With the eye of a sculptor and the precision of a surgeon, Marco Maggi has gained international recognition by creating abstract and detailed drawings using common materials (paper, plexiglass, aluminum foil…), pencils, and a sharp blade.
The result of his meticulous, analog art is both cryptic and fascinating. On a formal level, by engraving shapes or cutting them out, the artist adds a third dimension to his drawings and composes as a sculptor would, using light, shadow and space, negative and positive. On a semantic level, with a detailed grammar, Marco Maggi depicts a world driven by minute elements. However, although the larger picture of his works seems to reveal systemic patterns or comprehensive plans (reminiscent of models of electrical circuits, information technology, or urban maps), the artist’s vision of our world resists notions of order and predictability. Its details are seen as fundamental protagonists, continuously and randomly shaping our environment (physical, biological, technical, social, etc.).
Waiting for 104, the title of the exhibition that curiously coincides with the number of the road where it is located, refers to time, to pause, to wait.
I am asked about my patience when I draw and I answer that in my adolescence a Montevidean means of transportation awakened my passion for pauses and pause.
Today, on the other hand, we prefer remote theses to our own parentheses. The only thing we share in a coffee chat is the Wifi connection. Instead of asking our neighbor for directions, we prefer to be guided by a celestial GPS. In love with speed and long distance, we allow the cell phone screen to overwhelm all idle time.
We have lost the possibility of being engrossed in a bus stop, an intermission, a waiting room or a boarding lounge. We no longer enjoy the advantages of having an unpunctual friend. If something or someone takes more than a minute, we take the opportunity to check WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook (at this stage of the game, every email is already long, slow and pretentious).
We don’t know what the consequences will be for humanity if we have suppressed our possibility of waiting free of content. Nobody waits for 104.
– Promoter of pauses: my only intention in drawing is to slow down and bring the viewer closer.
Marco Maggi, October 2021
