‘Carlo Steiner was born at Terni on 15/10/57 and works in Milan. His recent work present two research trends: metal sheeting and installations. Let us concentrate on the second. The most interesting results of these attempts at spa-tial, and not only physical, dilation of the work of art are undoubtely achieved in the installation of «snow» 1986, and in that of «shadows» 1989. At Rimini, the artist will present an oeuvre that wishes to be a develop-ment of these attempts: the oeuvre will be composed of an iron scaffolding overlooking a piece of ground co-vered with multicoloured gravel on which rubber shadows will be placed. The title of this work is «Ponte» (Bridge) and it is an attempt to operate on the mechanisms of visual per-ception so that the gravel surface takes on an ambi-guous solid and liquid aspect while the shadows evoke the existence of a third dimension which, however, is absent. The figures are laid out on the ground, flattened, without volume, without apparent consistency, yet, by an optical illusion, ambiguously erect, anxiously search-ing for their corporeality, for the things of which they are shadows and launching at the same time a query on the consistency of things, on the ability of images to be signs rather than simulacrums. Artistically speaking, we are in the presence of a represen-tation of the conflict between real space and historical and mental space. In this sense, the works of Steiner have a conceptual value and belong to the vaster produc-tion of the young artist, intensely involved in a formal quest concentrated on existing analogies between ideas and materials, as far as the identification of a threshold of perception between two different worlds. The shadow of the Cross insists on this threshold and suggests silent meanders of the mind.’