Patchwork City by Enrica Borghi is an ideal city, a "blanket" city that wraps and keeps warm, and a protective city.
Seen from above it could be a gigantic lace work, a large decorative cloth, where the river meandering across it and the orthogonal layout of streets become the weft and weave of the design. Tetra pack houses of different sizes have been sewn onto this pattern: little cubed 1 litre milk carton houses and half litre fruit juice houses symbolise a myriad of everyday gestures and movements, and together make up a life story.
Patchwork City is constructed from the left overs of our cities. At first this idea that could seem to contradict the concept of an ideal city, but the work of Enrica Borghi always contains a double meaning. The wonderful dresses that the artist has made in the past were in fact created by weaving together strips of bin liners and her beautifully designed multicoloured carpets were created by juxtaposing rolled up chocolate wrappers. In her latest installation the use of waste materials inspires a bitter reflection on our current circumstances. But the intricate sewing and weaving on show here contain a fine poetic charge.
The Patchwork City project is the study of urban systems and their regional implications, recalling in some way Italo Calvino's invisible cities. In particular, it brings to mind Leonia, whose opulence can be measured by the things that are thrown away every day in order to make way for the new, creating an endless chain of mountains of junk that seem on the verge of t oppling over and burying those below. Fascinated by narration Enrica Borghi also, in her own way, tells a story that threads its way in and out of the ideal city she is weaving into life. Her thread binds those intimate and everyday gestures and lives that make up the complex relational texture of the city.