Per filo e per segno – 2/12. Paola Anziché

Imparando dalle Forme
2019-2025
abaca fibers, cork bark, wheat, raffia, paper
site-specific
variable dimensions

 

From February 13th to March 11th, 2026, BUILDING BOX presents the second installation of the exhibition project Per filo e per segno. Percorsi di arte tessile in Italia: Imparando dalle Forme (2019-2025) by Paola Anziché (Milan, 1975).

 

The installation on view at BUILDING BOX was first created in 2019 and has been reworked specifically for this occasion with new elements and others from different sources.

The artwork, which involves the use of a variety of materials, in particular abaca fibers, paper thread, cork leather, wheat and woven raffia, emblematically represents the holistic relationship with textiles. The artist makes free and autonomous use of it in dialogue with reality, captured in its most heterogeneous aspects, starting from the manuality of the gesture understood as a desire for contact and appropriation, intended to involve both the physical and emotional and psychological components.

 

Nothing is precluded from textile, and Paola Anziché considers it the ideal device for exploring themes such as popular beliefs, rituality, ecology, science, but also weaving and bioarchitecture, as in the case with Imparando dalle Forme.

 

The artist creates circular, organic and floating shapes that evoke elements of Islamic architecture, alternating weaves, embroidery and voids that give life to a syntax of its own, where form integrates with manual gesture and bodily experience in a process of perpetual change. A soft, tactile architecture devoid of any authoritarian form, developed around mnemonic and fragmentary aspects: “A gesture in textile form”, says the artist, who found inspiration in the thinking of Austrian theorist, architect and designer Bernard Rudofsky (1905-1988). An atypical figure of the 20th Century, author of the book Architecture Without Architects (1964), where he affirms the importance of vernacular architecture, those anonymous and spontaneous forms that are the result of local knowledge and traditions. In this sense, it is rather significant that a fundamental part of Islamic architecture originated from popular building practices, which are then codified symbolically, socially and religiously. This fusion of elements is the distinctive feature of a sophisticated installation that intertwines history, culture and tradition.

 

Imparando dalle Forme can also be interpreted as a poetic statement, coherent with the process applied by Paola Anziché in her works. In fact, form should not be understood as a result to be interpreted retrospectively, but rather as an active source of knowledge that reveals itself as it is created. This procedural component suggests a connection with Bruno Munari (1907-1998) and his famous method of learning by doing. The artist and designer used to say: “If I listen, I forget; if I see, I remember; if I do, I understand”.

 

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From January 15th 2026 to January 7th, 2027, BUILDING BOX presents Per filo e per segno. Percorsi di arte tessile in Italia, an exhibition project curated by Alberto Fiz involving twelve Italian artists from different generations, invited to reflect on the theme of contemporary textiles. Throughout 2026, the exhibition will offer a selection of tapestries, clothing, installations, sculptures and site-specific works in twelve individual monthly installations. The first three artists presented are: Numero Cromatico (artistic collective founded in Rome, 2011), Paola Anziché (Milan, 1975) and Maurizio Donzelli (Brescia, 1958).

The last decade has been characterised by an increasing focus on textile art, which has established itself as one of the most vital languages of contemporary art. The reasons for this can be found, first and foremost, in its ability to restore a central role to the matter and the body in an era dominated by digital technology. Although the use of textiles is nothing new – just think of the fabrics of Fortunato Depero (1892-1960), the carpets of Giacomo Balla (1871-1958) or the tapestries of Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) what has emerged is an unbiased, often provocative and transgressive process that has involved contemporary artists and, at the same time, has made it possible to highlight some central figures in art history, especially women, who have long been marginalised.
Furthermore, the uniqueness of textiles lies in how they have given rise to an autonomous language, with its own expressive matrix understood as a critical device capable of questioning all forms of hierarchy, according to a renewed awareness that can be traced back to the 2017 Venice Biennale, Viva Arte Viva, curated by Christine Macel, who had built her reflection starting precisely from textile art.

The exhibition project presented by BUILDING BOX aims to connect Italian artists from different generations by developing a fluid, all-encompassing journey that highlights the potential of a versatile, malleable and environmentally sustainable material, where tradition, memory and modernity intersect without rigid formalisation. At the same time, fibers, textures, knots and weaves become relational tools capable of redefining space and the relationship between individuals.
Per filo e per segno aims to make an innovative contribution to the debate on textile art, which on this occasion develops around different perspectives, offering a broader vision with the inclusion of a variety of works such as tapestries, clothing, installations, sculptures and site-specific works, many of which are new projects created specifically for this occasion, confirming how fabric is not only a technique but also an innovative approach to reality and image. Beyond the poetic and stylistic prerogatives, there is a unifying feature that can be traced throughout the exhibition, namely the intimate, in some ways autobiographical, aspect of the research, which is not without attention to the manual component, radically opposing the standardisation and dematerialisation of contemporary society. Per filo e per segno therefore aims to be a meticulous and detailed journey that contemplates the minimal unity of the textiles and the pattern that emerges when the threads are woven together. All this with the aim of generating a new plot through twelve chapters.