Segni rosa 1967

Curator: Ah, "Segni rosa," pink signs. It was created in 1967 using mixed media on transparent plastic, so it feels so modern to see it. Accardi plays here with line, color, and surface so incredibly sensitively, and I'm glad you will approach it today! What strikes you most right away? Editor: It’s unexpectedly airy. At first glance, it felt almost like delicate pink lace, but with an energy bubbling beneath the surface. The composition almost evokes the image of looking through draped fabric with white light flooding from behind. It gives it a strange duality – both ornamental and volatile. Curator: Volatile. Yes, I completely agree. It's deceptively simple, isn't it? This network of pink lines, almost calligraphic, feels ancient somehow. Like traces of an unknown alphabet attempting to be spoken by us. These signs feel really rooted in that particular moment of Accardi's investigation. The radical alphabet which she investigated so fiercely. What meaning do these signs hold in the larger narrative of cultural consciousness? Editor: It's fascinating that you bring up the idea of an alphabet because, while the work presents visual repetition, these are never precisely the same; tiny deviations and imperfections make each sign unique. In that sense, it seems a metaphor for how symbols themselves work – constant iterations evolving within cultural memory, where there's no true original, only derivations that resonate with new emotional, social and historic valences. It feels deeply embedded in that time of exploring the relationship between structural repetition, the gesture of the painterly stroke, and what mark making can signify. Curator: Yes, derivations, or better deviations, and variations upon a theme… When she decided to turn to a transparent support, such as sicofoil, there was for her a very precise intent to declare painting as an action. As she used to say: the support absorbs the color and emanates light, or it blocks the color. The lightness of these forms creates the painting and our gaze deciphers it. The material that transcends! That gives us hope in something, doesn't it? Editor: Absolutely, there’s a wonderful optimism to it. Despite its subtle ambiguities, its message feels undeniably positive, radiating outward to connect us. Even a modern eye finds meaning here. I think I will spend more time in front of this!