Grossi Maglioni, Lo Sguardo che Offende, 2017

Lo Sguardo che Offende, Il Manuale is an artist’s monotype in 30 unique autographed copies, printed on cotton paper and various fabrics, and wrapped in a peculiar cover, a fabric mask, one of the characterizing elements of the project. Il Manuale is an integral and conclusive part of a work that arises from a reflection on the devices of vision and on the sci-fi possibility of the gaze to “hurt” the landscape it observes, in a hypothetical struggle between man and nature. “Lo Sguardo che Offende, Il Manuale is an artifact that does not lend itself to a univocal and definitive classification. It is certainly an artist’s book because it contains a unique and characteristic element such as the fabric mask, an object / fetish that makes different and unrepeatable every book consulted or eventually purchased by an observer / collector. At the same time the book is an instruction manual, already declared in the subtitle of the work by the artists but evidently available to those who are preparing to leaf through it. Following the instructions indicated in the pages of the text, everyone can reproduce the performative actions of the work developed by Grossi Maglioni, and at the same time reflect on the meaning of the work itself. But Lo Sguardo che Offende is also an account of the artists’ production and methodology, a work that, borrowing a physiological medical term, we could say without interruption, without truly unique works with indefinite boundaries, but in continuous osmosis . Each work is undoubtedly tied with an umbilical cord to the previous one. ” Gianluca Brogna