Si dividono invano

“The painting of signs was born out of my desire for a tabula rasa.” (BARBERO, 2011, p. 27). As in the case of her husband Sanfilippo, the element of liberation of Carla Accardi’s painting is to be found in the rigorous reduction of reality to sign as a tool for investigation of the world in its essence. The constant of the sign is continually reinvented by the artist, who transfers her artistic graphemes onto supports ranging from canvas to plastic. In the work exhibited here, her sign becomes wood painted in grey enamel to contrast with the whiteness of the wall. In the bas-relief, shown by Jan Hoet in the MARTa Herford museum, the signs that “divide in vain” reach the gigantic height of about two and a half metres and extend “with slight movements” for twelve metres along the white wall as though to compose a message for the viewer: “The sign is not expression of the unconscious but [...] language of communication. [...] It exists in relation to other signs, with which it forms a structure [...] and acquires magical and intelligent
meaning.” (Ibid., p. 56) (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma) Bibl: Carla Accardi. Segno e trasparenza, a cura di L.M. Barbero, Cinisello Balsamo 2011.