Michele Cotelli's 'Lingua Spartitraffico' at Ex Chiesa di San Francesco

Michele Cotelli's exhibition 'Lingua Spartitraffico' at the Ex Chiesa di San Francesco in San Giovanni in Persiceto is an immersive experience structured in six stations, conceived as movements of a single organism. A seventh sound intervention on the threshold between interior and exterior extends the experience into the urban realm. The show explores language's capacity to grasp the essence of things, presenting art as a fragile bridge between subject and reality. The title 'Spartitraffico' references the building's 20th-century use as a warehouse and workshop, while 'Lingua' points to a system of objects and symbols to be inhabited. Cotelli lived temporarily in the church, establishing a direct relationship with the architecture. Works include a large metal reticulated structure at the entrance, an archaeological discovery revealing buried traces, optical devices that invert perspective, and materials like dust and paraffin creating ephemeral landscapes. The exhibition concludes with a large surface resembling a page, full and empty, suggesting writing always possible but incomplete.