June 4 2025

Art in the Window with "Percorsi Urbani"

Percorsi Urbani presents Nicola Balducchelli artist

In June, a new chapter of Percorsi Urbani, a review that periodically hosts, in our windows in San Marco, works by young artists from all over the world in a creative dialogue with our glasses.Today we present a selection of works by Nicola Balducchelli, a young Venetian artist who intends in his research to give a second life to obsolete objects through drawing, in a constant attempt to minimize the waste of materials and energy for the production of ad-hoc supports for artistic production. In this case, bread bags, considered by all to be ‘disposable’ objects, are used as an unprecedented support for the creation of images inspired by Japanese culture in its various facets: illustrations and subjects made with traditional tools and techniques come to life in the translucent bags that closely resemble paper used for sliding doors ‘shoji’.Images and glasses therefore communicate with each other in a lively relationship of shapes and colors.

Here's how the artist introduces himself:

I have been drawing every day for as long as I can remember, carefully selecting each tool, but using it on every possible medium.I have just over a month ago finished my academic studies by earning my Master's Degree in Architecture in Venice, Italy, while also passing through Milan and London, which have proved to be fundamental to my continuous search for stimulation and inspiration. In recent years, I have tried to combine my passion for giving a second life to obsolete objects with my passion for drawing, through an uninterrupted search for new media that are less impactful/as sustainable as possible. One of my current goals, which began as a need and became a principle, is to try to minimize the waste of materials and energy in the production of ad-hoc media for art production.This series is a limited selection among 150 other drawings/works in the same style, the execution of which took about a year. My growing interest in every facet of Japanese culture was met, about a year ago, by my refusal to throw into the trash the daily bread bags I get from my trusted Bakery: considered by all to be ‘disposable’ objects, but still perfectly intact and reusable even after they have served their purpose. As per my usual approach then, I studied and tried to replicate subjects and techniques of the culture in question by procuring the traditional tools of the place, but using them on novel media ( which are so reminiscent of the paper used for ‘shoji’ sliding doors in the way they shield light sources)."