Montoro12 Gallery is delighted to present the frst solo exhibition in Brussels by Alessandro Brighetti (b. 1978, Bologna, Italy) entitled The C U T.

The exhibition presents the artist’s new sculptural series, shown here for the frst time, the result of two and a half years of intimate and obsessive research, which began during his residence at Mana Contemporary New York from September 2016 to February 2017. This body of works represents parallel and complementary research for the artist, who has created kinetic sculpture for many years, focusing on self-sufcient energy and using media such as photovoltaic cells, wind generators and modules of magnetic repulsion as energy producers intended to fuel the movement of the sculptures. Brighetti’s kinetic sculpture is represented by two major works in the exhibition.

The external supply of electricity is superfuous, if not anachronistic. "The umbilical cord of the cable must be cut of," says Brighetti. From this realization arises, like out of Adam’s rib, the series The C U T, in which the cable, and crowning it, electrical material in general, become the model of self-sufcient meaning. Transmitted in environmental installations, wall sculptures and sculptural paintings, the works are charged with the urgency of developing a collective ecological consciousness. The electric cable represents the founding medium of the semantic structure of The C U T. In the poetics of Brighetti it belongs to a near, (utopian?) future, in which the social and productive system have achieved energy self-sufciency: the medium expresses its functional uselessness by withdrawing, short-circuiting and ofering itself as a pure and residual formal trace, a warning of the imminent environmental catastrophe linked to the fateful rise in global temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Brighetti succeeds in addressing an important and pressing subject through his visually compelling and innovative works of art.

Alessandro Brighetti studied Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy, and has exhibited his work worldwide. His numerous exhibitions include Narchitecture, Scaramouche, New York, USA (solo), The Wizard’s Chamber, Kunsthalle Wintherthur, Switzerland; LDF, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK; Imago mundi, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Critica in arte, Museum M.A.R. Ravenna, Italy (solo); A Beautiful New World, International Exhibition Center, Nanjing, China. His works are in important private and public collections such as the Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland; NMAO National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan; Easterbrook Collection, Texas, USA; Golinelli Collection, Bologna, Italy; Zeppelin Universitat Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany; Mittal Collection, London, UK and many others.