Sculptor Eduardo Tresoldi creates
huge works from mesh and
industrial materials, exploring
and experimenting with the
concept of transparency. He refers
to his medium as absent matter.
‘ The language of transparency
weaves the non-existent,
transforms the denial of matter
into a three-dimensional entity,
and reveals the result of a void,
therefore the abstraction of reality
and its timeless visual identity,’
he says. Tresoldi’s interventions
have taken place in public
spaces, at art festivals and in
archaeological contexts from
Abu Dhabi to Paris. His permanent
works include an installation
at the Basilica paleocristiana
of Siponto, Italy, which required
4500sqm of welded wire and
took three months to build.
The structure, which rises
14m, the height of the adjacent
medieval basilica, is lit with
a spectral, cold white light at
night. Etherea, captured here
by the Milan-based architectural
photographer Roberto Conte,
is Tresoldi’s largest work to date.
The temporary installation took
five months of planning and
comprised three monumental
‘cathedrals’ measuring 11m,
17m and 23m, respectively.
They were constructed against
the backdrop of the Colorado
Desert and its harsh sun and
wide sky during the 2018
Coachella Festival in California.
The illusion of weightlessness,
the play of light in and on the
structure and the changes of
perspective produced dreamlike,
optical effects, creating a ‘portal
of contemplation’. ‘Wire mesh’s
broken rhythms generate
never-ending sequences
of architectural abstractions
and amplified points of view,’
Tresoldi explains, ‘while the
atmospheric factors contribute to
an interpretation under different
moods. A dynamic and iridescent
space is outlined, in which it
becomes possible to experience
a pure, ethereal dimension.’