The work of Ornaghi & Prestinari is inextricably linked with material culture, and features objects or parts of objects that come from the worlds of design and the consumer industry. They use these pieces as figurative pretexts, narrative bases where the forms and materials become elements that guide an artistic approach that is both silent and certain.
From this phase, in which the memory of manual activity is ever present, Ornaghi & Prestinari summarize the message of the work, the outcome of a work process, the act that, each and every time, is carried out with the impeccable care of a master craftsman.
When recycled materials are used, it is not merely for the sake of sending a message about ecology. It is rather to express the urgent need to think about the life of the object, its most “intimate animism” as Alessandro Mendini taught us, its most evident “political dimension” as Enzo Mari asserted, its “creative charge” as Ettore Sottsass might put it. Three very different authors all united by their respect for the art of design.
Ornaghi & Prestinari manipulate objects to provoke an open analysis of the dynamics of their consumption whether it be physical, cultural, or social. The purposes of the objects are changed, the functions are suspended and the artists extract the original poetic dimension from the objects, almost as if it were the germinal phase that will determine the growth and development of what is commonly known as an industrial design project.
All in all, this part of the life of the object does not really interest the artists. They are usually objects that are well-known or widely used, everyday objects or even archetypal pieces that Ornaghi & Prestinari take hostage from the iconic catalogue of Italian design. The objects remain recognizable even though they are altered, de-contextualized, modified and lose the energy and status so typical of design assuming a definite archaeological role in the work of art that they have become a part of. They become a memory of a way of life and an instrument for reconstructing the human condition.
Even though the pair both have a formal education in design disciplines—both artists studied architecture, urban planning, and design in Milan—Ornaghi & Prestinari look at the contemporary social landscape with a precise unit of measurement that I would define “the manual curiosity of an artisan or workman.” They learn and gain knowledge through hands-on work. An artistic approach that combines thought, morals, and action. A way of making art that accumulates knowledge and then elaborates a very dry, streamlined synthesis, seemingly minimal, rudimentary, and humble.
The works of art appear to be useless machines that transform and freeze the transition from an operational state to a state of poetic traction. They are contemplative works, often made up of many different parts sometimes including even the frames around them or the pedestals they stand on. They do not have any formal or evident power switches to turn them on or off, rather it is their static nature itself that activates an intimate and emotional reaction.
The transformation, the repair, the replacement of an element are the triggers offered to the visitor to enter into the sentimental workshop of Ornaghi & Prestinari, into the world of two artists who face the present by discreetly mending, who fix what already exists with provocation and the overturn of semiotic sabotage. They use this creative and compositional process to explore all the expressive and semantic possibilities it has to offer.
In his works Life of Forms followed by Eulogy of the Hand (Einaudi, 1990 da Vie des Formes suivi de Eloge de la main, Presses Universitaires de France, 1943) the art historian Henri Focillon writes that “the tool itself is no less important than its intended use, and constitutes in itself a result and a value. The hand and the tool develop a friendship that will never end. When new, the tool is simply ‘made’ and an agreement must be reached between it and the fingers that hold it based on progressive appropriation, of delicate and coordinated gestures, of reciprocal habits and also of a certain amount of wear and tear. Then the inanimate instrument becomes a living thing.” This quotation, identified by the artists themselves, is used as an exergue in Morso (2016) where a broken spanner was repaired by replacing the missing part with ivory.
Not dissimilar is Chapeau (2016). Here, a classic empty beer bottle, in burnished brown glass, has an almost imperceptible top in carved alabaster.
Both the works seem to be carelessly placed: the first on a small flat pack side-table, the second on a windowsill. The aluminium side-table has a marble base that resembles a spartan capital; the windowsill looks like something out of a typical scene of work in progress on a building site.
The works are made with basic construction methods and traditional techniques and are capable of absorbing a memory, of retaining the necessary part for reprocessing the message and finally of releasing a totally new type of content. The latter thus becomes independent from the container that originally hosted it—the enunciation of the work itself is an act of self-emancipation.
And so, the Bialetti coffee pot (without a lid) is made of alabaster. The work is called Mattino (Morning) (2016) and is installed inside a minimal wooden cabinet. The combination becomes a sort of domestic altar for the ritual which many working people start the day with before leaving the house.
The gouache silvering described by Cennino Cennini ennobles the boards of Appunti (2016) which are then hammered and punctured by a cross slot screwdriver creating that emotional bond, so desired by the artists, with the tools used by workmen and laborers. The same elements also appear in Argenteria (2016). Here, a series of small drawings in silverpoint depict industrial drill bits. This act of transforming work tools into precious metal brings two totally different worlds together. What was once rough and dirty is refined, elevated, and honored because it symbolizes the morality of work.
In Grigio lieve (2016) it is the turn of the workplace, the studio of Bolognese painter Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), to become the object of study, starting with a virtual 3D model of the space. From this they recreated a set which they used to analyze and imagine hidden views and perspectives. After identifying them, Ornaghi & Prestinari modeled the shadow cones that were generated by the presence of the objects in the studio. In this way, digital manipulation and photography become tools for thinking about sculpture, its relationship between light and matter and the stratification of time.
The result is a sequence of skillfully framed pigment prints on Hahnemühle paper. The frame is not a mere detail, it is the handmade enclosure of an art applied to reality.