

“…dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.”
With these words Kahlil Gibran ruminates on dance. This sculpture by Melotti demonstrates a multiplicity of materiality which has remained in excellent conditions due to their durability which renders them symbolic of permanence. For this reason La danza della sposa has not been marked by the passage of nearly forty years. Just as poetry is not comparable to prose, so is dance a complete departure from the act of walking. Dance is expression, form, dynamicity. This work is an exultation of this movement, which is in turn a fundamental element of the work, distinguishing it. Moreover, this movement is constantly perpetuating. As amply explored in the 2017 exhibition, Fausto Melotti. When music becomes sculpture, in San Secondo di Pinerolo, music, history and movement, are the axes around which the artistic philosophy of Fausto Melotti revolves. They become enigmatic structures travelling towards something beyond the tangibility of the earthly reality. The latest exhibitions of the artist’s work have served to establish the artist’s name among the most important 20th Century artists who most attract collectors, consolidating his role in the Italian sculptural scene. But who is this bride, and what is her future? Melotti leaves this up to our imagination but the title reveals the powerful potential of the work. The bride is heading towards an unknown destiny, which is unstoppable, she must go onwards; after all, this is the etymology of the word ‘dance’ since the Latin root ‘deantiare’ means to move forward.