Andrea Francolino. Contemplatio | Mazzoleni
“Contemplation is necessary to reach inspiration.” So says Italian artist Andrea Francolino, whose experiments in concrete have been on display at Mazzoleni this summer. The exhibition’s title is a word from Classical times, translating as (in Greek) the highest intellectual faculty in the pursuit of intelligible knowledge and (in Latin, ‘cum-templum’) a consecrated space.
A weighty word, then. It matches Francolino’s quite portentious art, which to me seemed inspired less by the ancients than by the 20th century. Specifically the work of mid-century provocateurs Lucio Fontana and Yves Klein.
M² (2024) is the show’s centrepiece. A triptych of cracked concrete squares, with the cracks filled in variously with soil, gold leaf and Klein-coloured lapis lazuli. A larger work on board on the wall opposite opposite features a savage, Fontana-like diagonal slash, again leafed in gold.
“Looking at a crack is like looking at the universe, I reflect on the meaning of life and the meaning of things,” Francolino adds, weightily. These cracks were formed accidentally, and don’t match or line up with each other. For some reason, they rewarded scrutiny, for me at least. Even if this scrutiny didn’t feel that holy, or require much in the way of intellectual faculties.
Instead I thought, if I was a millionaire and bought the gold one, I’d get drunk, then get really close and stare at the cracks for hours.
Andrea Francolino. Contemplatio is at Mazzoleni (London). 05 June - 12 September 2025