For the 10th installment of Berliner Luft, Dittrich & Schlechtriem is pleased to present a project by gallery artist Nicola Martini in collaboration with Jacopo Menzani. The unique photographic series is exhibited in the upstairs gallery space, from Monday, July 20th through Sunday, July 26th, 11 AM to 6 PM.

The project, developed in 2018, is a speculative investigation of physical matter through the “lens” of the photographic medium. In this way, it is a purposeful collaboration between sculptor Martini, whose work consistently contemplates the nature of materiality, and photographer Menzani. The artists build up complex compositions of materials from sand, resin, porcelain and plastics. Some scenarios are staged, cut and paste, against a flat saturated backdrop. In contrast, other photos are cropped detail views of accidental studio residue and spontaneous evidence of a multi-material artistic practice.

The abstract images explore a liminal space, a meeting point for the two artists and their differently informed perspectives on art and process. The images are at some points violent, conflicted, while others are harmonious and fluid. Aside from the principal focus on material, texture, color, form, a sense of real scale is disguised. Curiosity is the conceptual subject, as the viewer is provoked to examine something unknown and familiar at the same time.

Martini and Menzani use photography as both a tool for documentation and a language to construct a visual space. The surfaces portrayed refer to a sculptural object and its potentials. Photography and sculpture are then perceived in continuity, the characteristics of each medium influence and glorify each other.

Nicola Martini (b. Florence, Italy, 1984) lives and works in Milan. His solo show titled and welded skin is currently on view at Philipp Zollinger in Zurich. The artist will also be featured this August at ART Biesenthal 2020, an annual indoor and outdoor exhibition in the town of Biesenthal north of Berlin.

Jacopo Menzani (b. Florence, Italy, 1984) lives and works in Florence. Menzani runs Gianna Nunziati’s antiques and design gallery in Florence. In 2018, with Sasha Ribera, he opened [mòno], a twentieth-century design and decorative arts gallery in Milan. He also directs the design department at Pandolfini Auction House in Florence.