05.12.2020 - 23.12.2020
And Guess What? 2020 - eine künstleriiche Zeremonie
29.10.2020 - 04.12.2020
SIGNS - exhibiting Anne Cecile Surga and Paolo Treni
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2019-01-18
Künstler: Maurizio Savini and Carlo Colli
Thema: The coexistence between symbolic colors linked to power and to achromatic and minimalist poetics lives again in the Kunst/Off exhibition, bi-personal show by the Italian artists Carlo Colli and Maurizio Savini. Although presenting two researches very distinct one to the other by technique and concept, Colli and Savini create artworks of strong spatial and environmental impact, almost intrusive in visual perception, but yet synthetic and effective in the technique. more info: https://www.luisacatucci.com/kunst-off/
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-11-30
Künstler: Belen Ordovas – Irene Cruz – Isabel Consigliere
Thema: ENGLISH (Scroll for German) “All things transitory Are only symbols; What is insufficient, Here becomes an event; The indescribable Here is accomplished; The eternal feminine Pulls us upwards.” Goethe: Faust II, Vers 12104 ff. / Chorus mysticus – Closing verses to Faust II The link between the works of the artists Isabel Consigliere (Italy), Irene Cruz (Spain-Germany) and Belen Ordovas (Spain) is undoubtedly the subtle, and perhaps sometimes unconscious, representation of the feminine. The eternal feminine, that favor Dei that every woman possesses within herself, inherently, and that is not to be confused with the femininity, ensemble of the physical, psychological and behavioural characteristics judged by a specific culture to be ideally associated with the idea of women, in distinction from men. Looking at the works of Consigliere, Ordovas and Cruz, one feels embraced by the intimate secret of the eternal feminine, which, as Rudolf Steiner said about the Goethe’s verses introducing this text: “here he means the female sex. He refers to that profundity signifying the human soul as related to the mystery of the world (…) It has nothing to do with something feminine in the ordinary sense. Therefore can we truly seek this ever-womanly in man and woman: the ever-womanly which aspires to the union with the ever-manly in the cosmos, to become one with the Divine-Spiritual that inter-penetrates and permeates the world towards which Faust strives.” Discreet as a maiden from the past , bearer of the feminine mystery, the message in the works of these three artists – admirably transmitted by each through their own medium: painting, photography and sculpture – is never shouted, blatant, exuberant, nor highlighted in an explicit way, but it rather comes across in a subtle, acute and delicate way, for the attentive eyes that will be able to read it. The oil paintings by artist Belen Ordovas are psychological paintings. To confirm the Jungian theory wanting the creative drive based on the common archetypes of the collective unconscious to later blossom and act autonomously – spacing between symbolic and non-symbolic – to become an expression of the primordial feelings of the human race, the women portrayed by the Ordovas are a representation of the inner conflict of our kind. The artist herself defines her art as “introspection and intimate commitment”. Ambiguity, weakness, jealousy, shyness, contradiction, melancholy, are feelings that we all have experienced at least once in our lives, but when Ordovas fixes them on her linen canvases, she returns them transformed by her delicate brush strokes. What is normally hidden in our inner-self, in the part of us of which we are not forcibly proud and which makes us feel fragile and exposed, it is manifest, there before our eyes, ready to confront us, on canvas, in the form of graceful dancers or young women suspended in cold and alienating non-spaces. These empty spaces, devoid of colour and shape, sometimes left unfinished and barely mentioned, emphasise the universality of the message by depriving the main subject from any logistical and temporal reference. The incompleteness, a fundamental part of the works of the Ordovas, which from space attacks the subject, is an active part of the composition. Like hope – an equally universal feeling – nourishes our soul, the unfinished parts in the paintings by this Spanish artist, remind us that everything is in progress and in perpetual transformation, including the inner conflict that hurts us so deeply. The Feminine portrayed in the photographs of Berlin based artist Irene Cruz is of clear Hellenic inspiration. Like the Muses, divine daughters of the god Apollo and the Titaness Mnemosyne, have inspired artists, musicians and poets since the dawn of time for compositions coming directly and sincerely from the artist’s pathos – transmuting personal feeling into universal feelings – the muses and the young fauns immortalised by Cruz’s camera whisper a familiar litany in our ears. The selection of photographs presented in the exhibition, shoot between 2014 and 2018, immortalises portraits in a landscape that is not only favourable for environmental and philosophical reflections, but also for pure aesthetic contemplation. The light is cold and crepuscular, and contributes to give a sense of timelessness almost sacred to the composition, as if Cruz managed to photograph the essence of an intimate dream, dreamt simultaneously by the collectivity.The hope of a return to an harmonious relationship with the rest of nature is also palpable in the work of this young photographer: the landscape and the human subjects appear in their primitive communion, where co-belonging is obvious and harmony is evident, as it used to be in the mythological Arcadia ruled by the god Pan. In this communion between mankind and nature the bodies – masculine and feminine – are sometimes indistinguishable from one another once again to confirm Steiner’s theory on the cosmic feminine transcending genders. Under the title Physis goes the series presented in this exhibition by Isabel Consigliere, linking this exhibition with her personal show in the Project Room: SUBTILIA, also spinning around the theme of sacred feminine. To pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, Physis meant nature, understood as first and fundamental essence, principle and cause of all things. Consigliere interprets it also as our inner self, the most recondite and delicate part of our being. The term is enriched by various meanings in the philosophical and scientific terminology, intended as the force of nature and the ordering divinity of the Kosmos, but is nevertheless perceived as a feminine element. Taking up the Christian iconography of reliquary, Physis by Consigliere presents itself in the form of petals and flowers that flow from slots in anatomical sections made of beeswax, to remind us that behind the violence, the noise, the superficiality to which every day we adapt, flows in us an original soul, pure and powerful. A tribute to that part of us that makes us able to feel, create, understand and empathise. The exclusive use of natural materials, wisely treated by the artist for conservation, also leads to highlight the obvious conjunction of our personal Physis with the one of the rest of Kosmos. Again a case where “the eternal feminine who yearns for the eternal masculine in the cosmos to unite with him, to become one with the spiritual Divinity that pervades the world, acting in the world” GERMAN: “Alles Vergängliche Ist nur ein Gleichnis Das Unzulängliche Hier wird Ereignis Das Unbeschreibliche Hier ist es getan Das Ewig-Weibliche Zieht uns hinan.“ Goethe: Faust II, Vers 12104 ff. / Chorus mysticus – Schlussverse Faust II Die Verbindung zwischen den Werken der Künstlerinnen Isabel Consigliere (Italien), Irene Cruz (Spanien-Deutschland) and Belen Ordovas (Spanien), ist zweifellos die subtile und vielleicht manchmal unbewusste Darstellung des Weiblichen. Diese Weiblichkeit, die jede Frau von Natur aus in sich trägt, ist nicht zu verwechseln mit psychischen, physischen und Verhaltensbasierten Charakteristiken, nach denen die Frau je nach einer spezifischen Kultur in Abhängigkeit vom Mann bewertet wird. Beim Betrachten der Werke von Consigliere, Cruz und Ordovas, fühlt man sich von den intimen Geheimnissen dieser ewigen Weiblichkeit ergriffen. Wie Rudolf Steiner über Goethes Verse in der Einleitung sagte: „Hier meint er das weibliche Geschlecht. Er verweist auf die Tiefe, die die Verbindung der Menschlichen Seele zu den Geheimnissen der Erde andeutet.(…) Das hat nichts mit der Weiblichkeit im gewöhnlichen Sinn zu tun. Dafür können wir wahrlich die ewige Weiblichkeit in jedem Mann und jeder Frau suchen: Die ewige Weiblichkeit, die zu der ewigen Männlichkeit im Kosmos aufstrebt, soll eins werden mit dem Geistig-Göttlichen, das sich und die Welt durch die Fast streift durchdringt.“ Diskret wie eine Maid der Vergangenheit, Trägerin des Rätsels der Weiblichkeit, wird die Bootschaft der drei Künstlerinnen vortrefflich von jeder durch ihr eigenes Medium übermittelt: Malerei, Fotografie und Bildhauerei Diskret wie eine Maid aus der Vergangenheit, Trägerin des Rätsels der Weiblichkeit, wird die Botschaft der drei Künstlerinnen – vortrefflich von jeder durch ihr eigenes Medium übermittelt: Malerei, Fotografie und Bildhauerei – weder auf ausdrückliche Weise schreien, eklatant, üppig oder plakativ ausgedrückt, sondern dezent, zart und scharfsinnig, um mit Aufmerksamkeit erfasst zu werden. Die Ölmalereien von Belen Ordovas sind Psychologische Malereien. Die von Ordovas portraitierten Frauen stehen für unseren Inneren Konflikt, um die Jungian Theorie zu bestätigen, nach der der Schaffensdrang auf den gemeinsamen Archetypen des allgemeinen Unbewussten basiert, um später aufzublühen und autonom zu agieren – der Raum zwischen dem Symbolischen und Nicht-Symbolischen – und ein Ausdruck der Ursprünglichen Gefühle der Menschlichen Rasse zu werden. Die Künstlerin selbstdefiniert ihre Kunst als „Selbstbeobachtung und intime Verpflichtung“. Unklarheit, Eifersucht, Schwäche, Befangenheit, Ungereimtheiten und Melancholie sind Gefühle die wir alle mindestens einmal in unserem Leben erfahren haben, aber wenn Ordovas sie auf ihre Leinwände bannt, verwandelt sie diese durch ihre zarten Pinselstriche. Was normalerwiese in unserem Inneren verborgen ist, in dem Teil von uns, auf den wir nicht unbedingt Stolz sind, was uns zerbrechlich und entblößt fühlen lässt, hier ist es manifestiert, vor unseren Augen auf Leinwänden, bereit uns, in Form einer Anmutigen Tänzerin oder in Gestalt einer jungen Frau die kalten, Abschreckenden Nicht-Orten ausgesetzt ist, mit diesem zu konfrontieren. Diese leeren Orte, frei von Farbe und Form, manchmal unfertig zurück gelassen und kaum angedeutet, betont die Universalität der Botschaft, indem sie das Hauptsubjekt jeglichen Logischen und Zeitlichen Bezügen entzieht. Die Unvollständigkeit, ein fundamentales Merkmal von Ordovas‘ Arbeiten, der das Subjekt aus dem raum attackiert, ist ein aktiver Bestandteil der Komposition. Wie Hoffnung – ein gleichermaßen universelles Gefühl – unsere Seele ernährt, erinnern uns die Arbeiten dieser Spanischen Künstlerin daran, dass alles im Prozess ist und sich ständig wandelt. Einschließlich der inneren Gefühle, die uns so tief verletzen. Das Weibliche, portraitiert in den Bildern der Berlin basierten Künstlerin Irene Cruz, ist klar hellenisch inspiriert. Wie die Musen, traumhafte Töchter des Gottes Apollo und der Titanien Mnemosyne, seit Anbeginn der Zeit Künstler Musiker und Poeten zu Kompositionen inspiriert haben, die direkt aus dem künstlerischen Pathos stammen – persönliche Gefühle in Universelle verwandelnd – wispern uns die Musen und Faune von Cruz‘ Kamera vertraute Litanei in unsere Ohren. Die Auswahl von Fotografien in der Ausstellung, geschossen zwischen 2014 und 2018, macht Portraits in einer Landschaft unsterblich, die nicht nur vorteilhaft, für ökologische und philosophische Reflektionen ist, sondern auch für die reine ästhetische Anschauung. Das Licht ist kalt und dämmrig und trägt zu dem Gefühl von beinahe heiliger Zeitlosigkeit bei, als hätte Cruz es geschafft einen Traum zu fotografieren, der simultan im Kollektiv geträumt wird. Die Hoffnung auf eine Rückkehr zu einer harmonischen Beziehung zum Rest der Natur ist in den Werken der jungen Fotografin ebenfalls spürbar. Die menschlichen Subjekte erscheinen in ihrer primitiven Gemeinschaft, wo Zugehörigkeit augenscheinlich und Harmonie offensichtlich ist. Wie es auch in den mythologischen Arkadien, regiert vom Gott Pan, war. In dieser Gemeinschaft zwischen Mensch und Natur, sind die Körper – männlich und weiblich – manchmal voneinander ununterscheidbar. Ein erneuter Verweis auf Steiner’s Theorie des ewig Weiblichen, dass als kosmisch Feminines die Geschlechtergrenzen verschwimmen lässt. Unter dem Titel „Physis“ laufen die Serien von Isabel Consigliere in dieser Ausstellung in Verbindung mit ihrer persönlichen Präsentation im Projektraum unter dem Titel SUBTILIA, die sich ebenfalls um das Thema der heiligen Weiblichkeit drehen. Für vor-sokratische, griechische Philosophen, bedeutete Physis „Natur“, verstanden als erste und fundamentale Essenz, Prinzip und Ursprung allen Seins. Consigliere interpretiert es auch als unsere innerstes Selbst, der tiefgründigste und zarteste Teil unseres Seins. Der Begriff ist bereichert durch unterschiedliche Bedeutungen in der philosophischen und wissenschaftlichen Fachsprache, bestimmt als die Kraft der Natur und die bestimmende Gottheit des Kosmos‘ , wird er aber dennoch als weibliches Element wahrgenommen. Christian Ikonografie der Reliquien aufnehmend, präsentiert PHYSIS von Consiglier selbst die Form von Blütenblättern und Blumen, die von Slots aus anatomischen Sektionen, hergestellt aus Bienenwachs, fließen, um uns daran zu erinnern, dass hinter all der Gewalt, dem Lärm, der Oberflächlichkeit, der wir uns jeden Tag anpassen, Fließt in uns eine wahre Seele, pur und stark. Ein Tribut zu dem Teil in uns, der uns befähigt zu fühlen, erschaffen, begreifen und mitzufühlen. Der Ausschließliche Gebrauch von natürlichen Materialien, vorausschauend von der Künstlerin behandelt um sie zu konservieren, unterstreicht die Verbindung unserer persönlichen Physis mit der des restlichen Kosmos‘. Wieder ein Fall in dem sich „die unvergängliche Weiblichkeit nach dem unvergänglich Männlichen im Kosmos sehnt, um sich mit ihm zu vereinen und eins mit der spirituellen Göttlichkeit die die Welt erfüllt, in der Welt agiert.“
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-09-30
Künstler: Rowan Corkill, Luis Bivar, Aqua Aura, Vemo Hang, Guiseppe La Spada, Edoardo Romagnoli, Francesca Belgiojoso, Caroline Gavazzi, Niccoló Aiazzi, Pasquale De Sensi, Mathilde Nardone, Simone Bubbico
Thema: “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” - Albert Einstein “What may emerge as the most important insight of the twenty-first century is that man was not designed to live at the speed of light. Without the countervailing balance of natural and physical laws, the new video related media will make man implode on himself.” - Marshall McLuhan At Luisa Catucci Gallery we strive to foster awareness not only of the fundamental role of nature as inspiration for art, beauty, poetry, harmony, spirituality, and all what is nourishment for the soul, but also of environmental changes caused by the unnatural speed with which our society pretends to run. By engaging viewers in unexpected visual hypotheses, Natura Mirabilis offers a novel lense through which to consider the impact of human action on our planet. What we call Earth, Nature, and the Universe can never be contained in an artwork, a combination of artworks, a word, or a combination of words. Nevertheless, with this group exhibition we want to pay homage to the magnificence of nature by presenting the works of different artists who in their own ways, have been strongly charmed by the infinite beauty of the Nature we are part of. Through a variety of different mediums such as painting, collage, photography, video, and sculpture, the works presented in this exhibition are concerned with the importance of our interconnectedness to the natural world, while also proposing new ways for us to co-exist with it. Man and nature, form and spirit, might be interrelated expressions of one all-encompassing whole, and we can all reach our own understanding of this wholeness by looking “deep into nature,” as Albert Einstein once suggested. Each moment provides us with an opportunity to learn from nature, to appreciate the splendour of it all, and to approach a deeper level of understanding of universal order. But without a tolerable planet to live on, where would we be? How else might we be experiencing life? Since the turn of the Millennium, world concern over environmental issues, such as pollution, global warming, species depletion, and new genetic technologies has increased. Artists have been increasingly answering collective cultural needs and developing active and practical roles in environmental and social issues. Exhibiting: Rowan Corkill, Luis Bivar, Aqua Aura, Vemo Hang, Giuseppe La Spada, Edoardo Romagnoli, Francesca Belgiojoso, Caroline Gavazzi, Niccoló Aiazzi, Pasquale De Sensi, Mathilde Nardone, Simone Bubbico
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-07-06
Künstler: Gigi Piana
Thema: Happily announcing the exhibition LITTLE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS by Gigi Piana art 2nd June - 6th July in our Project Room The photographic works by the Italian artist Gigi Piana explore the concept of identity in the whole range of its possible meanings. Printing directly on transparent acetate, Piana creates “two-dimensional sculptures” by weaving together different stripes of previously cut photographs. The use of this particular material allows the artist to combine from two to four different photographic images while maintaining the synergy between their single elements.... more: https://luisacatucci.com/gigi-piana-little-revolutionary-movements/
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-07-06
Künstler: Sebastian Bienek
Thema: DOPPELGÄNGER a solo exhibition by Sebastian Bieniek 1st June - 6th July 2018 Opening Reception Friday 1st June, 7-10pm https://luisacatucci.com/sebastian-bieniek-doppelganger/ Sebastian Bieniek solo exhibition “Doppelgänger” will present a selection of some of his most recent works, realised between 2016 and 2018. Meaning a “look-alike” or “double of a living person”, the concept of Doppelgänger has been used in literature as well as in psychoanalysis to explore the duality of human nature. Taken from legends and myths of the European folklore, where the appearance of one person’s double was often interpreted as a negative omen, the topic of Doppelgänger became very popular during Romanticism, thanks to the works of Jean Paul and E.T.A Hoffman. Related by Freud to the feeling of uncanny (“Das Unheimliche”), the Doppelgänger has often been portrayed, in the art as well as in literature, as a disturbing figure, able to mislead one person’s self-concept and develop in hounding behaviours. Exploring the different facets of this idea, Sebastian Bienieks’ works investigate the inherent duality of human nature. Ironic and provocative, his portraits play with the invisible boundaries between fiction and reality, dragging the viewer inside the kaleidoscopic spectrum of their bewildering appearance. The artwork’s surface becomes here a sort of magic mirror, showing and making sense out of all the invisible pieces creating the figure’s puzzle. Everything, in the artist production, may result in a chance “encounter” between the character and its several doubles: from the intimacy of a hug to the fleeting and almost unnoticed contact of one or several hands on the character’s body, these figures never really appear to be aware of the presence of their multiple Doppelgängern. Rather than being uneasy, they face the observer with a fearless gaze, inviting them to play the game and give up solving the riddle behind their real presence. Claiming that “art is a game”, the artist encourages us to explore our personal and social identity with a more playful attitude and reminds us how sometimes, in order to really see ourselves we must be able to look at the other.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-05-27
Künstler: Andrea Mariconti
Thema: The exhibition of the Italian painter Andrea Mariconti presents some of his most representative recent works. In the main room of the gallery, there are a series of paintings “A.N.M.L.A.”, inspired by the Menhirs of Val Camoninca, rugged megalithic settlement of North Italy 13000 years old, and to the question “which was the first artistic sign left by humanity?”, a query to which many tried to answer, as Didi-Huberman, in his essay on prints, or Bataille in his text on the Lascaux’s caves, studies attentively analyzed by Mariconti. From the analysis of this and other rugged settlements, it emerges that the artistic sense, mimetic or symbolic, is present since the first sign left by humanity. The mediation used to happen then as it happens today: the human eye yearning to get back what it observed, forces the hand to fold to the view and to the synthetic thought seeking the shapes of reality, ending by interacting necessarily with the intrinsic textures of the support, whether canvas, paper, wall or monolithic rock. In the monoliths’ portraits, Mariconti represents the camunan stele in the exact moment its surface was carveled by the artist: the painted rocks seem to have frozen in time. On their surface, a distinct code moves as a ghost: incisions of masculine objects (axes, animals, men, sun) and feminine ones (dresses, jewelry, spirals). This code is the most ephemeral condensation of art history, and ground of the subliminal language of both genders. It defines a blurred temporal horizon, as if it would be swinging from picture to picture, hidden behind the surface and unaltered by the time passing. The ghostly code becomes the real center of the exhibition, since it’s on this that the artist’s intervention focuses, being the binding element of all the artworks here exhibited: the series “A.N.M.L.A.”, the portraits and the sculptures. The contemporary is inevitably the result of what has been done previously and it is this constant flow of humanity’s artistic history to mostly fascinate Mariconti, free of limitations and labels. In the center of the room, the sculpture of Neuma I is exposed, realised in bronze lost wax at the Fonderia Allanconi, a peculiar place with 450 years old ancient tradition. Metallurgy and science of metals’ transformation, have been gigantic discoveries for the history of arts. In Val Camonica they define the passage from the stone age to the copper one. The bronze is an alloy between tin and copper, two of the most precious minerals, that in order to be used needs to boil at 1200° celsius, then dropped into the “mouth” of the receiving sculpture. What defines Mariconti’s artistic approach is the investigation of this primordial science, by interfering with it, breaking it, re-elaborating it in a contemporary way while adding interruptions in the bronze fusion’s free fall. “Neuma” is the proto-note, when humanity didn’t know what musical composition was and gave this name to those sound particles coming out the singing voice. Etymologically Neuma is bonded to the concept of breath, with a clear accent on human’s voice.The series of portraits exposed in the gallery’s back room confirms, as humanistic approach, the central position of the individual in both his role of demiurge and receiver of the ghost code, a sort of representation of the full body of the history of arts. Well known in the Italian art scene for his pictorial and compositional technique, Mariconti realizes his paintings with sapient personalized mixture, recept developed during the years by mixing oil colors, vegetal extracts, ashes, earth, carbon oxide and motor oil. By combining masterfully paper and canvas, Mariconti’s paintings reveal surprising textures and cuts, emphasized by the consistency of the materials used in the mixture self and by his brush stroke, gestural and controlled at the same time. The foldings and cuts born out the interaction between the different supports and the presence of subtle graphic elements, place the work of this Italian painter, strong of his classicism of his compositional origins, into the most contemporary and innovative pictorial scene.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2018-01-07
Künstler: Lido Rico
Thema: Lidó Rico sculptures focus on the human subject, with a particular attention to human brain and their scientific and philosophic coexistence. The brain, as the organ of the mind, has implications for broader philosophical problems, such as the nature of free will, moral responsibility, self-deception, personal identity, and perception. More and more today is getting clear how the humanist culture and the scientific one, need one another and are looking one into the other, abandoning the past behavior of living back to back inattentive one to the other. In the society of information the transversality between disciplines, the implementation of new models and methodological strategies, the open intellectual debate, are the central axes around which rotate the relations between science and culture, scientist and artist. Lidó Rico in his brain sculptures approaches the syndromes of different addictions, chemical and behavioral, that grip humanity in the contemporary society. Above this, the sense of human freedom, the cultural plot of our emotions, the psycho-social tiredness that seems to invade the contemporary individual also arise in front of the viewer’s eyes when confronted with Lido’s work. Also the expressive gesture of his self-portraits works, although being a faithful representation of the emotional state of a single person, is deprived of his individuality thanks to the use of masks or stereotyped extreme gestures, and becomes universal. Maintain a theatrical distance from authenticity, Lido’s gesture appears to be strictly related to performance. But is truly this sort of tension between two apparently contradictory elements – reality and fiction- becomes a fundamental topic in the work of the Spanish artist, a friction where every gesture is and, at the same time, is not what it represents. Finding the balance between these contradictions, Lidó Rico’s work addresses the universal while focusing on the individual, in the attempt of freeing a grimace that is never fully subjective but belongs to that “other” in which everybody can easily recognize him or herself. Since the beginning of his career, the Spanish artist has been developing one of the most regular, constant and personal body of works inside the Spanish art scene. A body of works in which the eminent aesthetic of the materials used in his sculptures combines itself with an indisputable performative and gestural component. Result of a violent process of gestation where the artist, in a sort of ritual act, submerges his body in plaster in order to create an empty mould that will be subsequently filled with polyester resin, Rico creates fragmented bodies and dislocated faces that literally emerge from the walls as if they wished to find relief from their own tyranny.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-11-30
Künstler: Eleonora Roaro
Thema: Loops is the solo show dedicated to the young Italian artist Eleonora Roaro, with a selection of works about repetition and self-portrait she made over the last five years. Focusing on video and archaeology of cinema, the exhibition underlines the performative aspects of her practice through the set up of repeated and obsessive actions that become metaphors for human limits. On one hand, pre-cinematic devices such as zoetropes and magic lanterns question the perception of artworks in the space, on the other the loop is not conceived as a a creative hardship but as a narrative engine: in this way, stories are told with only a few elements. Moreover, the repetitiveness of movements helps to deconstructs the actions, revealing their both mechanical and fictional dimension. The sound also contributes to creating a meditative atmosphere: from the internal rhythm of the sequences on loop to the inaudible music coming from the vinyl records placed under the zoetropes, the viewer is constantly lead to experience the “hinc et nunc” of the display. Not only are cyclical time and self-portrait recurring themes of the exhibition, but so too are balloons, an ironic metaphor for ephemerality. In the one-second videos of 00:00:00:01, their pops remind us of the catastrophic impact of human actions on the Earth’s ecosystem, whereas in the zoetrope Farewells Never Are Farewells, a black gas balloon flies away and always comes back, highlighting paradoxical aspects of life. Eleonora Roaro was born in 1989 in Varese (IT). She studied Photography (BA – IED, Milano), Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies (MA – NABA, Milano) and Contemporary Art Practice (MA – Plymouth University, UK). Currently, she lives and works in Milan.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-10-31
Künstler: Colin Dutton - Andreas Fischbach
Thema: Paying homage to a great French writer, George Perec, this exhibition will focus on space as an element that forges the relationship between the individual and the other as well as that between the single and the self. Cherishing the difference between photography and painting, the works of Colin Dutton and Andreas Fischbach confront us with two different visions of space, involving the observer in a sort of perceptual journey able to affect their body as well as their gaze. Interested in the global “machines” that sustain our contemporary lifestyle, Dutton realizes photographic panels by assembling different satellite images. In his series, "Co-ordinates", each panel is made up of between 100 and 3.000 individual pieces representing world cities, freight containers, Ikea stores, power stations, steel works and refugee camps. By adopting a panoptic vision which elevates the viewer’s gaze to that of “a solar eye looking downwardly like a god”, Dutton creates suspended landscapes that tell us stories about a mankind which remains entirely absent, hidden in those small spaces within the panels. It is a sort of visual fiction that these images create, a perceptual illusion where differences and singularities tend to be excluded, allowing the observer to indulge in the pleasure of “seeing the whole”. Inspired by the aesthetic of satellite images, which have only recently become part of our visual culture, the artist seems to look at the "non-lieux" of our modernity almost through the same detached and judgmental lens of an architect or a town planner. With a particular attention to the detail, Dutton creates mosaics of our time where the artificial viewpoint is compounded by the viewer’s experience and knowledge, becoming the missing panel of a way too abstract representation of our world. Compared to Dutton’s photographic work, the installation realized by the Swiss/Berlin based artist, Andreas Fischbach brings the spectator’s gaze back to earth. The exhibition combines painted portraits of three different people coming from three different countries. Each picture is associated with a video projection showing a list of statistic data concerning the economic, political and demographic condition of the country where the portrayed person comes from. A big world map where the three countries are highlighted complements the installation. By juxtaposing a world map together with three acrylic painted portraits and video projections, the artist’s installation, "Meccanismo d’informazioni", wants to be a reflection on how the information we receive every day from the mass-media about other countries, tend to influence our own personal representation of reality. By using the expedient of the chance meeting between the spectator and the portrayed figure, the artist wants us to reflect on how this overload of scientific information not only affects our own perception of the other but also influences the way we relate to them. At the end of a real Icarus’s journey which saw the spectator confronting with two very different ways to intend the relationship between man and space, we are left with only one question: which viewpoint is the most deceptive one?
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-08-31
Künstler: Giuseppe La Spada, Edoardo Romagnoli
Thema: In the attempt to explore the place beneath superficial tension, hiding underneath the subtle transparent membrane which keeps us separated from the real world, Giuseppe La Spada’s work focuses on water as an element of suspension and balance between several ancestral dualisms: life and death, light and darkness, visible and invisible. Water is a dimension where all the sensorial perceptions change, affecting the relationship between reality and fiction but also representing a space of possibility for the individual to get in touch with the deepest part of the self, in a kind of vertical journey where body and water share the same fluid materiality. Like mythical creatures, halfway between human and animal, La Spadas’ subjects are never fully underwater, floating quietly over the transient place in-between the surface and the sea bottom. Focusing only on natural elements, La Spada’s work also share certain sensitivity toward environmental issues. Aside from taking part to several ecological projects, in 2007 the artist won the prestigious Webby Award, thanks to the web project “Mono No Aware” made in collaboration with the Oscar winner artist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Giuseppe La Spada was born in Palermo in 1974. In 2002 he graduated with honors in Digital Design at Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, where he remained as a professor until 2004. In 2006 Istituto Europeo di Design Rome conferred him the prize for best carrier in Visual Arts. Currently La Spada lives and works in Milan, embarked in a relentless research not only in terms of aesthetic artistic mission, but also human and ethic, aiming to give a real contribution to human society. The very first encounter between Edoardo Romagnoli and the moon has to be be traced back to 1990 and since then, the love story between the Italian artist and the elusive satellite has never come to an end. Almost indulging the moon’s changing nature, Romagnoli always seeks her under her own terms: “I have to go to places where the moonlight doesn’t have to compete with unnatural light such as glare or reflections from street lamps. These are usually peaceful and remote places that are also conducive to thought and would be inspiring even without the moon”. While most photographers try to capture as much light as possible, Romagnoli does just the opposite, allowing his favourite subject to glow with her own special light without adding any artificial enhancement that would deprive her of her mystery. By pointing the camera toward the sky, Romagnoli engraves the darkness with cryptic messages, creating nocturnal visions which become as silent, mysterious and metaphysical as the moon. Edoardo Romagnoli lives and works in Milan. He started in the late ‘80s developing his own expressive search and since then he has been exhibiting in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad. The first photo of the moon dates back to 1988 and represents the beginning of his most known artistic carrer. His first solo exhibition was in 1991 at “Il Diaframma” of Lanfranco Colombo. The moon is an object of an untiring observation; Romagnoli makes it the protagonist of his long experimentations renewing in every release the original charm that ravishes him. The photos are realised moving the camera and they have been in any way modified in postproduction.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-07-01
Künstler: Enrico Pietracci, Jürgen Bürgin
Thema: Fließende Körper is the end point of a long series of artistic experimentations by the Italian/Berlin based artist Enrico Pietracci. With the aim to reach a renewed esthetical form, the artist explores a new way of expression where visual and performance art fuse themselves in-between the pure lines connecting the moving bodies and the graphic painting. What emerges from this fusion is a particular esthetical form, able to overcome the incommunicability of the dynamic and emotional actions while promoting the interactions between the artist and the subject. The photographic result of this form of “light painting” is what allows the traces left by the dancers in the very present moment of their action to extend the effect of their vital force, reaching the balance between the bodies’ disruptive expressiveness and the composedness of the line. 2015 represents a sort of turning point in the artist’s creative growth: after several years experimenting with drawing, he finally discovered the medium of photography. Constantly looking for a new esthetical form of expression, Pietracci finds in the “light writing” par excellence, the perfect field for the development of that open dialogue between the subject and the artist, which stays at the core of his artistic vision. Every photo session takes place in the contest of the artist’s personal atelier, where the dancer/performer is free to move around the space allowing the photographic eye to record their action. The photographs are realised by using a Reflex camera and the effects are the result of an accurate work trough a specific use of lightening and exposure time. No work has been in any way modified in postproduction. A wondrous world of dazzling illusions and crafty (dis)simulations, authentic space of daring feats and extreme acts, a field of adventure and drama – all this and more is the sandy arena known as circus that lives and dies, everyday, by suspense, contrast and contradiction. Circus is creation, creative invention and physicus fiction. Together, the Berlin photographer Jürgen Bürgin and the literary scholar Anna-Sophie Jürgens explore these imaginaries of the Arts of the Ring. Taking the circus(‘) shadow as point of departure, Exposure illuminates the affinities between circus and fiction while unveiling the arena where its traditional dimensions ends and the fiction begins in the shadow of the history of Circus Arts. Jürgen Bürgin, born in 1971, is a photographer living and working in Berlin. His works have been exhibited at the South Street Seaport Museum in New York, at the Fotogalerie Friedrichshain in Berlin, at the Galerie Lardon in Ahrenshoop, at the Deutsche Bank in Berlin-Charlottenburg, at the Galerie Aspekt in Neustadt an der Weinstraße, at Cologne Art Fair, at the Affordable Art Fair in Hamburg, at the Galerie im Saalbau in Berlin, and at the Galerie Seifert Lardon in Berlin. His photographs have been awarded several times, e.g. by the renowned Berlin based photography gallery C/O Berlin. He has been shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Award, as an Urban Photographer of the Year and he took second place at the Brennpunkt Award of the Browse Fotofestival in Berlin. In 2016 his photo book URBAN FEVER – Scenes from city life has been published. Anna-Sophie Jürgens is a scholar of Comparative Literature and currently a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University in Canberra. In 2016 she published a monograph on “The Poetics of the Circus – The Aesthetics of Hyperbole”, which is the very first comprehensive comparative discussion of circus in fiction, especially in contemporary novels.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-05-28
Künstler: Francesco Kiàis (IT-GR) | PASHIAS & PAPPAS (CY) | Zierle & Carter (DE-UK) | Nicolina Stylianou (CY) | Eru and Seven of Eglise (DE) | Hector Canonge (RA-USA) | Ruth Biene (DE) | Andy Tam (HK) | Marta Lodola + Valerio Ambiveri (IT) | Anniken Weber (NOR) | Patrick Jambon (FR) | TAFT Group: Tsui Siu Hong + Lai Sin Wah + Fiona Wan Sze (HK) | Monique Yim + Wiency Wong (HK) | Alvin Cheng + Tang Tak Man (HK) | yoto (DE) | Felix Roadkill (DE) | Andrew Lam Hon Kin (HK) | Olga Kozmanidze (RUS) | SoSickCommunications (UK) | Barbara Kowa (A) + Colin Edina Leach (DE) | Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn (THA) Nicola Fornoni (IT) | Morphon (DE) | Mathieu Léger (CDN) | Keike Twisselmann (DE)
Thema: International artists create a two-day high-energy event with an international context by presenting their work in an hourly schedule throughout the weekend. The actions follow creating a connection between the public open space of the Schillerkiez with the private indoor space of Luisa Catucci Gallery. Performers and viewers will be taking the inside to the outside and the outside to the inside. The power of momentary impulses and the power of intervention with space and time, and the encompassing mix of genres and disciplines create the action weekend to become an unforeseeable overall picture of Performances where the threshold of categories merges. Material and conceptual structures are absent and the viewers meet with their own interpretative freedom. A world within a world where one main characteristic dominates: the transformation of ideas, redirecting the expectation level for completeness into an permissiveness for surprise. Artists and viewers alike experience the amenable possibilities of dis-categorization between performing art and fine art. Artist next to Artist and its non-stopping continuity of actions and movement through spaces, gallery and most of all public, unexpected urban environments of Neukölln’s everyday life situations. Pavements transform into exciting, temporary platforms for feet and heads and the pedestrian’s stride is being interrupted. The idea that the limitations of private and public are being met and may be are distorted, at that threshold open the borders of countries and foreign cultures, the moment when artists of different nationalities engage on Cell63 as a unique, international experienced art platform.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-05-24
Künstler: Fabio Romano, Francesco Geronazzo
Thema: Find the balance – Fabio Romano Solo Exhibition. Ranging from installation and sculpture to photography, the show will present a new series of works specially created for the occasion by the young and talented Italian artist. Always creating his works according to the space of their exhibition, the artist’s working method contains in itself a direct reference to that aesthetical dimension of “living” which is at the core of his artistic vision. Far from that typically Cartesian idea of space as ether where all the things are immersed, Fabio Romanos’ spaces are rather the result of an open dialogue where the body covers an important role in the process of re-defining the limits of the first. Inviting the spectator to move around a space in-between a “prescribed” and “not prescribed” nature, the artist manifests an attempt to physically involve them to play with it, to explore the unwritten possibilities that lie behind its mere formal organization. Suggesting a visual experience where the spectator’s body has to zigzag between the different elements as well as their eye is forced to oscillate constantly between a vertical and horizontal dimension, the exhibition space becomes the perfect field for the observer to experience that alienation effect, always present in the artists’ apocalyptic landscapes. These are desolate sceneries that never allude to a specific time or space, where reality and crea- tivity intertwine themselves in a never-ending game of creation/destruction that closely recall the mechanism of memory. At the core of an artistic vision that has its strength in the association between different media, words also play an important role. Placed on the walls around the artworks, they prefer to sur- round rather than overwrite them, by insinuating gently inside that invisible space which keeps the sculptures suspended and almost separated from their surroundings. As an “art of time”, poetry succeeds to set in motion the sculptures in the room, supporting the iconic power of both the verbal and the artistic language, in an attempt to reveal the mystery of the invisible. If, as Roger Callois suggests, poetry is what “gives to anyone, in the space of a second, the perception of an enigma”, words become here a sort of magic device, able to guide the viewer in filling the spaces left to their own imagination. Back to the roots: Francesco Geronazzo @ Luisa Catucci Gallery Project room Back to the roots: this is where Francesco Geronazzo’s exhibition at Luisa Catucci Gallery Project room is going to bring us. The show will present a selection roots’ tracings made of ceramic chalk, monotypes made with gold chalcographic ink and blue pigments on flimsy paper together with other works made on textile material. Seeds, stones, small shrubs, roots: these are just some of the natural elements that always recur in Francesco Geronazzo’s artistic practice. Reinventing an ancient technique like that of printmaking art, Geronazzo creates poetic pictures where his artisan and manual working method gives rise to an authentic “aesthetic of imperfection”. In contrast with that process of production and reproduction of images offered by modern technologies, Geronazzo creates etchings, sculptures and installations where traces of nature and lifetime memories fuse themselves in a very slow and delicate creative process. Typically associated to the idea of origin and source, roots become, in the works of Francesco Geronazzo a sort of bridge between past and future. Coming directly from Australia, a country where the artist spent a long period of time, these natural elements not only represent a kind of turning point in the artists’ life and artistic experience but also work as symbols of a new beginning, being related to a place where to possibly settle down and start a new life.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-03-14
Künstler: Aqua Aura
Thema: “Scintillation” is the name of the solo exhibition dedicated to the works of the visionary italian artist Aqua Aura which will inaugurate the artistic season 2017 at the freshly renewed Cell63 art platform. As a quartz that has been subjected to a thermal bath in gold vapour, altering some of its characteristics to simulate the appearance of a precious stone, Aqua Aura works as an emblem which contains in itself the story of a mutation, the conclusion of a previous existence and the beginning of a new vision of art, emancipated from his personal history and earlier production. Choosing to start the artistic season 2017 by presenting the dreamlike works of this very atypical artist is a declaration of Cell63’s self “metamorphosis”: started in October 2008 as an art platform for the alternative international art scene, Cell63 became a referential reality in the world contemporary art field. Nothing better than that “elsewhere bliss”, constantly celebrated in the works of the Italian artist Aqua Aura, seems, in fact, represents the urge of change which generated from the developing of a more mature and conscious vision in a constantly evolving artistic scenario. The exhibition will present a selection of works taken from the photographic series called Scintillation made between 2015 and 2016. Used in physics as well as in astronomy, the term “scintillation” refers to those changes in the air’s refractive index able to give rise to phenomena of warped perception. Emblems of the encounter between different universes and temporalities, the works of Aqua Aura address the spectator indirectly, inviting them to take part to a subtle translation’s game which draws from the optical unconscious with the aim to subvert it and reveal its hidden potential. The artist’s working method recalls that of an old-timey bricoleur: each one of his perfect landscapes are, in fact, the result of a selection and the subsequent fusion into a new pattern of previously created or assembled images of details. A digital processing and the final definition of the colour, shade and contrast profile add the finishing touches. Always looking for that “something more”, Aqua Aura is constantly evading the fixity that the technical limits of photography would impose, seeing himself more as a painter aware of the delicate geometries and relationships between the invisible weights and balances at the core of his photographic works. With the wish to instil a sense of bewilderment in the spectator, these images entrap the gaze within a wide range of possible meanings while alluding to a more intimate and less objective perception of our reality. Silent and ipnotical landscapes, these invented spaces cannot be considered as representations of “exteriors” but, rather, frames of countless interiors able to cheat the observer by alluding to something real while increasing the sense of mystical sublimation. Drawing a line with a cultural tradition which made the separation between man and nature as criterion for its unconditional exploitation, the Italian artist chooses to reintegrate the man inside the natural dimension, hoping that this more “human” vision of our world won’t remain just the result of a “scintillation”. Aqua Aura is a project born in Milan in 2009. After the studies at the Art High School of Bergamo, the artist took a university degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, with a thesis on: “Anselm Kiefer. The Other Baroque: An Overview On The Contemporary German Expressionism”. Spinning all over the world, Aqua Aura personal training continues with voyages inside museums, in research laboratories and across huge spaces of natural environment. His range of studies spans from the field of astrophysics, to particle physics, bio-genetics, philosophy and psychology of perception. In the last years the artist switches his language towards photography and digital-art. He works between Milan and Akureyri (Iceland) with his Norwegian Forest cat. Recently, he showed in many institutions, galleries and museums at international level: such as Turin, Istanbul, Barcelona, Maastricht, Finland and Slovenia. The developments of his most recent works are leading him towards the territories of video art realizing short films and docufilms.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2017-01-28
Künstler: Bankeri /// Michele Guidarini & Pasquale De Sensi /// Timwnas /// Line Guillod /// Frederic-James Pordoy
Thema: FANTASTIC METROPOLITAN CREATURES Papers, markers, painting, metal, ropes, glue and most of all abundance of lauded folly. These are some of the ingredients of the recipes to obtain exquisites “Fantastic Metropolian Creatures”.Our exceptional chefs: Bankeri (aka Francesco Bancheri), Michele Guidarini & Pasquale De Sensi, Timwnas, Line Guillod, Frederich-James Pordoy. Animated mutation, the paper allows itself to get pummel, overlay and dissect. Clipping of procedural offal, it ends armless, forewarning the battle of boards and canvases, performing talking spider defying the gods to whom surrender. A child armed with a sling to tear down the giant between the skyscrapers. Insubordinate soldier fighting the vacuouswar of unrealistic ideas, the dislocated paper tumbles-down, derelict, common, leftover, it's teared apart from the comfort of the magazine, dismembered from its purpose, to claim its nature of ideological cocoon, pandemic drift, putrescent meditation, guardian demon of the sweet-dream's dark room, silent preachers of lysergic anathemas of the visionary left-overs. “Fantastic Metropolitan Creatures” are made out of stardust born from a synaptic big-bang,indomitable rebels against the pretentious image composed under the fear of fashionable dictates, controlled by the irreversible linearity of the willful thinking and its consequent coprophagy. The promiscuity of ideas is redeeming. In this case it becomes act of junction, without bothering the peaceful chaos of things, blending with violence and elegant vocative presences, disclosing compositions full of meanings. Promiscuousness multiplies and reveals a renewed identity, taking place inside the chaos avoiding to drift thanks to an arbitrary and genuine act.Operating appendix of creative narrations and peculiar personality, the monster of visibility imposes himself free of counter-cultural misunderstandings, as alchemical result of infernal mixtures, a dadaist halloween, escaped from the repression of history.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2016-07-30
Künstler: Darkam Eugenia Monti, Marco Rea, Sergio Pastore, Gianluca Gambino, Bella Harris, Elena Helfrecht, Pasquale de Sensi, Raquel Weiße, Pelin Santilli, Bilal Bahir, Bambi Kramer, Giacomo Merkic, Skawager – SKWG, Yagama, Vacon Sartirani, Augustin Rebetez, Aqua Aura and Gwen Guégan
Thema: In the Oxford dictionary Dreams are defined as: a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Although dreams have been a topic of scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and psychological interest during all ages of history, their content and purpose are yet not definitively understood. In modern times, dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious mind and the emotional, but every single culture on Earth, during all ages of history, has develop it’s own relation with them, assigning them different roles and powers. And still they make us wonder. And still they are able to unsettle us. And still they are able to surprise us. And still they are able to move us. Dreams can have varying natures: frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, erotical and often a mixture of all this. Seeing their they volatile and mystical nature, it seems quite natural that dreams are a huge source of inspiration for artists. So we invited 15 artists, coming from various disciplines, as video, photography, painting, installation, and music, to present artworks strictly related to their dreams, considering all of their type: good dreams, nightmares and even lucid dreaming. The aim is to explore the various images and emotions that a dream presents and evokes, while not attempting to come up with a single unique dream view: each person has his or her own dream language. A voyeuristic journey in somebody else’s imaginative subconscious.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2016-04-23
Künstler: Saturno Buttó///Valentina Brostean///Michele Guidarini///Luisa Catucci///Darkam///Turi Avola///Laura Gianetti///Italia Ruotolo///Dayana Montesano///Rosario Salerno///Elena Monzo/// Danilo Pasquali///Alessia Cocca///Mariantonietta Bagliato///Andreas Fischbach///Dorothy Bhawl
Thema: «Eroticism is one of the bases of self-knowledge, as indispensable as the poetry.» Anais Nin “Being a woman and Other Essays”, 1977 In this exhibition we will present artworks from contemporary artists of the Italian scene, that equally refect the oneiric, fantastic and bizarre spirit of Cell63 artplaform. In ancient mythology Eroticism was personifed by the God Eros (ἔ ρωςe, ros—"desire"), that falling in love and uniting with Psyche (ψυχή--“soul”) brought to life Voluptas ("pleasure" in latin). It's clear then that in order to bring us Pleasure the Eroticism must be united with the individual's Soul. As fruit of personal aesthetic judgment tied to sexual attraction, this quality has been giving infnite matter to artistic representations. Quoting the artist Marcel Duchamp “Eroticism its an animal thing that has many facets and is pleasing to use, as you would use a tube of paint.” Since eroticism is as well dependent not just upon an individual's sexual taste and sensibility, but also upon the culture, time and social environment in which an individual lives, we decided to show a raffnate selection of erotic artworks from the contemporary Italian art scene. In the collective consciousness Italians are quite bond to seduction and passionate love, fortunately not only due to the sexist attitude of average latin lovers or the shameless misadventures of certain politicians. Mostly this reputation is based on cultural reasons: from the erotic frescos in Pompei to Boccaccio's or Casanova's writings, from Alfredo Piotto's painting to Valentino's haute couture, eroticism show to be inherent to the experience of Italian people. Despite this for long time in Italy prevailed a moral for which the erotism, often confused with pornography , was considered scandalous (immoral, indecent, lascivious, obscene, nefarious!) and not suitable neither for the respectable salons, neither for the big audience. For quite a while the open appreciation of the erotic was relied only to some closed circles of the intellectual elite. The run to sexual emancipation and equalization (hetero and homo) in the western society, achieved exponentially in the last decades, has allowed many artists, also from the Italian art scene, to express their eroticism in a more free and shameless way. On top of this the society amplifed its vision of what can be considered artwork, opening the door to quite a variety of genres and styles: from fantasy to dark art, from burlesque to manga, from fetish to queer, all quite niche arts, but with strong erotic elements. ALLERSTR. 38 | 12049 BERLIN | U8 LEINESTR. Monday to Friday 11:00 - 18:00 + on appointment
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2016-02-27
Künstler: Michele Guidarini
Thema: Opening on Saturday 16th January 19h30 with Braintheft Dj Team Even Pretzel have eyes (#666), is the new irreverent solo exhibition by the controversial Italian artist Michele Guidarini. Michele is a graphic designer by day and artist by night, with a pretty dark but totally ironic aesthetic. All symbols and icons of our time are the sacrificial victims of his pen and humor. We are a LOGO based community after all. From religion to politics to ideology to private people. Michele takes advantage of what has already been exploited and squeezed by society. The principle of POP art: by misrepresenting a masses product and giving it new life throughout fantasy, people are left puzzled, they cannot find a meaning, they do not understand why but ask themselves questions and they get interested into new ways of interpretation of things. So better not trying to understand why Michele used this or that symbol, why he placed a swastika or a crucifix in his work, they’re just Logos. Why even Pretzel have eyes. The real provocation in his work is the complete freedom of interpretation he lets to the public. Michele believes in human strength, in talents, in gestures. He believes that everything, good or bad whatever it could be in life, depends on ourselves and in our way of interpreting. Something can be hilarious for someone and outrageous for others, doesn’t matter, our personal reaction is left to our self analysis. Anyway it will be very hard for what he wants truly communicate to appear clearly in one picture, either because the story itself is very complex and codified in a sequel of more images, either because not always a personal logic is present. The technique used is a mixed media of pens, ink, Magic Markers on paper, spray and collage. Inspired for his whole life by the works of Bacon and Goya, Michele Guidarini started following Low Brow attracted by the catchy aesthetics: «I think as a graphic designer, so the image, the balance, the colors are really important for me. After the first glimpse of wonder, i found out that this artistic flow isn’t trivial at all and there is a lot more under the shiny colors, a whole universe of hidden meanings. It’s a reflection of the artist and the world in which we live in, a reflection of the soul, heart and pain». Rolling Stone Magazine and lot of national and international press introduced him as one of the greatest Italian young talents, exactly for his capacity to get and mix all aspects of life, light and heavy, dark and bright, drama and comedy. Curated by Luisa Catucci
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2016-01-31
Künstler: Jaya Suberg, Elena Helfrecht, Ramona Zordini, Mathilde Nardone, Dorian Rex
Thema: This time we invited 5 artists, 5 incredible women, to exhibit artworks inspired by the shakespearian character Ophelia, as icon of women tormented by society, religion, family and expectation on what feminine should be. Shakespeare’s Ophelia is not lacking in attention. As one of Shakespeare’s most popular female characters she has enjoyed many appellations from the bard. “Fair Ophelia.” “Most beautifed Ophelia.” “Pretty Ophelia.” “Sweet Ophelia.” “Dear Ophelia.” “Beautiful Ophelia…sweet maid…poor wretch.” “Poor Ophelia.”‘ All of these names for Ophelia can be found in Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Since Shakespeare’s incarnation of Ophelia many have felt the need to offer their opinions of Ophelia as a character. “Poor wispy Ophelia.” “Devastated and emotionally exhausted Ophelia.” “Pensive, fair-haired, blue-eyed daughter of the north.” “Ophelia the young, the beauteous, the harmless, the pious.” “Clumsy Ophelia…open-hearted but light-brained…incapable either of understanding or of curing.” “A weak creature, wanting in truthfulness, in purpose, in force of character, and only interesting when she loses the little wits she had.” These are only a few of the hundreds. For a character that only appears in five of the 20 scenes in Hamlet, Ophelia has garnered a great deal of attention from analysts, critics, artists, actresses, fiction writers, psychologists, and adolescent girls alike. Readers are consistently struck by her character that seems relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Ophelia is many times viewed as only important in relation to Hamlet and the effect she has on him. Ophelia is not just important in this respect, but also in respect to what she tells us about the society she came out of and the society we live in today. First analysing Shakespeare and his precursors then concentrating on the modern day prominence of Ophelia with an overview of feminist criticism and current applications of her story will show that Ophelia is indeed a character with many faces, both positive and negative. Ophelia is one of the most interpreted and represented characters of Shakespeare. She garners constant attention from critics and re-visionists as well as people who identify with her just as Shakespeare wrote her. Depending on who directs the play or the movie, the interpretation will be different. Depending on the artist, the rendering may have a positive connotation or a negative connotation. Ophelia may have been a relatively one-dimensional character, but she has certainly become much more than a girl suffering. The sheer number of different interpretations of Ophelia show that she is still very much alive in our culture. The fact that so many people do have knowledge of Ophelia is a testament to her immortality. From a nameless maiden, to a pair of erect nipples on canvas, Ophelia has transversed time in a way few characters have.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2016-01-09
Künstler: Laura Gianetti
Thema: Biston Betularia is a peppered moth that takes its name from the habit to rest on the trunks of birches, trees with white bark. With the advent of the industrial revolution began to be released into the atmosphere large quantities of dust resulting dark from the combustion of coal, the main fuel for industrial machinery at that time. In the industrial areas, the bark of trees (including birch), began to become darker because of the carbon in the air. The effect of this environmental change, caused the melanic forms of the Biston betularia (ie melanic Biston, darker in color) that acquired an advantage camouflage on the clear one. The white biston betularia survived, but the darker one rapidly became numerically dominant. This phenomenon – known as industrial melanism – has been of great help in understanding the mechanisms of natural selection lighting and today he serves as a litmus test of pollution. Exploring the history of this peppered moth, Laura Gianetti show us with this stunning work -made out of 126 photos and a video- the different nature of the transformation as an art(ificial) way to survive and as a result of human greed.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2014-05-04
Künstler: Andreas Fischbach - Giulia Manfredi - Vladimir Isailovic
Thema: As characters from the cult movie PLAYTIME by the french regisseur Jacque Tati, attempting to navigate in a futuristic Paris constructed of straight lines, modernist glass and steel high-rise buildings, multi-lane roadways, cold, artificial furnishings, our infamous storytellers Giulia, Vladimir e Andreas navigate in our already futuristic reality of block housing, asphixiating multimediality, humanized mechanization, over rated technologies. In this environment, only the irrepressible nonconformity of human nature and an occasional appreciation for the good old days can breathe life into an otherwise sterile urban lifestyle. And the conscious ability of transforming whatever life has to offer in a marvellous, astonishing, lucrative PLAYTIME.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2013-12-15
Künstler: Luisa Catucci, Nelja Stump, Serena Salvadori
Thema: Ahoy People! Did you know that Cell63 artgallery transformed itself? Not only we had an amazing renovation of the location, but also we are not anymore an art gallery! WHAAAAAAAAAAT? Yes. We joined our forces with the great Tristesse Deluxe and we created, for your own very joy: CELL63 ARTPLATFORM. more infos at www.cell63.com Come over and check it out on our Big Re-Opening Event on November the 15th from 7.00pm Exhibition: Luisa Catucci (Cell63 artgallery - HeyMamaKuckMal illustrations & graphics) Nelja Stump (Tristesse Deluxe - Nelja Visual) Serena Salvadori (our very first artist in residence) Sound: Mackack (Dj) /// Jah Fish (DJ) /// DubNumb (live) Performances Nelja Stump /// The Sewing Machine
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2012-08-31
Künstler: Anonymous Art (Elena Bertoni, Simone Romano), Arts Factory (Francesca Del Moro, Federica Gonnelli, Donatella Schilirò, Adriana M. SoldinI), Loredana Catania, Roberto Messina, Shanti Ranchetti are invited to deal with Darkness and its symbiotic relationship with Light.
Thema: Inside the mechanics of society, men are inclined to hide their negative and condemnable sides in the attempt to be accepted and integrated. They spend a lot of energy to smother and hide them, until the forced balance dramatically breaks. French sociologist Michel Maffesoli describes it as a revival of the dark face of our nature, that culture can only partially tame but that keeps on enlivening all our affections. The concept’s development is based on an extensive research which goes from Plato’s "Allegory of the cave" to the concept of Shadow as formulated by Carl Gustav Jung. From Good to Evil, the artists are supposed to explore the depths of the human soul and of the structures of society. They are challenged to catch the moment in which Darkness appears inside the human mind. For this purpose they will use the lightness and the magic that Neo Pop only shares with fairy tales.
Ort: Luisa Catucci Gallery bis: 2012-08-31
Künstler: Anonymous Art (Elena Bertoni, Simone Romano), Arts Factory (Francesca Del Moro, Federica Gonnelli, Donatella Schilirò, Adriana M. SoldinI), Loredana Catania, Roberto Messina, Shanti Ranchetti
Thema: Inside the mechanics of society, men are inclined to hide their negative and condemnable sides in the attempt to be accepted and integrated. They spend a lot of energy to smother and hide them, until the forced balance dramatically breaks. French sociologist Michel Maffesoli describes it as a revival of the dark face of our nature, that culture can only partially tame but that keeps on enlivening all our affections. The concept’s development is based on an extensive research which goes from Plato’s "Allegory of the cave" to the concept of Shadow as formulated by Carl Gustav Jung. From Good to Evil, the artists are supposed to explore the depths of the human soul and of the structures of society. They are challenged to catch the moment in which Darkness appears inside the human mind. For this purpose they will use the lightness and the magic that Neo Pop only shares with fairy tales.