Frammenti (2021) examines memory and identity, and treats remembrance as an active process. Rather than viewing memories as fixed artifacts, Contiero presents them as living, breathing entities that fragment, scatter, and reconstitute in endless cycles. The collection’s 555 unique works capture this dynamic through compositions that begin as ordered geometric forms before undergoing systematic destruction and eventual reunion.
These fragmented compositions draw inspiration from the modernist tradition of exploring fragmentation, echoing the fractured perspectives of Cubism while building upon pioneers like Vera Molnár who first explored systematic fragmentation through computational means. Each piece follows an emotional arc: stability gives way to explosion, individual fragments drift in space, then gradually find their way back to wholeness. This cycle repeats infinitely, suggesting that memory itself is not a static repository but an active process of continuous reconstruction.
Developed during Contiero’s time in Berlin and released through Art Blocks Curated in spring 2021, Frammenti was a major turning point in his practice. Experiences of cultural dislocation and creative isolation enter the work through forms that repeatedly break apart and regroup. Fragmentation becomes a precondition for new configurations, establishing a relation between breakdown and reconstruction that returns in later collections.
Time and permanence remain in tension throughout Frammenti. The animated elements suggest that even when forms dissolve beyond recognition, the original fragments persist. They carry their memories to new configurations. This optimistic vision of transformation echoes throughout Contiero’s later works, from the gestural renewal of Rinascita (2021) to the embodied data of Battito (2023), establishing fragmentation and reconstruction as the essential rhythm underlying both artistic creation and human experience.