THOMAS WELTI
From the very beginning, Thomas Welti’s work has been an exploration of the human figure, the limitations of its form and its representation. He challenges the physical limits of these figures by reimagining them in athletic poses and gestures or by extrapolating details from the whole, transforming the body into a new and unknown landscape, where the identity of the individual is lost to make room for the poetic quality of the form itself. The forms depicted by Welti are, of course, unrealistically “elastic" bodies, ready to stretch, bend and twist, like clay molded in the artist's hands. A dynamism often deliberately exasperated to reveal an unexpected beauty, made up of shapes that interact with the space, drawn lines and paths waiting to be discovered under the gaze of the observer. The representation of the body becomes almost a pretense to give shape to movement, to capture its momentum, strength and the energy from which life originates. And just as the human body becomes a means of exploration of the internal and external dynamics at the heart of our existence, in the same way the use of ceramic work by the artist serves to construct forms whose real material nature is disguised with the intervention of colored patinations reminiscent of bronze, stone or other noble materials. Thomas Welti's sculptures are "living", emblems of the forces that bring about the creative act of the soul which transcends the human body and every other living form.
[Daniela Pronestì]