#revision - ARTE POVERA AND THE EVERYDAY

'The commonplace has entered the sphere of art' states Germano Celant in his Arte Povera manifesto from 1967. Many of the artists during this time focused their attention on bringing art into life and life into art. By dealing with everyday materials, subject matter and actively trying to remove artistic stereotypes, artists such as Pistoletto and Fabro attempt to capture the everyday.

Notions of the 'stereotypical artist' consisted of having a 'signature style', which is a trait that the artists during Arte Povera tried to stray away from. Celant envisaged Arte Povera as straying away from 'the oppressive and cultural system based on consumerism and tradition' and is a key reason why he theorised the use of 'poor' materials in stark contrast to that of Minimalism and American consumer culture. By making art that doesn't fit into a set 'theme' that an artist is necessitated to produce, the artist is then free from capitalist ties to the art market. However, as Pascali ironically points out, the idea of deciding to 'discard what is out of date and create novelty' is exactly the same ideas used by consumerist industry, who constantly challenge and evolve their own products to make them more marketable. This is just one of few flaws highlighted by Alex Potts in his text Disencumbered Objects, where he challenges the idea that any object can be truly disencumbered from any notions.

It is clear that these artists wanted to change the way that the world saw art, and to do so they decided to move off the canvas and into sculpture forms made from seemingly everyday materials. Boetti claims that some of 'the best moments in Arte Povera were hardware shop moments', highlighting here the use of everyday and easily attainable materials, again challenging the role of the artist. Pistoletto deals with this in his work Quandro de Pranzo from 1965, where he constructs two chairs facing one another over a table, with the whole situation framed by an outer square. Uncanny of everyday objects and activities, the frame acts as a claustrophobic barrier between those sitting in the chairs and the outside world. Pistoletto's engagement with the everyday also expanded to his work with mirrors, which placed an image of a individual on a mirrored surface, making their background surrounding interchangeable dependent on where the work was shown. On seeing your reflection in the mirror, you are put into a situation where you are unfamiliar with the individual next to you and the surroundings that you are in. This further isolates both the viewer and the image. Pistoletto's work seems to directly deal with the isolating effects of society as opposed to everyday routine and the home, which is the basis of some of Fabro's work.

Pavimiento from 1967 consists of newspapers being laid on the floor in the gallery space, reminiscent of when newspaper is used to cover a newly cleaned floor in the home. Newspapers contain the everyday happenings in the world, and to have them seemingly discarded on the floor shows the ephemeral of both newspapers themselves and the stories they contain. It seems that both Fabro and Pistoletto are in some ways critical of the everyday that has come to be part of modern life.

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