21.01 – 18-02 
State Of, Milan

Strolling down the street, you stop in front of a window and the way you perceive a display never seen before is personal. Objects simply relate to each other, sometimes they discord, or they simply coexist, giving birth to a dynamic set: creating in the mind many imaginaries. Every form is polysemous, as it implies, on the outside of its meaning, a chain of changeable contents which the consumer can only partially choose and partially ignore, as Roland Barthes says. These withdrawing representations create messages that can be forgotten or remembered, but that, in a fraction of a second, can stimulate one’s imagination by acting on desire or on expectation.
Even artworks, which in this case found their habitat in the window of State of, can be read in symbolic categories, flooding the emotions of those who see them and changing their behaviour.
In the window of the exhibit suspended objects, instinctive combinations and short life objects, create a stage for the artists who combine their imaginaries and their practices. The moment of the observation and plausibility within a window, create in this exhibit layers juxtaposed in a way that the spectator is not always conscious of it.
This creates more references and a genuine relationship, but also fortuity between the artistic poetry and its consumer. The exposition takes advantage of the Show-room’s structure of the hosting space Aretè, whose surface has been covered by sticky illustrations that refer to the artist Giovanni Zanda’s Disney imaginary. Full of childhood suggestions not deprived of their dark and scary moments, these works wants to underline the connection between what was and what is not anymore, that yet, left a dark and unexpected trail.
Slightly behind the window, there are two big mirrors. It is Stefania Ruggero’s work, an installation full of organic forms that engage the consumer to be part of it. The resin used by the artist to create the frames of the mirrors symbolises the crib surrounding the fragment. The mirror shows what was: the break that keeps living in a new form: resin. The fusion between the mirrors and the resin created a voluntary mutation.
Both artists reflect on the dimension of time and on how it might leave traces behind.
As a Deja vu where not always what we remember seems true.

Pieces, Stefania_Ruggiero / Installation View at Aretè Showroom. Un Déjà vu inaspettato e mi chiedo se lo avessi già pensato, 2021 – Courtesy the artist and State Of – Milano IT – Photo Credits Francesca Aquilini.

Non è finita ancora, Giovanni Zanda – Installation View at Aretè Showroom – Un Déjà vu inaspettato e mi chiedo se lo avessi già pensato, 2021 – Courtesy the artist and State Of – Milano IT – Photo Credits Francesca Aquilini.

Non è finita ancora, Giovanni Zanda – Installation View at Aretè Showroom – Un Déjà vu inaspettato e mi chiedo se lo avessi già pensato, 2021 – Courtesy the artist and State Of – Milano IT – Photo Credits Francesca Aquilini. 

Installation View at Aretè Showroom – Un Déjà vu inaspettato e mi chiedo se lo avessi già pensato. – 2021 – Courtesy the artist and State Of – Milano IT – Photo Credits Renata Vesely.

Giovanni Zanda, born in Cagliari, lives and works in Milan, where he studied Visual Arts at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. He’s interested in the normalization processes within domestic and social environment. He participated in various collective exhibitions including Savage at Otto Zoo Gallery and Blade Banner, part of the program of Sprint, Independent Publishers and Artists’ Books Salon. In 2019 he was selected by Quadriennale di Roma to partecipate at the workshop Performance, which took place at Fondazione Pirelli Hangar Bicocca. Along with Studio Scalzo he took part to the open studios Divani&Divani and Tacco&Punta, during Walk-in Studio, artist studios festival.

Stefania Ruggiero acts between art and design bringing poetry and experimentation within her projects.
Stefania  lives and works in Milano. Graduate in product design at Politecnico di Milano, she started as a carpet designer, and afterward, she worked first at Paola Navone studio and then at Marcel Wanders. Developing her past experiences, she currently collaborates with home decor brands and she is represented by Camp Design Gallery in Milano.