The “Grado Zero” exhibition is a project commissioned by the site-specific Molto Molto group organized within the framework of the ITmakES project. Colour is a visual experience inevitably linked to sociocultural factors. Every color has a meaning which we are more or less conscious of, and its presence in clothing, spaces and objects produce different connotations according to the context. In an almost instinctive way, we link certain values with certain colors, associating them with traditions, motivations, or ideologies. In the specific case of white, it is usually associated with principles related to purity, neutrality, or sterility. It is also associated with classic principles, a concept whose construction has included discourses of balance, elegance and restraint. Throughout this process, the value of white has been both construction in itself and an element for the construction of other values. If the white associated with classicism dominated, through architecture and sculpture, the production of spaces seeking relevance, one of the most important contemporary values of white within art is that of neutrality and purity that goes beyond its own culmination, generating white as a non-value. White as a means to say that nothing is being said, to generate neutral, impartial spaces that leave room for the values of others, for other contents. The white of the white-bucket. But, is this white really empty? What message is intended to be conveyed when saying that nothing is said? What does white hide? And if we transfer the spatial values of white to objects, what can be read into the objects? By depriving them (supposedly) of chromatic value, do they become neutral and meaningless? Or are they, in an almost automatic way, classified as clean, elegant and classic? Is white really the zero degrees of color? Grado Zero is thought of as a visual journey that seeks to stimulate reflection on the perceptive features and visual conclusions that we can draw from these objects. The objective of this exhibition is to consider, through a series of pieces made by different designers, how the receptive criteria of a shape or texture change and what values take on relevance once the chromatic impact has been removed and using the alleged zero-value.

The selection of designers carried out by the commissioners fully interprets the values of the ITmakES project, an initiative between the Italian Embassy in Madrid and the Italian Consulate in Barcelona where creative design and innovation involving both Italian and Spanish designers, architects, sound artists, create the way for creating and developing joint projects.

Grado Zero, curated by Molto Molto Project

Participants: Luca Hugo Brucculeri, Laura Civetti, Max Enrich, Ela Fidalgo, Duccio Maria Gambi, Andrés Izquierdo, Studio La Cube, Omayra Maymo, Lucas Muñoz, Parasite 2.0, Tellurico, Julen Ussia, Zaven
Organised by: Barcelona Design Centre (BCD), Consolato Generale d’Italia a Barcellona, Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Barcelona
Event:BCN Design Week
Venue:Palo Alto
Address:Carrer dels Pellaires 30, Barcelona

Ph. Jaime del Corro