Torsione

Twisting, the mechanical application of two opposite forces to two sides of an object accumulates energy in the spring that can be released. Anselmo used thick, strong cotton moleskin and an iron bar to create this work that embodies energy as the result of his physical effort to twist the cloth and fix it to the wall. The wall is not used to hang a painting for disembodied contemplation, but as a surface of resistance, able to maintain the wound-up energy internal to the physical object. The work is impressive, boldly celebrating gesture and agency, not to create a representation of them, as in Action Painting, nor to document it, as in Lucio Fontana or the Gutai group, but as potential. Although the work has no direct relation with its historical context, when it was first shown at Sperone gallery in early 1969 (prior to another, later destroyed, version of this work exhibited at ‘Op Losse Schroeven. Situaties en Cryptostructuren’ in Amsterdam that year), Turin was in a state of social conflict, with protests and factory workers on strike. The essence of life is seen here as a continuous twisting and release, a mode of constant resistance, a form of movement, like a battery.