2nd February 2023 – (Hong Kong) Cracking Art is an art movement created by an Italian artist collective, and known for urban installations characterised by the presence of giant animals made of recyclable and coloured plastic. Harbour City in TST collaborated with the group to make their debut art installation from now till 28th February. 90 giant animal sculptures including rabbits, dogs, cats, elephants, bears, turtles etc of different colours and sizes made from recycled plastic will be displayed in 6 locations at various parts of Harbour City.
The Cracking Art movement was born in 1993 in Biella. It was founded by Omar Ronda, Alex Angi, Renzo Nucara, Carlo Rizzetti, Marco Veronese and Vittorio Valente, who left the group almost immediately and was replaced by Kicco. In 2000 Alessandro Pianca was the first new addition to the group. In 2003 they were joined by William Sweetlove. In 2008, Omar Ronda left the project in order to start a solo career.
The Cracking Art movement is currently formed by five artists: Alex Angi, Renzo Nucara, Marco Veronese, William Sweetlove and Kicco. The common objective is to make art through a strong social and environmental commitment that, combined with an innovative use of plastic materials, evokes the close relationship between natural and artificial realities.
The name “Cracking Art” comes from the verb “to crack” which indicates the state of being split, broken, crashed. Moreover, the catalytic cracking is the name that stands for the chemical reaction occurring when the raw crude oil is converted into plastic. This is the reason why for the movement “cracking” represents the moment when something natural becomes artificial, the most important instant that for the artists of the movement should be represented through art.
- Cracking is the process that transforms petroleum into virgin naphtha, a material used for creating many products of synthesis as plastic.
- Cracking is the gap of the contemporary man who struggles between his primary naturalness and a future that becomes more and more artificial.
- Plastic finds its roots in a millenary tradition of civilization, in a huge and deep cultural evolution that link together the human being, the artificial creations and the environmental nature. In a certain sense Cracking could be considered as a conceptual formula used to challenge the rules of contemporary art.
- Cracking is the process that transforms natural into artificial, organic into synthetic. It is the process that puts us all in front of new realities.