TESORI

Tesori: note sulla collezione | Tesori: notes on the collection

idea of the ceramic slab as an abstract, almost non-existent material

which melts into the decorative motif applied to it, in a kind of pure

wall covering.Through the patient selection of geometrical motifs and

tests to verify their suitability for application to ceramic slabs, Nunziati

aims to achieve a new material rather than a mere decoration, making

this clear by also exploring its tactile dimension, with gouged and

relief motifs. His “principle of coverings” therefore relates to ceramics’

essence rather than their image: highlighting the versatility which, as

we all know, has made ceramics an absolute material, a kind of cement

that incorporates structure and finish in a virtually infinite range of

applications. This is clearly indicated by the reference to the mashrabiya,

a term meaning place where people drink in Arabic, which in Arabian

architecture originally referred to the kind of veranda where people

used to meet and rest, and over time has come to mean the wooden

gratings that screened these places from the sun. Inspired by his trips to

the Middle East, for Nunziati the geometric patterns of the mashrabiya

become both an outline of his method of work and the form of what in

fact becomes the key element in a new idea of space: a real location

conceived around a strong, livable surface in which physical substance

and decoration overlap to the point where they merge.

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