Nowadays, the importance and the scope of the « here » and the « now » – that have imprinted the generation of the Millennials, the FOMO syndrome (Fear of Missing Out), the diffusion of Snapchat, the Facebook status « what are you thinking about » – underline a spasmodic attachment to the present, the necessarily shared and at the realization of an exceedingly concentrated, temporary and volatile form of pleasure.

The title of the exhibition, “Concrete Archive”, describes a resistance to the ephemeral character of the present and reinforces the idea of stability and durability of our past. The image of a cement archive, on one hand proposes a reflection on the notions of archiving, documenting and the recording of the human’s actions, whilst on the other it exemplifies Stefano Canto’s interest in the architectural approach. The cement not only offers a figurative reading of time, one that transforms, subdues and reinforces, but also a literal one. Behind the formation of Canto as architect there is a marked interest in the concept of mutation, in the relationship between artifice and nature, particularly in reference to man’s intervention on the landscape. In Canto’s research space is perceived as a grid, an outfit of geometric shapes that intertwine and stratify. His approach is analytic, decomposing the landscape in sets, levels and components. Space is therefore transformed into a three-dimensional netting, composed by blocks, shapes and modules that when put together restore a vision of a total environment to the viewer.

With the auspice of efficiency, of fine management and privacy, Canto reflects on how the concept of the physical archive – cornerstone of our past, present and future – seems to be slowly and inexorably heading towards extinction and steadily transforming into a huge cloud at the mercy of an ephemeral tempest. “Concrete Archive” is a nostalgic attempt to fix a present that is becoming a cloudy digitalization, proposing a counter-reading to the evolution of our time towards the elusiveness of the virtual, through the semantic drifting of the word « concrete » intended as cement » and as concrete », touchable, real, material.