I had the pleasure of knowing the works of the sculptor Helidon Xhixda in Orta San Giulio in the "widespread" project on Verbano: "SoS Humanity". Finding it again in Legnano, for the exhibition “Legnano, sublime reflected distortions”, gave me joy and light, charge…
SOS Humanity "widespread" in Orta
I was on holiday in Orta San Giulio and I appreciated the "widespread" works of the collective of five great renowned artists international, among these Xhixda,Simone Benedetto, Silvia Della Rocca, Sergio Floriani, Omar Hassan who with their personal sensitivity and vision of the world have interpreted, in their own way, a aspect of this and other "emergencies",
(link SOS HUMANITY Exhibition in Orta)
Then the master of Albania struck me with his refractions towards the nature. The Installation at the Madonna del Sasso comes to mind, rather than the installation on the San Giulio island where the reflection is on the waters of Lake Orta, or on the mountains of the Madonna del Sasso with the Basilica reflected.
Works where on the one hand there was the "play" of light, to be reflected, and on the other to reflect on current situations. For example, the sensitivity of the artist(s) towards climate change, global epidemics, wars, social, moral and anthropological degradation, pollution of minds.. Themes More relevant than ever!
“Legnano, sublime reflected distortions”
The exhibition in Legnano is an Open Air museum located in five locations in the city. At the inauguration, in the absence of the Maestro, the councilor for culture Guido Bragato expressed satisfaction: "it's a /strong>honor to be able to host an artist of the international caliber of strong>added:For the artist, the sense of making monumental art today means taking art out of museums to make it public, to bring it closer to the public and celebrate the social moment we live in! (Photo by Dario Croci of Sempionenews)
I totally agree with the statements.
The Exhibition
The exhibition located in different parts of the city has the aim of making citizens stop and reflect on the current situation.
For example, the work“La Clessidra” is a denunciation against the hectic times of cities...(photo by Anna Maria Macchi).
But not only that, in the other four installations, "through the perpetual movement of the surfaces, the boundaries seem to dissolve in space in a continuous creation and evolution".I like this about the artist: the profound observation of our society, of the critical issues and that thanks to the processing of stainless steel, he manages to "shape" creating emotions and effects. The "light" then becomes the element of refraction, reflection. But also an element of stimulus to seek the light and for me the light at this moment has only one name: PEACE!
Finally, I would like to point out that I had the opportunity to meet the artist for the first time in 2010 because he had created the "weight" of the Legnano palio. (The weight is a sculpture of 1176 g coinciding with the year of the battle, which is donated to the winning Contrada of the Legnano palio).
La Flora won that year).
La Clessidra (Via Luini)
In the work "Clessidra", through abstraction, the artist elevates the experience from the sensitive state to the spiritual one. Its ogival shape, as the intersection of two perfect circumferences, becomes a visual representation of the union of two dimensions of being.
A depression runs along the entire work, like that thin thread of sand that flows inside two communicating vessels and is a measure of the flow of time.
Here, however, the line does not have a limit, it will not end with the passing of moments but is an infinite propagation from earth to sky in a momentum, in an upward motion towards the metaphysical. The work acquires a mystical sense and spiritual expansion. The complexity of the beauty that Xhixha seeks and pursues is the combination of fugacity and eternity.
(Photo by Dario Croci – Sempione News)
Elliptical reflection (Palazzo Leone da Perego)
Xhixha's works are pervaded by a constant energy that gives rhythm to the surfaces, creating an unstoppable dynamic process, given by the reflections enclosed and projected outwards.
The very nature of the material, thanks to its ability to absorb and reflect the artist's gesture, loses its hardness and becomes a living sculptural material.
In the case of “Elliptical Reflection” the metal surface seems to contract as a result of an expansion of energy. The power that pervades the work is in turn released outwards in a continuous exchange of forces. (Photo by Dario Croci Y/N)
Conoscenza (piazza IV Novembre)
Six light rays from a focal point propagate towards Infinity. “Knowledge”, shining like a mirror, develops upwards from the earth, embracing the horizon. The light touching the surfaces, reflecting, illuminates us. Knowledge is the maximum form of knowledge, where the active intellect is endowed with awareness and freedom and it is precisely from this freedom that Xhixha creates transformations with his works. It is what human reason tends towards as liberation from intellectual, spiritual and moral unawareness. .
Xhixha with its“Knowledge” offers ways of interacting capable of revealing, making people feel, strengthening and bringing to light properties of our knowledge that without this aesthetic intensification they would remain opaque. (Photo by Anna Maria Macchi)
Ionic column (piazzale antistante il Castello)
A shining column, a steel monolith stands infinitely, magnificent in its presence, in a spiritual impulse aimed towards the Transcendent. The gaze, running over the surfaces that seem to rise endlessly, is lost among the clear angular profiles and the concave and convex modulations. The material, strong and powerful, is pervaded by constant energy and is dynamically redefined through the vitality of the rhythmic pulsation. The artist, strong in his connection with tradition and classicism, presents us with a contemporary Ionic steel column: a symbolic presence, a spiritual impulse, a luminous freedom. The work becomes an optical representation of the world; as a reflection of space and time it is an unexpected and always unpredictable vision that has the gift of knowing how to welcome and reflect. A dialogue is thus created between artist and observer, in a continuous exchange of introspection and the work reconnects to the very moment in which reality is revealed.
Italia (cortile Palazzo Malinverni)
“Italia” celebrates the bond and friendship between Albania and Italy and aims to be a tribute from the artist to the country that welcomed him. The work is directly connected to the life experience of the artist, who in 1991 reached Puglia on the ship Vlora coming from Durazzo, to become the greatest witness of Albanian culture in Italy today. The work ennobles intercultural dialogue in a burst of authentic humanity, becoming a message of freedom. Art, and in particular monumental sculpture, has a fundamental value in collective memory as it becomes an immortal testimony of the time in which we live, telling the story and human creativity. A dichotomy with an extremely profound meaning that does not neglect the exquisitely aesthetic and perceptive aspects. The topographical representation is rendered thanks to the persuasive and perpetual movement that the artist gives to the steel and it is precisely the material that manifests the solidity and strength of the values that the flag itself represents. An emblem that fills the hearts of all Italians, but at the same time arouses feelings and evokes universal values.
Bibliography of the Artist
Helidon Xhixha was born in Durres in 1970 into a family of artists where he grew up with innate respect for the arts, discovering at a young age his passion for sculpture, inherited from his father. Throughout his career he has developed an iconic style of sculpture, through the manipulation of reflective stainless steel, a material that is a key element of the artist, transforming it into a series of abstract sculptures that reveal their imposing majesty and beauty. With the success of recent years, first at the 2015 Venice Biennale and later at the 2016 London Design Biennale, and a solo exhibition at the Uffizi Galleries, Xhixha has secured a position at the top of the art world, making his sculptures immediately recognizable by contemporary audiences. Through a highly qualified intervention on steel, the material goes from being uninterruptedly linear to becoming distorted, intricate and fragmentary, resulting in a personal visual interpretation of the influence between metal and light, between the concrete and the ethereal. He currently lives and works between Milan and Dubai. His stainless steel installations are exhibited in public and private collections.
