The Poetics of Matter: Massimo Pulini Visits Keil Space
Keil Space has added a valuable new perspective: that of Massimo Pulini, a painter and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna.
Spanning over 500 square meters, Keil Space is an “Art Territory” with a futuristic vision. Here, Sam Keil blends the latest technologies, scientific research and the ancient art of bronze, creating a captivating body of work displayed in an experiential setting that brings art and embodiment together. This space, dedicated to Advanced Arts, showcases the evolution of Sam Keil’s artistic journey through the collections of the First, Second and New Generations. Designed to provide an immersive environment, Keil Space allows only one visitor at a time, making each visit uniquely intimate. Due to its individual approach and artistic depth, Keil Space has garnered critical acclaim, being recognized as an unusual and impactful venue in today’s art world.
The following lines highlight Pulini’s insightful critique, identifying recurring themes and the deep emotional and intellectual resonance that Keil Space elicits in both visitors and experts.
Pulini joins a list of distinguished visitors who have explored Keil Space, including critics like Rolando Bellini and Marcello Dantas, who analyzed the works aesthetically, and astronomer Massimo Tarenghi, who approached the space through a scientific lens. Each of these four has found profound reflections of Keil’s art and its power to connect on both an individual and collective level.
Pulini’s opinion, though unique, seems to reflect a shared interpretive framework that perceives the exhibition space as an unconventional setting to embrace and highlight the complexity of Sam Keil’s artistry.
Keil Space: A Sensory Frame for a Dialogue with Art
Pulini was deeply impressed by the atmosphere of Keil Space, especially the choice of black as a dominant color, which he describes as an element that, rather than repelling, invites the observer to open one’s eyes. “The dimension of shadow seems almost to invite you to open your pupils and see more clearly what surrounds you,” he says, capturing the positive intrigue in this aesthetic choice. Previously, Bellini had also noted the importance of space in defining aesthetic experience. While Bellini saw the color scheme as evoking theatricality, Pulini attributes to the black a welcoming function that envelops and introduces an almost cinematic experience, where darkness encourages observers to immerse themselves in the works and engage in an intimate dialogue.
“To define the space as a frame may sound reductive, though I have great respect for frames, like those of the Baroque era or those meticulously chiseled”, Pulini remarks. “This is also a refined frame, with particular attention to the sensory component of the experience, and I believe a nod should go to those who conceived it with such care,” he adds, acknowledging the artist Sam Keil and concept developer Mohamed Ogbi.
With over ten years of experience in entrepreneurship and the arts, Ogbi has specialized in artistic equity development, collector relationships management and international expansion strategy. Building on this, Ogbi conceptualized Keil Space as an “Art Territory” where advanced and socially conscious arts meet. Ogbi’s vision shaped Keil Space as a platform that not only showcases Keil’s artworks but also engages observers through meaningful and inner-based experiences. Pulini’s reflections underscore how the collaborative synergy between artist and concept developer fostered a result that emphasizes both personal connection and social dialogue, highlighting Ogbi’s successful contribution to the creation of a new way of experiencing, connecting and communicating with art.
The “First Generation”: Body and Matter in Balance
Pulini, much like Dantas, who highlighted Keil’s “subversive” and deconstructive approach, reflects on the intrinsic dialogue between body and matter within the sculptures. In the First Generation Bronze, particularly “Lovers” (1984–1989), he notes how these two elements – corporeality and matter – merge into an inseparable union. “The body seems almost divided into clods, like a fragmented terrain,” he describes, pointing out how the sculptural gesture conveys a sense of natural continuity with the elements. For Pulini, the relationship between body and matter evokes a kind of “gesture that integrates with the natural structure of the work,” a concept that both Bellini and Dantas had noted, though with different nuances.
The “Second Generation”: Toward Essence
Pulini perceives a significant evolution in “Sabre” (1986–1998) of the Second Generation Bronze, noting how the form seems pared down in search of pure essence. In these works, it is the material itself that expresses movement, almost without the explicit presence of the body, as it reaches toward light. The light’s refraction on the polished metal surface, Pulini observes, is a fundamental component that amplifies the work’s natural beauty. This journey toward essence – from body to pure form – appears to synthesize a more contemplative phase in Keil’s poetics, echoing Dantas’s commentary. The Brazilian art critic had noticed in the Second Generation a “clear shift in language” toward deeper formal purity, while renaissance art historian Bellini similarly stated that in “Sabre,” Keil managed to “sculpt light.”
The Contemporary Cave: A Multisensory Journey and the “New Generation”
Pulini describes the Keil Space experience, particularly that tied to the New Generation works, as a “contemporary cave,” where matter and light converge in a multisensory atmosphere evoking the three realms of the cosmos – animal, vegetal and mineral. This fusion of energies is, for Pulini, one of the most fascinating characteristics of Keil’s work, transporting the visitor into a symbolic, layered world. Bellini and Dantas had already noted Keil’s totalizing approach to matter and light, but Pulini identifies in this amalgam a connection to the vital elements of the world – a cosmic approach that further amplifies the scope of Keil’s artistic exploration. In this, Pulini’s view aligns with that of the famous astronomer Massimo Tarenghi, who, upon observing the New Generation, described a sensation of being engulfed in the “immense and the microscopic” as if they were one and the same. “Both dimensions express the universe”, Tarenghi says, and with the New Generation, “you understand there’s a unity between the inner universe and a small piece of the universe.”
A Message of Love for Art
Pulini’s concluding reflection on the relationship between observer and the artwork is an invitation to individual experience and contemplation. “In some way, we are all invited to develop a personal connection with the works, a kind of chess match in which we place ourselves before the piece and observe it intently”, he states. This message of dialectical love between observer and the artwork resonates with Bellini, Dantas and Tarenghi’s observations, all agreeing on the profound emotional and intellectual impact in Keil’s work.
Finally, Pulini emphasizes Keil Space’s ability to guide visitors through an exhibition that effectively reflects the different stages of the artist’s creativity, despite the limited number of works on display. The carefully selected pieces – visible and perceptible for their intensity – create an experience that, even in its scale, hints at the vastness of Keil’s artistic output, all while focusing on the essence and quality of the presented works.
Keil Space underscores the interdisciplinary nature of Keil’s artistic practice, promoting the ideals of Advanced Arts to a broader audience with the mission of making artistic dialogue more accessible.