When I Was Young 1951

Curator: Enrico Baj created "When I Was Young" in 1951. It's a mixed-media assemblage incorporating collage elements. Quite striking, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely. There's a strange charm here, almost like a bizarre, adorned paper doll. The flatness, the textures, and the slightly unsettling decorative elements all vie for attention. Curator: Baj was moving in circles with the avant-garde at the time, heavily involved in movements criticizing industrialisation. Given that context, I can't help seeing the assembly of disparate materials as a commentary on consumerism and waste. Editor: A sharp observation. Thinking about materiality, it is interesting how Baj subverts the conventional idea of precious materials by using scraps, repurposed trims and what looks like heavily pulped paper to build up the image of a person. Was this type of folk-art leaning common among his peers? Curator: Baj drew from Art Informel. We should see this more like an instinctual and immediate practice of artmaking using readily available and found items. Although not entirely common at that specific moment, similar uses of textiles appeared in Dada circles a few decades earlier. The artist likely thought the material was more important than medium boundaries. Editor: This resonates with how the work also feels inherently rebellious. It pushes back against artistic norms by valorising the everyday and the discarded. I also wonder about the specific types of labour reflected in it. Someone produced the trim, someone made the buttons. There's the implicit labour of crafting those very materials. Curator: Definitely, and I'd suggest there’s a potential parallel to folk-art traditions too. Although the style may not explicitly be, this almost "naive art" figure suggests a return to basic forms of human expression in the wake of post-war uncertainty. A new image for Italy. Editor: Ultimately, “When I Was Young” presents such a rich commentary of mid-century society when examined through the lens of discarded production material. It prompts considerations of value. Curator: I agree, there is that striking tension in the materials, forcing a reevaluation of artistic value and labor itself. It still resonates.