Wooden sculpture made in 1973, which finds a precedent in the work on paper shown next to it (1970). Both are representative of the first phase of Vincenzo Balena's artistic research, begun at the end of the 1960s and focused on animal and plant biomorphism, with particular reference to insects.
Through a dense, almost Leonardesque series of analytical studies, translated into graphic and pictorial works, the author seems inclined to highlight machinic devices rather than proposing naturalistic images: not figures to contemplate, but forms alluding to a functioning, almost conveying the value of a project plan. T
herefore, the large sculpture, clearly inspired by the dissection of organic forms, can also be read as an operation of assembling separate parts and as an expression of another of the recurrent themes in Balena: the violence that the machine exerts on man.
Donated by the Artist, 2021
