The forms of energy

The subject of energy affects our daily lives. In an interconnected world concerned about the consequences of global warming and ecological urgencies, artists also contribute to addressing this urgency and reality with their sensitivity and their creative and critical gaze. The CIS, located in a region of exceptional beauty and natural fragility, also contributes to addressing this aspect and dedicates its summer programme to the theme of energy in its various meanings. 

The exhibition was inaugurated on June 8, 2024 and will reopen to the public on May 25, 2025

The Centro Internazionale di Scultura, presents three artists who deal with the topic of energy in a broader and more diverse sense: 

Flavio Paolucci, an artist from Biasca, the doyen of Ticino sculpture, an artist known far beyond the canton's borders, exhibits three works, two of which have never been exhibited before. The two large-format works combine glass and stone to form a conceptual whole and thematise the melting of glaciers, the contrast between mineral and natural energy; Paolucci's third work, an egg made of marble, perfectly crafted and protected by a wooden shell, evokes the all-encompassing energy of life.

Penelope Margaret Mackworth Praed, an English-Swiss artist who has lived in Ticino since 1977, completes the project with her latest works, metal sculpture filigrees based on mathematical and statistical calculations with which the artist confronts and "measures" the natural phenomena surrounding her. Mackworth Praed offers us a fascinating and unique view of the cosmos and the intertwining of geological and natural phenomena. For the exhibition at CIS, she also created a new work paying homage to geological energy and dazzling effects.

Garda Alexander, an artist born in Germany and living in Zurich, who is exhibiting in Ticino for the first time, presents her light objects, combining chromatic energy and light energy in large paintings made up of layers of colour. The artist also conceived the chromatic layout of a portion of the exhibition space, according to specific energy measurements. Garda Alexander's painterly-installative works can be classified as abstract art and are characterised by large geometric fields that create "luminous environments in which light and colour are timeless".

Curator
Gianna A. Mina

Photo
Mauro Zeni