“KNOWING”. A MOSAIC TOLD BY ITS CUSTOMERS
Interview by Laura Pizzini/Zeroidee
Mutual understanding: a way to achieve real integration and true relationships between people and between cultures.
“Conoscere” (“Knowing”), Laura Carraro e Mohamed Chabarik
2015
400 x 300 cm. Marbles, stones, Venetian smalti and gold
ph Giovanni Chiarot/Zeroidee
“Knowing” is a work born from an encounter between people who want to look far, searching for a collective meaning together.
The mosaic that Laura Carraro and Mohamed Chabarik have made for Giulia and Giorgio talks about current events and different cultures, about languages as vehicles for exchange and symbols of identity.
Contemporary mosaic is used here as a medium of forms, signs and colors.
(“Knowing”, ph Giovanni Chiarot/Zeroidee)
This time we won’t speak about mosaic from the makers’ point of view. We’ll discover this work putting ourselves in the shoes of who asked for this mosaic, desired it, and waited for it.
Giulia and Giorgio, it all started with three walls, empty for a long time, in a very difficult position to fill. How did the idea of the mosaic come out?
The particular position and size of the skylight walls located above our living room had made us postpone many times, over the years, the decision of realizing a work of art that could have a satisfactory effect.
We considered sometimes the art of mosaic, but the idea to develop was lacking. Besides, we were afraid of a traditional shape and the strong effect it could have.
Then, by chance, we visited Laura and Mohamed’s website and we saw images of their works, different dimensions and solutions, meaningful work titles. And we discovered a modern kind of mosaic art, in line with the times: contemporary mosaic.
Lines, colors and shapes were light and created something new, different form tradition: curiosity drove us to know these two young artists and their way of working.
The first contact was in their shop, and some time later they visited our house, both to see the place where the mosaic was supposed to be placed and to understand our needs and ideas, to develop the project to present us.
How was the concept of the work born?
The subject wasn’t decided yet.
Mohamed wanted to know something about Giulia’s work (the typographer!) and he probably started to think about the idea of characters, so important in Arabic culture.
Then we exchanged some views on general themes of life, world’s events and nearest social problems. Not long after Laura and Mohamed proposed the theme: “Mutual understanding is the only way for integration and a true relationship … Languages are among the most important vehicles of exchange and bearers of identity.”
We immediately liked the message, simple and direct: they didn’t weighed the concept down with unnecessary rhetoric, given that the two artists are experimenting it firsthand.
In the work, shapes are the result of the intersection of some letters/characters that make up the word “knowing / knowledge” in three different languages (Italian, Arabic, Chinese) to symbolically represent the whole of humanity. The colors evoke the shades that you can already find in our house. Besides the idea, we liked also the figurative project.
(“Knowing”, ph Giovanni Chiarot/Zeroidee)
So, the meaning of “Knowing” has been built in a dialogue between the four of you; knowing each other has been a support to the work conceptual birth. And what did it happen after design phase?
After the conceptual path, in itself rewarding, we followed the practical development of the mosaic, its realization and composition. The assembling phase was particularly interesting, because they installed an internal scaffolding, and it was possible to attend at the fixing of the different pieces of the mosaic, untill the work was completed before our very eyes.
Despite its size, quite big, mosaic lightness and delicacy don’t create any kind of impact. Since the beginning, it turned out to be a nice presence, as well as meaningful and of high artistic value.
It was definitely a good experience, which we still continue to share with friends and guests, as the mosaic attracts everyone’s attention.
Today the work occupies three walls, in the very particular architectural space for which it was created, illuminated by natural light from above.
The colors are the eartlhy shades, already present in the house (the green and ocher-orange), and the sky shades, especially in the area that approaches the ceiling window.
There is no frame and no geometric shape to enclose it, but it develops in a free way, slightly in relief from the wall.
The movement and three-dimensionality of the mosaic surface enriches the walls of a sculptural value, and the tesserae, especially those made of glass and gold, inclined in different directions, refract the light that hits them.
(“Knowing”, ph Giovanni Chiarot/Zeroidee)
