Tracce del Futuro | Carla Riccoboni

Carla Riccoboni 2020

In 2006 the goldsmith’s mould factory “Angelo Tovo” closed in Vicenza. Approximately 2000 mother-moulds, equipment for the production of printed jewellery typical of the Vicenza area in the last century, were saved from certain destruction by Carla Riccoboni and Nadir Stringa, collector of material culture.

The exhibition TRACCE DEL FUTURO presents the most recent creations of Carla Riccoboni, who for years has been experimenting with the expressive possibilities of this extraordinary collection.

Works still available

Tracce del Futuro | Carla Riccoboni

Maria Cristina Bergesio

MADREFORME: history, memory, imprint.

Flowers, suns, frames, knots, hearts, fish, leaves …

A research that starts from universal and very ancient motifs, those imprinted in the motherforms, “the creators”, necessary prototypes to create the goldsmith’s printing, typical treatment of the Vicenza goldsmith’s history. More than 2000 pieces have been found at the Vicenza company “Angelo Tovo”, and saved from certain destruction by Nadir Stringa, passionate expert in material culture and made available to Riccoboni since 2006. The designer began an intense investigation to give a meaning to this recovery, her desire ignited to revitalize these witnesses of a relatively recent history, to translate them into a contemporary language.
Certainly a complex challenge, in which she had to overturn her previous way of designing: the motherforms were evidences of ancient symbols and archetypes already very remolded and modified over time, not original forms to be discovered or created as in the artist’s VENEZIA or ALPHABET collections.

The study phase was therefore more laborious and difficult, perhaps not even concluded to this date. The need to experiment with the possible applications of those molds leads her to use paper extensively (Samples, 100 prints, Paper necklaces).

The results obtained are conjoint by a staple idea: transforming the single motherform into a texture, through repeated molding, which mixes, combines, modifies, hint. The symbol here becomes a sign, an imprint, which is repeated in a free, a-systematic way. Instead of the letter mark, here we have a sign that becomes matter, that connotes a surface, which could be continuous, a possible echo of the automatic writing of the “Roll”. In these works, there is certainly a need for a return to the body-to-body relationship with the material, for a re-evaluation of the hand that shapes the metal.

Both in the more complex version of the “Double Brooches”, which are reversible, combined with contrasting materials, and in the easier one of the “Tablets”, pins and earrings, it is possible to find a message, an invitation, a desire to forcefully reaffirm beauty as synthesis of memory and humanity.

Maria Cristina Bergesio 2020