archilabmilano and RIBOT gallery present Stato di confronto, a solo show by Stefano Comensoli_Nicolò Colciago, conceived specifically for the spaces of via Sacchi 4 in Milan.
The setting of the exhibition project is the construction site of an apartment undergoing renovation by the architectural studio archilabmilano. The idea of using such an environment as an exhibition space stems from the desire to create a dialogue between two processes—architectural and artistic—that share a common root yet develop according to different logics.
The exhibition reflects on the idea of the construction site as both a physical and metaphorical location, a place capable of hosting images of time and memory, while also serving as a dimension that stimulates new visions of architecture. The construction site symbolizes the transience of all things. It is a fragile dimension. It disappears without leaving a trace. From a romantic perspective, it could represent the ruin as a mapping of the future through the image of the past. Its provisional nature acquires a specific meaning precisely because it has not yet taken on a definitive form: it is a moment that does not necessarily have to question the future function of the space or its inevitable fate of once again becoming either a ruin or a construction site.
Following extensive reflection on the subject, artist Robert Smithson stated: “A building under construction is not exactly a building on the way to becoming a ruin, but a ruin in reverse.” This theory reverses the temporality of the romantic conception and focuses instead on incompleteness as the process that defines the work in its original phase. It does not oppose destruction and construction, but dwells on the instant in which both components coexist. In technical jargon, this moment is defined as "stato di confronto” (state of confrontation).
Based on these premises, the works by SC_NC presented in the exhibition activate a critical dialogue with both the context and the metaphorical and temporal processes that cross it, through works created using recovered materials from contemporary ruins. The investigation of origins is clearly expressed in the series Visioni di un oltre. These works consist of sections of linoleum flooring taken from abandoned buildings, carefully treated, carved, and mounted on vertical supports. The visible surface is not the walkable side of the flooring but its underside, composed of cement and glue residues once used for fixing it to the ground. The original act of laying the flooring, which occurred during the construction site phase, ideally reconnects us to the origins of these buildings and to the anonymous gestures that took place in that moment. The state of ruin is reinterpreted in the series Fiori fuori posto, displayed on the second floor. In these works, laser engraving intervenes on photographs taken in various scenarios and on found elements, disarticulating perception, dismantling spatial and temporal order, and detaching the new representation from its original context of reference. A context that finds its only and complete form of visibility in the video Space in Mirror Is Closer Than It Appears (episode 03), in which, through an act of care within an abandoned place, the artists create an installation subject to the changes and fate of the site itself.
The lexicon of the construction site—understood as a place where infinite possibilities manifest—is also evoked in the exhibition design. On one hand, the placement of certain sculptures in intimate spaces recalls the familiarity of domestic ornament; on the other, the detachment of some works from the wall suggests the multiple trajectories of construction and destruction suspended in a single instant.
Stefano Comensoli_Nicolò Colciago (Milan, 1990; Garbagnate Milanese, 1988) have been working and researching together since 2014. They are co-founders of the project Spazienne and professors at NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. Their practice is strongly rooted in the exploration of industrial or natural landscapes, often abandoned. From these, they recover the materials that form the basis of their works and the site-specific projects that follow. Through experimentation, practice, and dialogue, they explore possibilities and uniqueness. Among their recent exhibitions and projects: Tropical Mind, Geography Museum, University of Padua, Padua, 2025, curated by Giada Peterle and Giovanni Donadelli; Fragmenta, RIBOT gallery, Milan, 2024, curated by Gaspare Luigi Marcone and Maria Villa; Walking Mountains, Museo Nazionale della Montagna, Turin, 2024, curated by Andrea Lerda; Far brillare la polvere, Cittadella degli Archivi, Milan, 2024, curated by Rossella Farinotti for Progetto Ludovico; Visioni di un oltre (Haboob), The Open Box, Milan, 2023, curated by Maria Villa; Mind Your Step, De Bouwput, Amsterdam, 2023; Round Trip–Fluidum, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, 2023 and Pavillon am Milchhof, Berlin, 2023; Lontano dal resto, Riss(e), Varese, 2022, curated by Davide Dal Sasso; Space in Mirror Is Closer Than It Appears, Mucho Mas!, Turin, 2021; Zauber und Paranoia, Super Bien!, Berlin, 2021.
