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Senses Art Fair 2024: Perfect Harmony of Culture and Art
In Lecce, the capital of this southern Italian region and a gem of the Baroque era, the profound spiritual power of its sun-kissed limestone buildings and churches resonates through its architecture, forging connections that transcend time and space. This historic setting hosted the SENSES ART FAIR 2024 during Lecce Art Week, an international exhibition showcasing photography, painting, video art, installations/sculptures, and performance art.

SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 During Lecce Art Week, MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy

The Image Courtesy of ITSLIQUID Group

Organized by the ITSLIQUID Group, the event took place in various cultural exhibition spaces across Lecce, including the MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) and the museum center at Chiesa di San Francesco della Scarpa. Part of Lecce Art Week, this event brought together artists from around the world to Salento, a captivating area at the tip of Apulia, renowned for its natural beauty, rich history, delicious food, and vibrant culture.

SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 During Lecce Art Week,

MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy

The Image Courtesy of ITSLIQUID Group

From paintings and photography to video art, the human body, and the digital world, the senses served as the common ground for creatives to express themselves. SENSES ART FAIR was about exploring and experimenting with new hybridizations, creating new possible worlds, and fostering dialogue, unity, and exchange among artists, architects, designers, critics, public and private institutions, and art enthusiasts.

Among these creatives was Elena Ksanti from Spain with her "Parallel Worlds Series - Birth of the World 2021." Specializing in abstract expressionism, Ksanti allows paint to fall naturally onto the canvas, evoking a range of emotions and exploring themes such as the birth and meaning of life, evolution, spirituality, and self-reflection. Her artworks, with their interplay of light and dark, embody her volcanic creative process, where periods of meditation lead to spontaneous bursts of inspiration.

Elena Ksanti’s Artwork "Birth of the World 2021," From Parallel Worlds Series,

SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 During Lecce Art Week,

MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy

The Image Courtesy of ITSLIQUID Group

"The principle of Yin and Yang (or yin-yang) presents a world of inseparable and contradictory opposites and competing and complementary forces. In my series Parallel Worlds, I found myself inspired by the ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin-Yang, depicting elements and pairs like the fight and flight, female and male, dark and light, heaven and hell - so on and so forth. Thus, bringing these sentiments within my artworks for individual resonance and interpretation." - Artist Elena Ksanti

Elena Ksanti’s Artwork "Birth of the World 2021," From Parallel Worlds Series,

The Image Courtesy of FprBuro Communications Agency

Fant Wenger from Switzerland contributed to this dialogue with his series "Radioreception," where nature and technology collide. His powerful use of color and light, alongside elements like railway wagons and antennas, creates a dynamic tension that questions what is sent and received in our technologically saturated world. Wenger’s meticulous craft and thoughtful compositions invite viewers to engage deeply with his enigmatic landscapes.

Artist’s Artwork "Receiver 2018,” Fant Wenger With Guests SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 during Lecce Art Week,

MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy The Image Courtesy of ITSLIQUID Group

In contrast, painter Boris Rodnyy uses automatic trance drawing to channel spiritual and cosmic messages onto his canvases, influenced by Tai Chi, Daoism, and his travels in India, Tibet, and Peru. The compositions of his artworks in the "COSMOGONIC MYTH I " series are visually related to the archetypal symbols of pre-Renaissance cultures. Rodnyy contemplates and reconstructs traditional symbolic forms, creating his own sign system that projects a model of the world emerging from the chaos of nothingness. This strategy resembles the myth of the creation of the universe, where the artist takes on the role of the Absolute Creator, closer in image to a shaman or demiurge than to a modernist author.

Boris Rodnyy’s Artwork "Hierarchy 2024," From COSMOGONIC MYTH I Series,

The Image Courtesy of Artist Instagram & Website

Set against the backdrop of Lecce, a city renowned for its rich Baroque architecture and vibrant history, the work of Catherine Nickford gains an added layer of depth and context. Her series features intricate fine ink drawings and digital adaptations inspired by Albrecht Dürer’s "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," mixing detailed surrealism with historical themes.

Artist Catherine Nickford, and her Artwork "Chargers", SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 During Lecce Art Week,

MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy

The Image Courtesy of Artist Instagram

SENSES ART FAIR explores and experiments with new hybridizations, fostering the creation of new possible worlds. This is exemplified by Elia Kleiber from France, whose work focuses on the unseen, capturing figures like women, construction workers, and migrants. Kleiber uses a mix of traditional and modern techniques, such as plexiglass, canvas, oil, and acrylic, creating vibrant and dynamic compositions that bring the invisible into view.

Artwork Artist Elia Kleiber

The Image Courtesy of Artist Website

A unique dimension to the fair is added by Rolf Frischherz with his sculptural pieces, which blend contemporary 3D printing technology with traditional gilding, creating a harmonious fusion of modern and classical elements. His sculptures focus on the tender gesture of an embrace between two intertwined bodies, capturing the essence of human connection and intimacy.

Rolf Frischherz’s Sculpture "Lovers Twenty Gold Plated," From Limited Edition of Twenty 3D Prints, Small Replicas of the Original Sculpture,

SENSES INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2024 during Lecce Art Week,MUST Museum (Museo Storico Città di Lecce) Lecce, Italy

The Image Courtesy of ITSLIQUID Group

The exhibition was further enriched by a selection of video artworks.

Sonja Doberauer (Germany) highlighted the celebration of the senses with her video art "Ellipse," which transcends traditional mediums to explore the rhythms of the cosmos. Doberauer’s artwork captures the non-directional yet rhythmic movement of the universe, shifting from circular to elliptical trajectories. Her art invites profound contemplation of existence, urging viewers to listen to the symphonies of light and sound encoded in the whispers of the universe. Sonal Ambani (India), with "Slings & Arrows of Outrageous Fortune," reflects poignantly on the persistent gender pay gap, symbolizing the undervaluation of women's labor and worth. Mira Mink (Finland) further contributed with the "Poetry & Video Art Exhibition 2024."