The studio was born, grew and developed hand in hand with the artist. It reflects their personality in the most authentic way. He is a silent witness of the most daring experiments, of the improvement of techniques refined over the years and jealously guarded. It is also the place of endless trials, sleepless nights, burning dissatisfaction, which however can sometimes lead to unexpected successes. #TheVisit aims to open the doors to these realities which are by their very nature not very accessible, with the aim of shedding light on the peculiar relationship that binds the artist to the studio.
In order to be implemented, Simone Meneghello’s research requires a radical emptying. A white space and a table are the zero point from which the artist sets his work. Paper and the typewriter, respectively the support and medium he prefers.
Meneghello’s studio, located on the third floor, in the center of Padua, in an area surrounded by greenery, is essential, minimal, carefully arranged in every part. White is the absolute protagonist of the space. The paper, the plaster of the walls, the furniture, the binders reiterate this color, so as to amplify the sensation of emptying the superfluous, in favor of the essence. After passing an entrance that offers a first selection of works on the walls, you enter the actual workplace characterized by the very few elements mentioned, and then reach a large glass room that overlooks an enormous magnolia. This last part of the studio is set up like a house museum, or – as Meneghello affectionately defines it – a tree house. It is a personal exhibition space, constantly updated, designed to effectively represent the artist’s recent production and show it to visitors.
Always linked to the written word, Meneghello places language, understood in its structural component, at the center of his attention. Decontextualized, broken down, superimposed, upset, the typed word becomes a field of investigation – or rather – a broad horizon to explore, with every means available. The standardized graphic sign of typographical characters, freed from the constraints of the word, ceases to be that union between signifier and signified, as identified by classical semiotics, irreversibly losing its univocal legibility. Rather, it becomes a tool for searching for limits, beyond the usual linearity, to which writing is usually referred. A drastic deconstruction of language guides the artist’s work. The words are in fact often superimposed vertically by him, one on top of the other, to the point that it is completely impossible to decode them; sometimes they are cut out, mixed and collected in special ampoules; in other cases they are even typed without ink, so as to leave only a relief imprint caused by the mechanical action of typing, such as to visually translate that “presence in absence”, so dear to Meneghello.
If graphic signs constitute the foundations of a conceptual – but never conceptual – operation, it goes without saying that paper represents its spatial development. Meneghello’s studio is literally invaded by them. Books, covers, loose sheets, envelopes or movable type are archived with care and neatly placed in special containers, which facilitate their availability. The precise spatial organization of the studio mentioned above is counterpointed by the element of unpredictability that has always characterized Meneghello’s work. Perhaps at least partly derived from his past as a jazz musician, improvisation, which makes each performance unique, was converted by him in the field of visual arts into a hidden attraction for imperfect things, which shun redundant refinements, in favor of substance.
The book in particular, for over fifteen years, has been taken by the artist as a favorite object of experimentation. In many cases, what Meneghello has undertaken is an authentic operation of recovery and reconversion of old volumes destined for waste disposal. His love for the book as a container and propagator of knowledge has in fact suggested to him the possibility of using it as a support or construction material for his works. Once the cover has been removed, the book is stripped of any recognizability and residual connotation; the first and last pages – the completely blank ones – are the only ones capable of containing the typing intervention.
Over the years, the artist has gradually extended his research into space, investigating the book also as a modular element of creation. He built walls, stairs, paths, bottomless boxes. The book opens passages, accompanies you along the road, becomes the means to go beyond your own boundaries; it is the tool through which to engage with the most beloved authors, with which to break down walls and go further, even peeking into unexplored territories, through the folds of the unknowable. It is no coincidence that among the artist’s cultural references we can include those essayists and philosophers who have explored perception, the relationship between consciousness and reality or the possibilities of knowledge of the human being such as, to mention a few, Robert Lanza, Raymond Kurzweil or the Indian master Nisargadatta Maharaj. According to the latter’s thought, everything that appears is transitory, the only stable reality is instead awareness, which embodies the pure Absolute: without form, without quality, without identity. Looking more closely at Meneghello’s study, artistic practice and works, it is undeniable that these readings have contributed to defining its boundaries. The search for substance, despite imperfection; the demolition and subsequent recomposition of language or form; the exploration of the limit, beyond what is known, remain the cornerstones around which he has articulated his path. The table and the typewriter respond to the need for zeroing – of “presence in absence” – necessary to undertake it.
Simone Meneghello, born in Milan on 3 September 1973, trained artistically at the Brera Art School and then at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied scenography in depth. Since the 1990s he has been developing research that intertwines visual arts, music and installations, giving life to a personal language based on concepts such as presence, absence, limit and non-linearity. His exhibition activity is divided between Italian and international museum spaces, galleries and festivals, with projects that often take the form of permanent installations or participatory performances. From 2015 to 2025 he presented works in numerous venues, including Spazio Thetis in Venice, Fondazione Cesare Pavese, Paratissima Torino, Rencontres d’Arles, Wopart Lugano, and participated several times in fairs and awards, obtaining various recognitions, including the Premio Confini 14 and special prizes at the Arteam Cup. In recent years he has dedicated cycles of works to the ideal dialogue with literary figures such as Pavese, Pasolini and Borges, consolidating a poetics that deeply investigates the relationship between man, memory and space.