"X" for TEDx Bassano del Grappa 2020 (Villa Rezzonico, Bassano del Grappa, IT), 2020.

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At the first edition of TEDx Bassano del Grappa, Riccardo Rizzetto presented X, a sculptural work from the ongoing cycle Secature — a multidisciplinary project that redefines the act of cutting (secare) as a gesture of connection rather than separation.

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Secature expands across art, design, and architecture, exploring how fragments, once considered obsolete, can enter new cycles of life through processes of union and transformation. Previous iterations include Brexit Chair, Italy (London, by invitation of Steve Jensen) and the photographic exhibition Ritratto d’Italia for Bassano Fotografia 2019.

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In X, this reflection becomes physical and personal. The work embodies an encounter between material and self, where the cut transforms matter into meaning. The sculpture’s proportions mirror the artist’s own height with hands up (230 cm), translating the body into a universal sign of reconnection. Suspended in a dynamic, cruciform ascent, X moves beyond the self — from the personal to the collective — becoming what Michel Serres would call a quasi-object.

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The cut, recurrent in Rizzetto’s practice, is both subject and tool of transformation: a philosophical and material passage between states. The work also draws from Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of reterritorialisation, turning disused materials into a network of renewed relationships and shared vitality.

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“My relationship with materials is never one of adoration or subordination, but one of encounter and clash,” the artist notes. “It’s an invitation to perceive through all senses — to notice that everything around us is worthy of contemplation, even what was about to be discarded.”

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Through metal — cut, bent, and rejoined — X embodies this passage from fragmentation to continuity: an act of elevation that transforms the obsolete into the eternal.

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Bassanonet

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