Crossing the look of others
There is a kind of Impressionist feel in Klaus Fruchtnis and his way of doing. But unlike the great painters at the end of the 18th century who crossed the fields in search of the best daylight and the right place to give birth to their gestures and let brushes be guided by the wind, lighting up colors with scents and sounds of nature; his way of feeling is the result of a tenacious and persistent pounding on the hard city asphalt.
Trampling in fact, feeling the weight of one’s own steps, means moving for the urge of an underlying curiosity, a casual suggestion or a request, marking routes to the coordinates of a GPS or to the tags applied on a urban map made of straight lines, geometric shapes and a few symbolic colors. Walking, filling a notebook with digital images, filming short video clips, recording voices, or sketching on an iPad. A treasure of notes, which range from a variety of languages, from the most traditional to the more innovative, chasing and overlapping each other in a sparkling mix. One way to immerse oneself into the city is to live it as “feeling” experience.
The necessity to discover a territory with a “heavy” pace, has to be considered with a certain attention. This desire to put the feet on the ground, which is also evident in the making of many other young artists, who seem to withdraw from smoky conceptuality or cunning contemporary art. This demonstrates the need to explore new ways of relating that promote sensitivity and generosity, breathing a sense of civil responsibility that penetrates new media with awareness.
Their ability to listen, observe and remain open to the unexpected, to a newfound attention of storytelling and to the emotions of others, even of the most diverse kind, is striking. It is furthermore amazing how contemporary language can be used with such an agreeable lightness, combining it with the traditional use of drawings, for example. I would like to dwell on this point, because it is dear to me and brings me even closer to Klaus’ experience. Drawings, in the sincerity of their signs, are revelatory of intentions. The immediacy with which a thought is expressed on a sheet of paper tells us in fact about the invisible world from which it comes from. So, rummaging in the traits of this young artists’ work, I feel the desire to discover Milan, our so mocked city, caressing her with essential and quick signs, as to reveal a beauty that has been made opaque by the malice of these decades.
Signs generated with healthy detachment which neither provide an arrogant approach, nor show the incisive and damned gesture of expressionism, but vice versa trace the delicate lines of some of his views: a sort of digital tracing, quite sensual due to the strong tactile sensation returned by the drawings. This is how Klaus feels the city, scrolling it by hand, trampling it with his feet and crossing it through the sight of others. Yes, the sight of others. In fact the value of his project not only lies in the collaborative approach and in the confrontation with others, but also in the processual tension that is generated during it’s making. Considering his project as an “open” and progressive art form, its’ aesthetic path becomes an ethic one, going way beyond the individual sensing and thus becoming a shared feeling.
This is the kind of cultural project that comes closest to the concept of art I love most. And I believe that in these times there is a strong need to regenerate sensitivity, compromised by the impetuousness of public media and the complicated state of the world. In the practice of this young artist coexist three key elements that will mark our future horizon and bring us closer to breathing anew.
© Paolo Rosa, Studio Azzurro
