MONOLITE D’ACCIAIO / STEEL MONOLITH 

The Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology
Milan,  Italy

March 2013

The National  Museum “Leonardo da Vinci” inaugurated a new “Steel Area” with  a mirror-finish steel monolith by Helidon Xhixha measuring almost three meters in height. The sculpture reflects both the curiosity of random observers and the surrounding technological environment. Old and new uses of steel are encapsulated in this silent spectator-like work which itself was born out of continuous artistic experimentation.

 The Steel Area of the Museum, designed in collaboration with the Arvedi Group, is devoted to discover and exhibit the new methods of production and processing of this protean, endlessly recyclable material.

Not only is steel essential for the manufacture of a vast range of products ranging from small everyday items to huge Boeing aircraft, it is also the material of choice of many artists. As the works of Xhixha articulately demonstrate, when skillfully fashioned, this superficially cold material is capable of emitting a powerful intrinsic energy.

 In Helidon Xhixha’s sculptures, the hardness and strength of the steel are bent to the meanings of a nature that we would define erroneously unfit, if we didn’t know that it's true property consists in its potential. The sheet steel gets lively because its shape is bent in imminent and unstable ways, but, at the same time, it is so measured in its complexity and irreplaceable organic unity. There is a special limpidity in these surfaces born of a demanding technique, a revealer of their potential.