Jaroen Jacobs, curated by Christiane Rekade
Jaroen Jacobs

pconp and Mariotti Fulget is a partnership that began in 2018, when Ermanno Previdi’s studio chose Silipol for the flagship store of FLANNELS in London’s Oxford Street. They are once more working together for the Salone 2021, creating an exhibition environment for the show by Dutch artist Jeroen Jacobs. This will inaugurate a new season for Spazio Lima, the historic exhibition space in Milan that is reopening its doors at a new location in Via Benedetto Marcello 2, inside pconp’s architectural studio.

For the 2021 edition of “Fuori Salone”, pconp, in collaboration with Mariotti Fulget, has developed a site-specific display that opens a dialogue between the unique qualities of Silipol and the recent sculptures in cement by the Dutch artist Jeroen Jacobs.

The use of cement is central to the work of this artist, who studied in Amsterdam at the renowned De Ateliers school and who has lived in Berlin since the late 1990s. Jacobs’s works, obtained by the use of one or more moulds, nonetheless have complex forms that are never repeated, as the pressing process, every step of which is monitored by the artist, is open, with care taken to record every tiny variation, thus underpinning the nature of the material and accompanying the sculpture towards “its” form, without impositions, according to nature.

Jeroen Jacobs’s sculptures arise from the tension generated between the movements of the material in its transition from liquid to solid state and the attempts to contain it, between the artistic gesture and what chance might add. The result: forms that show a sculptural control and, at the same time, the trust that the artist places in the nature of the material and in letting matters take their course.

Jacobs is exhibiting a selection of his recent works for the show at Spazio Lima. The “Glücksteine” – good luck stones – are small cement castings that develop almost as if they had “grown” spontaneously on the “head” of bricks, which simultaneously form the body and the pedestal of the sculptures. Jacobs refers with the title to the “Gongshi” 供石, the so-called “scholar’s rocks”. These stones, whose characteristic shapes are the result of the work of nature in relation to the passage of time, are according to the Chinese tradition found, collected and exhibited on lacquered wooden pedestals for the sole purpose of contemplation. The second group of works exhibited in Milan by Jacobs also relates the sculpture to its pedestal, treating the two as if they were one: thus the grey and heavy cement sculptures enter into dialogue with the fragile, coloured wooden feet. These fragile and colourful presences grant the sculptures an idea of mobility, of a life of their own: as if their vital essence would be manifested within the stones themselves.

Born on 1968 in Helmond NL, lives in Berlin.
Jacobs studied in Amsterdam at the renowned De Ateliers school and who has lived in Berlin since the late 1990s. His work was exhibited in: NGBK – Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin; Kunstverein Arnsberg; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Arndt und Partner Zürich; Chinese European Art Centre, Xiamen; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; Galerie De Praktijk, Amsterdam among others. Jeroen Jacobs teaches art at the Hochschule für bildende Künstler HfBK in Berlin.

Curator based in Zurich, Christiane works for the department of art and architecture (Fachstelle Kunst und Bau) of the city of Zurich. From 2016-2020 she was the artistic director of the Kunsthaus in Meran / Southtyrol, from 2013-2016 she worked for the Michel Majerus Estate in Berlin. She curated many exhibitions in Italy and abroad and collaborated with artist such as Pawel Althamer, Monika Sosnowska, Yorgos Sapountzis, Studio Other Spaces, Lisa Ponti Estate, Giulia Cenci, Helen Mirra, Gianni Pettena, Alterazioni Video among others.

Mariotti Fulget Srl has produced highly resistant slabs in cement conglomerates with marble, granite and even hard stone aggregates for civil and industrial construction since 1926. It is a family business that has combined cutting-edge industrial technologies with a carefully crafted finished product for three generations. The extremely high production standards and constant qualitative research into aesthetics make the company an undisputed international reference.

Silipol it is a multifaceted material, consisting of spheres of granite and marble powders and cement which, when compressed, create a stone-like slab. Produced exclusively by Mariotti Fulget Srl, it made its debut in the 50s and immediately became popular with engineers and architects, being used for paving large surface areas. Silipol is ecological, without synthetic additives, composed of natural elements and therefore completely recyclable. It is also a highly customisable material: during its processing you can make chromatic choices and even define texture. Architects Franco Albini and Franca Helg immediately noted its aesthetic potential, choosing then to use it for covering the walls of all stations of Milan Underground Linea 1.