I met Gianni at Frieze NY in 2016, initially drawn by one of his large abstract works, collage of canvas on canvas. But I discover a portrait of his father, inspired by a 1770 work by Gaetano Gandolfi, only later, during a studio visit in Rome. The portrait of the father, which Gianni has been reproducing for years, was the seminal concept that gave life to OSSESIONE [obsession].This fixation contaminates me, becomes mine. Brings me to research and look for contemporary Italian artists, who I have long wanted to bring to Palazzo Monti into a large collective, whose practice can be defined with: repetition, contamination, control, superstition, order and symmetry, accumulation and pure obsession.
The works of Ornaghi&Prestinari, both made for the exhibition, talk about control, order, symmetry. Confronting themselves with the potential of materials and techniques, the duo is always experimenting while working with ancient and complex practices. In Culla, a gutter becomes a container to house a sleeping head in a congestion of laurel leaves, an emblem of victories and honors. With New, an old, yellow page is painted with watercolor and white pastel, giving it a new opportunity. The slogan, within a typical advertisement shape, manifests the regenerating intention of the artists.
The works of Ornaghi&Prestinari, both made for the exhibition, talk about control, order, symmetry. Confronting themselves with the potential of materials and techniques, the duo is always experimenting while working with ancient and complex practices. In Culla, a gutter becomes a container to house a sleeping head in a congestion of laurel leaves, an emblem of victories and honors. With New, an old, yellow page is painted with watercolor and white pastel, giving it a new opportunity. The slogan, within a typical advertisement shape, manifests the regenerating intention of the artists.
Alessandro Piangiamore accumulates, collects, preserves. In the series "La cera di Roma" Alessandro makes slabs of wax by melting and combining candle stubs used by various Roman churches. For the collective there are two concrete slabs from the Ieri Ikebana series, where chance is a determining aspect for the formal outcome of the works. By pouring cement on a composition of fresh flowers, the unpredictable end result shows a contrast between the fragile and ephemeral nature of flowers and the hardness and persistence of concrete.
Alessandro Piangiamore accumulates, collects, preserves. In the series "La cera di Roma" Alessandro makes slabs of wax by melting and combining candle stubs used by various Roman churches. For the collective there are two concrete slabs from the Ieri Ikebana series, where chance is a determining aspect for the formal outcome of the works. By pouring cement on a composition of fresh flowers, the unpredictable end result shows a contrast between the fragile and ephemeral nature of flowers and the hardness and persistence of concrete.
Federico Tosi's practice investigates the origins of matter, combining mathematical laws and creativity. Slime Lapse, a large pencil on paper that appears, changes and develops as you approach the work, also created for the exhibition, shows the artist's interest in primitive nature, fractals and symmetry. For Federico, every object has needs, every material carries along a lot of information that, engaging with the creative idea, generates interactions between signifiers and their meaning.
Two works by Benni Bosetto are on show, whose practice is strongly influenced by ritualistic-functional components. To the terracotta sculpture Castirella, part of a series of 16 different sculptures that contain a therapeutic cure against a series of contemporary pathologies, are given the function of demonstrating the presence of an alternative possibility to a scientific / technological reality in crisis and with no way out. The drawing made with quick strokes on fabric, which represents an anthropophagic ritual, anticipates Benni’s thought and accepts error, does not need color or specific support, hence the choice to use only the essential, ink and a fabric found.
Two works by Benni Bosetto are on show, whose practice is strongly influenced by ritualistic-functional components. To the terracotta sculpture Castirella, part of a series of 16 different sculptures that contain a therapeutic cure against a series of contemporary pathologies, are given the function of demonstrating the presence of an alternative possibility to a scientific / technological reality in crisis and with no way out. The drawing made with quick strokes on fabric, which represents an anthropophagic ritual, anticipates Benni’s thought and accepts error, does not need color or specific support, hence the choice to use only the essential, ink and a fabric found.
Cassandra's window by Federica Di Carlo is part of a body of work inspired by the legend of the priestess of the temple of Apollo. The artist imagines Cassandra staring out of a window and prophesying with her eyes portions of altered, polluted sky with reddish color and iridescent clouds. Desperate, she angrily detaches the window but laying it on the ground, she realizes that the apocalyptic scene of the future persists on the glass. Distraught, she writes by hand on the wooden side of the window her ineffable condition: "In vain did the God ensure that I prophesied and from those who suffer and find themselves in misfortune, I am called wise; but before they suffer, to them I am crazy.“
Antonio Fiorentino contaminates, creates, destroys. He conducts an alchemical practice, expressing himself through the language of different disciplines such as chemistry, physics, metallurgy. In Dominium Melancholiae, a metal plate is immersed in a solution of water and lead acetate. The union of these elements gives life to a chemical floral composition that covers the entire surface of the slab with unpredictable and delicate branches, which continue to grow during the period of the exhibition. The result is in fact a "landscape" of autonomous forms in continuous change that gives life to a generative process that cannot be interrupted, but tends inexorably towards growth.
Marco De Sanctis, with works created during his residency at Palazzo Monti, inaugurates a new cycle of interventions on pre-existing paintings. He works on canvases by minor artists, destined to perish over time in attics and cellars, repairing and cleaning them with obsessive care and finally eroding, until he reaches the canvas, words that describe the intimate meaning of what they represent. Accumulating these canvases, Marco composes a poem that gives the title to the work. By destroying, he creates words, sentences, poetry. Sealing the works in plexiglass, he physically and ethically protects the canvases from oblivion to which they would otherwise be destined.
ph. Petrò Gilberti
