Conquête de l’Espace N°1 Marino di Teana
It was with this work produced in 1961, “Conquête de l’Espace” that Marino di Teana won the Saint Gobain competition prize in 1962. In the eyes of the artist, it marks a formidable step forward in his project of uniting sculpture and architecture, given that it “is neither architecture nor sculpture, but it is also one and the other like a Romanesque church or an Egyptian temple, because one is impossible without the other”.
Questioned as a member of the Jury of the Saint-Gobain competition on the winner of the competition, Alberto Giacometti pronounced as follows: “I voted for Marino di Teana because I think it was the best thought out project, the clearest, the model which corresponded most to large dimensions and which was one of the possible constructions. It was moreover the most abstract sculpture of the exhibition, the most precise and at the same time the most sensitive, which I found sufficient qualities to give it the prize (…) We cannot say that it is just an “object”. It is exactly between these two fields {of art and construction} because what touches me is indeed its rhythm, its sensitivity, therefore its plastic elements. We can very well say that an object touches us in line with what Mondrian’s constructions were in painting. »
Marino di Teana in Paris-Club on the occasion of the presentation of his prize during the Saint-Gobain competition
Today, Ferus Gallery continues to bring to life the memory, but also the living presence of the work of Marino Di Teana, through new projects, based on the plans left by the artist. It may therefore well be that the “Conquest of Space” will one day experience a monumental realization, which Alberto Giacometti would undoubtedly have appreciated.
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