Manuel Canu is a visual artist educated from Bath Spa University, England who lives and works in Denmark.
The point of departure for his works is the historical use of nature by architecture as a reference, for example ornamentation. Over the years, Canu has produced ceramics and raw clay sculptural work, as the basis for architectural and sculptural examination of space, gravity and material.
Through his work, he questions the relationship between people and architecture and the psychological and emotional influence it has on us. He questions the visible and invisible systems by which our daily life is structured or investigates how intimate and collective thought are represented or simultaneously affected by the built realm.
Intervening or integrating, Manuel Canu engages with specific architectural and social situations, creating places of poetic density where imagination and memories are bleeding into reality. In his installations, he creates fictitious architectural structures, where he predominantly uses unfired clay as a building material. The modelled clay is intentionally left to dry through the exhibition period, a process of mutation, shrinking, cracking and at times falling into pieces.
