critical essay for the solo show ‘Oltre Confine‘, Museo Castromediano, Lecce, 13.10.2023 – 07.01.2024
by Lorenzo Madaro
Art is, by excellence, the realm of fluidity and metamorphosis, the primary space where differences coexist, actions occur, materials blend, and inquiries thrive in extraordinary vitality, in a single grand flow that encompasses language as well as life. Artist Tania Welz is well aware of this, as her artistic journey begins with a close observation of matter. While one might think of references to the lexicon of Alberto Burri in the case of these works on display, it is not her reference point. Instead, she directs and conceives constant shifts, intended for a coexistence of formal, procedural, and material peculiarities. Without resorting to the statutory foundations of fiber art, to which her initial discourse pertains, as the artist prefers to operate around deliberate yet also random shifts, Welz lays out large fabrics on specific surfaces, mixing them with metals and oxides that, when combined, form unprecedented surfaces, unpredictable in their very essence.
Epidermically, her works are rich in modulations, not only tactile but also chromatic. They are almost like shrouds, collecting seemingly unpredictable traces that, upon closer inspection, are absolutely laden with layers, tangible and indecipherable signs that sometimes manage to highlight new forms of writing. Tania Welz’s works, as if they were registers of memories, visual imaginaries, and collective emotional memories, are spaces of mediation that belong to those who can observe them up close. The lacerations caused by the coexistence of such diverse materials create internal and visible pathways on the surfaces of some works, like inextricable paths to be observed with dedication.
In some pieces, the oxidation of metals intertwined with fabrics becomes a true chromatic dripping, almost a constellation that indicates the artist’s ability to generate imaginaries, to create spaces of mediation between the real and what is not. In close proximity to the archaeological collection of the Castromediano Museum in Lecce, this new solo exhibition by the artist reveals another essential aspect of her research, which is time—the true engine of the internal dynamics of Welz’s creative process. Her shrouds not only intentionally reveal that the entire thinking behind her works is connected to metamorphosis but also that the works themselves are open to such changes of skin, traces, and signs.
Thus, the relationship with the archaeological past of ancient civilizations traced in the Landscapes of Castromediano is further reactivated by this ever-moving present, always ready to change its skin. After all, isn’t this a fundamental principle of the life of any civilization, even in contemporary times?