Galleria Michela Rizzo is pleased to present the exhibition AETHER/ETERE la presenza dell’assente on Giudecca Island in Venice from July 19 to September 28. This project is developed through the works of Mariateresa Sartori and David Rickard in a dialogue curated by Riccardo Greco.

AETHER/ETERE la presenza dell’assente brings together recent works of different mediums, including installations, prints, sounds, and drawings. These works explore the dichotomy between absence and presence, a concept that, in medieval times, was represented by the fifth element: aether.
Aether represented the matter that filled space and voids, an ephemeral material that was not visible but was always present. This ancient element becomes a metaphor for a quest for knowledge that leads to questions about present experiences and how we perceive them. Indeed, humanity has consistently probed questions that are often unanswered, thus changing our vision and what we believe.

The process of questioning is a common practice between the two artists. Rickard and Sartori are two true artist-researchers who delve into the world around them starting from the things that are often taken for granted, such as dust, wind or cosmic rays. Through elements which are imperceptible to everyday attention, the two artists have found ways to consider the aether, that is, the transformation and study of phenomena. Rickard and Sartori draw on empirical art practices and wholly interdisciplinary processes to explore this.
In the case of Rickard’s works there is a deep and curious study of scientific subjects such as physics, astronomy and meteorology, where what is typically unperceivable by humanity is processed to be felt and experienced. Indeed, Rickard’s works do not dwell on the surface, but delve into a more complex and researched narrative. The sky becomes a way of describing chance, the boundary between sensation, perception, and technology.
On the other hand, Mariateresa Sartori’s artwork production involves the realms of sound, language, poetry, natural phenomena. Like a contemporary shaman, she reaches out toward the impossible with a tension that turns out to be itself the primary subject of her works. She puts her tools at the disposal of chance and obtains a result, which by studying and observing she tries to understand and experience. Sartori tries to capture rainwater, to understand the wind, to describe time, to create micro and macro worlds, resulting in works that walk the fine line that divides serendipity and control.
The works in the exhibition become an instrument that vertically cuts through a phenomenon, a magnifying glass that observes space and its rules, becoming its spectator and helper at the same time.

AETHER/ETERE la presenza dell’assente, can be seen as a laboratory in which these two artists dialogue and question the substance of things. Answers are sometimes found, sometimes they are consciously unattainable, while at other times they respect the will of an unknown entity. Hosting this entity is the gallery, which becomes a liminal space for experimentation. Each room like a surrealistic place where the visitor is enveloped by an other-worldly atmosphere and a rhythm marked by the complexity of messages in transmission and portals between different knowledges, where all directions converge into the unknown.

Text by Riccardo Greco