Toni Benetton
Helen-Arts-Gallery is proud to host in its virtual space some works by the artist Toni Benetton, one of the greatest contemporary sculptors who lived the twentieth century projecting himself towards the future with the soul of a "poet builder".
This remarkable exhibition is the result of a partnership with Toni Benetton Museum (museotonibenetto.it)
and the active participation of Mrs Ada Benetton, who generously authorised it.
Utopian to write on a thin hypertextual sheet about the immense artistic heritage built up by Toni Benetton in 70 years of brilliant creativity. The artist's words extracted from a long interview in 1987* are the best available guide to understanding his work with iron and its forces.
The beginnings
Even today, when I remember those heroic times plunged into work, into the need to study and understand, into the desire to progress and to grasp those elementary means of expression that were the iron, the anvil and the hammer, I feel happy.
My seven-year-old brother Piero worked with a bellows, blowing on the fire to keep the coal burning. With his help I carried out a very challenging job: a willow tree with sagging branches (private collection) and on each branch small leaves attached with autogenic welding, a medieval system that means hot piece on hot piece beaten until it melts.
Iron
At this stage of my life I can say that I have a relationship with it of more than sixty years, and well, my interest in iron is still the same despite the metamorphosis and the great experience I have acquired.
Iron will be the protagonist of the future, I see iron as the only important material for future urbanism. If we still talk about sculpture as I understand it, then there will be only iron. I almost no longer speak of sculpture, referring to my works, but of structures, and these structures are perfectly connected with the next century, with the need to build vertically, no longer horizontally. Then the sculpture-structure will integrate into town planning because it will be a spiritual necessity for man... structures that have to be part of everyday life.
The man
I savour everything about my day with greed and enthusiasm, but I prefer winter days, they are more constructive, in winter I am more creative, but I love all hours, all days and all seasons.
* La lunga avventura, by Adriano Màdaro
