Il dibattito critico sulla scultura contemporanea in Italia (1960 – 2010)

Around 1960 in Italy the research concerning sculpture innovates, experimenting new and unexpected relations with the surrounding space with the intention of establishing a closer and intimate dialogue with the public. Far from being put on a pedestal, sculpture looks for a tightened and conspiratorial relation with the environment, shuttering down the separation between the dignified field of art and the common space of everyday life. From this new perspective, sculpture rejects what is "figurative" and denies the "uprightness" that have always characterized it, changeling techniques and traditional materials. The notch and the modeling fade away while the experimentation of new constructive processes such as the stockpile and the assembly, which do not require specific manual skills, develops; traditional materials are put aside or, in some cases, they are supported by materials that come from the industry or, directly, from nature. Sculpture starts a radical process of aesthetic renovation that led it through linguistic territories whose borders were no longer clear and definite: their decryption is no longer a matter of fact that, according to Meneguzzo, sculpture became "the hardest discipline to define". .. [edited by Author]