Wurmkos Figures

Curated by Simona Bordone, a new exhibition at Archivio Sacchi (Giovanni Sacchi Archives) is the result of a work in progress initiated in 2010 by the Wurmkos project, which was born from the idea of self-portraiture and coexistence, both conceived as free from prejudices and preconceived schemes. A potentially infinite global network of different groups — schools, centers for the rehabilitation of the psychologically challenged — and individuals — artists, critics, teachers, young people and the curious public — participated in the project's first exhibition, in Milan's Galleria San Fedele in 2010.

In this new stage, three classes and a group of teachers were involved in a workshop held at the Don Milani Middle School, in Sesto San Giovanni, from October 2011 to March 2012. Organized by Pasquale Campanella, Filippo Ballarin and Chiara Luraghi, along with a new group of figures, it continued and broadened the scope of the Wurmkos project.

"Wurmkos Figures brings together people from different backgrounds — a multitude of human figures that form a dissident populace which, with their presence, manifests an act of resistance in which it is not possible to make a choice," explains Pasquale Campanella.

"Choice is not unconditional;" he continues. "It does not crystallize with absolute beliefs; it is not a model; it has no direction but creates a disturbance, jarring controlled reality to give rise to a flow of relationships. In the workshops, there is no aesthetic control over the project; the figures simply take their places, side by side, expressing that aspect of life that the destruction of social space has sought to isolate and suffocate. In general, and particularly in the school-place, this approach tends toward the creation of an open space that encourages relationships."

The exhibition, in the Giovanni Sacchi Archives, creates a new and unprecedented synergy with archive materials — models of designs and architecture, photographs, drawings and documents, in addition to machinery and equipment. The figures, sometimes as fragile as snapshots or full-bodied and stable, "inhabit" a place that is, by its very nature, stationary — enlivening it with a new possible interpretation.

Artist couple Bianco-Valente was asked to "animate the figures." "Thinking about the spirit of the exhibition in which our video contribution would be shown, we wanted to put all the figures together — highlighting the concepts of playfulness, complexity, multitude and above all, interaction between people," they explain. Their work is an integral part of the exhibit.