Pull (2006)
Metal structure, two drills 150 x 90 x 50 cm
Courtesy: Fabio Paris Art Gallery, Brescia
Objects populate the world of Michael Bazzana: a drill, a gas engine, a treadmill, a wheel, a parachute, and the list can go on. The point is that the signs the artist uses together are his objective, but he deals in a more specific area: that of machines, or mechanics in a broader sense.
These are all objects that, at a certain point, have deviated from their normal functioning purpose. An inconsistency is introduced (whichever one the artist finds most attractive among the many fascinating possibilities) and is then tested to verify an improbable hypothesis that doesn’t necessarily follow the standards of evidence, utility, efficiency, and economy, from the point of view of a failed experiment.
But it is not success that counts. What counts is the cognitive possibility that a mechanism activated by deviant elements can be freely and generously revealing. Whether it is intuitive or arising from disinterested meddling, his work may seem to fail in terms of results, but is heroic in the fulfillment of its duty—like so many donut holes sacrificed during free research.
The power of reasoning is also found in the potential of the conjectures of the person who conceives it. The same applies to the creative process, except in this case the criterion of economy gives way to a surprising dispersion. At times the two processes converge, and we end up discovering either that the earth is incredibly round, or that the culprit is not the butler.
Bazzana’s work affords a pleasure similar to tracing back the deductions of Sherlock Holmes, from the solved mystery to the evidence. Except here, once we’ve reconstructed the order of the facts, he invents something else even more diverting.
