par procuration’ (done by proxy). The issue at stake here is much more basic: our works have nothing in common with the fetishism of an objectified artwork: do it yourself –which means going even beyond the universe of exchange – is the righteous thing”.

The concept of the works by Gruppo T is that anybody should be able to build them. Timeless objects, that could be reproduced at any time by anybody, without losing for this reason the qualities and the aesthetic information they are bearing. Gruppo T had a critical position concerning the art market. Anceschi again: “An artwork is art because it is bearing aesthetic information, aesthetic value. If a replica respected with philological precision the essential features and the sensorial qualities of the original, then it should absolutely be considered equivalent to it. As in the case of design objects, where the original is not – as critics with an artistic background foolishly believe – a sketch or a model, but any of the copies produced. The work can be multiplied from the very beginning, but also a later replica is indeed an original, as long as it respects some conditions. Shocking, isn’t it?”.

Artist
Gianni Colombo

Title
0 ↔ 220 volt 17/80

Medium
Mixed media, lamps, electric drive, 27×19×19 cm

Date
1976–1979

Collection/owner
Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto
VAF-Stiftung Collection