In the project The Matter Loop, the research begins with sheets of brass destined for industrial waste – surfaces already marked by the production process and reimagined as a canvas for intervention and transformation.
Metal, though durable, is sensitive to light and to the manufacturing process; through subtle engravings and variations in depth, it loses its visual solidity and takes on an almost skin-like quality, transforming industrial waste into a surface of memory.
The work stems from a collaboration with Postir Srl, a company specialising in metalworking. The brass sheets, which were originally destined for the scrap heap, were incorporated into the project as the raw materials for the artistic exploration.
Carpenteria Postir Srl, which has been active in sheet metal and metalworking since 1966, embodies a tradition of manufacturing deeply rooted in the region, combining traditional craftsmanship with advanced technology. The waste materials from these processes retain traces of high-precision techniques – bending, engraving, assembly and welding – which, when transformed into artistic research, are stripped of their structural function and re-inscribed in a symbolic dimension.
Metal, a material emblematic of industrialisation, thus becomes a surface that embodies both durability and transformation. This collaboration brings the region’s metalworking tradition into dialogue with contemporary experimentation, broadening the material’s significance beyond the realm of manufacturing.
Nicola Facchini’s work spans painting, drawing and sculpture, drawing on influences ranging from Post-Impressionist and Expressionist traditions to more contemporary and conceptual approaches.
Alongside a melancholic and reflective dimension, his practice retains an ironic and witty element. This oscillation brings together emotional tension and critical detachment, serving as a means of observing reality through a lens that balances pathos and awareness.
Within the context of The Matter Loop, in dialogue with Postir Srl, Nicola Facchini works on brass plates already marked and destined for scrap, choosing black silkscreen printing as his method of intervention. The mirror-finish industrial surface becomes both matrix and threshold, while imperfections, abrasions and traces of use remain visible, actively participating in the construction of the image. On one plate, a scene appears featuring two figures seated at a table; on another, a still life with a vase of flowers. The images are deposited through successive printing steps, allowing the metal’s reflection, oxidation and the discontinuities of the support to modulate the reading. The melancholy permeating the artist’s research here takes on a reflective tone – a form of knowledge that measures itself against what remains, what settles and what resists the erosion of time.1 The brass retains its own productive memory and, through printing, embraces a second, more intimate and restrained memory. The result is a series of surfaces where permanence and transformation coexist – between image and support, between controlled gesture and the material’s own response.
Collective exhibition
28 March – 26 April
The Circle
