Anton Alvarez - L'Ultima Cera

Milan, 7-13 April 2019

Milan’s historic Fonderia Artistica Battaglia launches its inaugural residency program, appointing Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte Artistic Director of the Design Department. The exhibition L’Ultima Cera features the work of the first resident: Anton Alvarez.

Anton Alvarez’s artistic practice lies between functional object and sculpture. Focusing on the design of systems and the creation of tools for producing objects and architecture, Alvarez’s process-orientated practice advances technological innovation while simultaneously employing traditional craftsmanship. In this way Alvarez’s works combine the primordial and the futuristic.

For this year’s Salone, Alvarez explores a new material he has not worked with before, bronze, in a unique and innovative manner. Alvarez adapts his self-built machine called the Extruder. A large metal cylinder hanging with chains from the ceiling, the Extruder uses an electric motor to exert more than six thousand pounds of pressure on wax, pushing it through different moulds and shapes. The wax then flows into a large cold swimming pool and into the hands of the artist who guides the extrusion and adjusts its final shape. The process meanders between the unexpected and controlled, between intention and serendipity. The wax forms are finally cast in bronze to form unique pieces.

Anton Alvarez - L’ultima Cera
7-13 April 2019

Church San Bernadino alle Monache
Via Lanzone, 13 Milan, Italy

PREVIEW Saturday 6th April 2019, between 5–8pm