How Four Emerging Artists Embrace Clay to Explore Love, Loss, and the Intricacies of First Encounters at Milan’s Fondazione Officine Saffi
words MATTIA MARCASSA BARBIERI
Nestled in Milan’s artistic epicenter, “Supponiamo un Amore” invites audiences to experience ceramics in a new light. From November 13, 2024, through January 18, 2025, Fondazione Officine Saffi hosts this thought-provoking exhibition, bringing together Jacopo Belloni, Giuditta Branconi, Isabella Costabile, and Rebecca Moccia—each known for captivating and unconventional practices. This exhibition, curated with the visionary touch of Fosbury Architecture and supported by Iris Ceramica Group, unfolds as both an artistic journey and a meditation on the emotional landscapes of unrequited love, daydreams, and the tension of “first times.”
Inspired by the lyrics of Rino Gaetano’s 1974 song, the exhibition’s title, Supponiamo un Amore (Let’s Suppose a Love), evokes the bittersweet potential of imagined love. The song explores the delicate space between desire and acceptance, casting a melancholic shadow that resonates deeply with each of these artists’ first forays into the tactile world of clay. This approach, according to Fondazione Officine Saffi, aims to foster a form of artistic experimentation that allows the medium itself to act as an emotional conduit, where vulnerability, longing, and the unknown are key players.
A Journey through a Labyrinth of Love and Clay
Fosbury Architecture’s labyrinthine exhibition layout is both a metaphor and a physical manifestation of this journey into ceramics. Winding, unexpected turns guide visitors through each artist’s exploration and learning curve, drawing a parallel between the non-linear process of ceramic creation and the ever-evolving nature of love itself. This setup enhances the exhibition’s theme of “first times”—an experience that is as raw, stumbling, and revelatory as falling in love or confronting rejection.
For Belloni, Branconi, Costabile, and Moccia, this exhibition represents a plunge into unfamiliar territory, where clay serves as the canvas for personal and collective introspections. Invited as residents in the Fondazione’s workshop, the artists were given free rein to experiment, guided only by the resources and expertise offered. They navigated this journey with clay—a medium that, like love, requires patience, resilience, and a delicate balance between control and surrender.
The Artists’ Unique Ceramics Love Stories
Each artist approaches the medium with a distinctive voice, yet their works share a certain generational sensibility—a perspective shaped by growing up in the dynamic social fabric of 1990s and early 2000s Italy.
Jacopo Belloni, with his background in performance and sculpture, explores the “theatricalization” of everyday life, capturing the trivial and transformative moments that shape our perception of love. His ceramic pieces are expected to blend narrative with form, examining societal expectations and personal longing.
Giuditta Branconi, renowned for her evocative characters, often depicted in sensuous, exaggerated forms, uses clay to create figures that scream, laugh, and ache. Her use of color and provocative composition promises to add a vibrant intensity to the subdued medium of ceramics, injecting it with her trademark “noisy” aesthetic.
Isabella Costabile works with found objects and ambiguous forms, a practice that lends itself to a deeper reflection on memory and sentiment. In Supponiamo un Amore, Costabile’s sculptures will likely probe the boundaries of form and function, echoing the mutable shape of emotions and the ambiguity of love itself.
Rebecca Moccia, whose practice examines the materiality of perception, brings a heightened awareness to spatial and sensory experiences. Her work in this exhibition is expected to interact with the labyrinth structure, immersing viewers in emotional states that rise from the spaces between connection and separation.
A New Era for Ceramics: Tradition Meets Innovation
Fondazione Officine Saffi, long celebrated for championing the transformative power of ceramics, sees this exhibition as part of its ongoing mission to redefine the medium. By encouraging artists like Belloni, Branconi, Costabile, and Moccia to explore clay, the foundation underscores its belief in ceramics as a vehicle for social, cultural, and personal reflection. The exhibition, supported by Iris Ceramica Group, continues this tradition by positioning clay as a dynamic medium where artistic, craft, and design practices intersect, creating a broader, more inclusive conversation around contemporary art.
At its core, “Supponiamo un Amore” does more than showcase ceramic art—it invites viewers to contemplate the power of imagination and its role in shaping reality. In the same way that love can exist within the boundaries of a daydream, clay holds the potential to capture and convey a world of feelings, connections, and meanings.
Visiting Supponiamo un Amore
The exhibition is open to the public with free registration, Tuesday through Saturday. Each twist and turn in the labyrinthine layout promises to reveal moments of insight and intimacy, making this event a must-visit for anyone interested in the intersection of art, craft, and the human experience.
Ultimately, “Supponiamo un Amore” speaks to the universality of love as an uncharted journey—one that, like a first encounter with clay, is unpredictable, delicate, and profoundly human.
