>>> Mooving Forward >>>
<<< CRITICAL ESSAY BY ANTONELLA DI LULLO >>>
“Art, as such, does not exist. There are only artists. Once these were men used coloured earth and roughed out the forms of a bison on the wall of a cave; today they buy paints and they design billboards; and in time they did so many other things.”
E.H.Gombrich
The Story of Art
A dynamic movement that kicks when enclosed in the two words of the simple title. Paradoxically, to understand this movement we have to take a step (ideally four) back to the previous edition of the festival, when a similar change could first be perceived in Luca Di Maggio’s artwork at the Theatre Palladium, in Rome. The exhibition, not by chance, carried the same name: Moving Forward. A clear and distinct sign of a transformation that has fed into a concept and a certainty that for some time have been part of the festival.
After four editions and a long and happy relationship with the area that hosted the festival, Outdoor has been challenged with the need for change brought on by thoughts and questionsarising on Urban Art’s current state.
The neighbourhood of San Lorenzo, in Rome, more precisely the spaces of the ex Dogana with their distinctive histories and oddities, seemed like the ideal place to welcome this renewed festival. It is not the end of the road, but rather it is the next stop. The transition to a closed space, that invites the artists to entertain discussions and that has also created different surface typeswith which to relate, holds something thatrequires questioning from multiple angles.
First of all Moving Forward is a physical movement: from an open space to a closed one, into a new neighbourhood with its differences and its own characteristics. It’s also an inquisitive movement, given by the exploration and discovery of a new and unusual space that will, only temporarily, be invaded by art and opened to the public.
Moving Forward is an emotional movement, expressed by the extraordinary power art hastostrike, most of the time right in the face. And as iffrom the resonance of a slap, a cascade of questions and thought processes are triggered.
In doing so Moving forward becomes also an intellectual action, to be considered not just in its physical form. The OUT of the festival doesn’t define a real space, just like it never intended to in the previous editions. There has always been a desireto look beyond, and in this case the thoughts are cast beyond the walls and closed rooms, as far away as possible, towards new questions and reflections.
In any form of urban art, the space that hosts it plays an important role. It mustn’t dominate over the art, but rather it should be an integral part of it, be all-and-one. The space is so much more than just the physical space supporting the artwork. It is a fundamental tool used to communicate the artwork’s message, and as such it mustn’t neglect its own history and reality, so that it is able to communicate the here and now of the artwork, in other words“its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” (Walter Benjamin, “The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction”).
This aspect is often underestimated.
The growing interest in and consequent production of Street Art have in some cases allowed to forget this fundamental reflection; not all the coloured marks produced in the artworks are contextualised, losing the communicative power inherent to this art current, giving a tone to its surroundings.
This is one of the starting points that have pushed us towards using an indoor space: a unique path dotted with artwork, so that thefocus is back on art itself. In doing so, the fundamentalsare set to start questioning the future dynamics of artwork spaces.
The old Dogana in Rome was the core of economic and productive activities of the neighbourhoodfor almost a century. It now lives on through new forms: the goods that used to be gathered in storageareashave now left to make space for colour. The Dogana is subject to a window of transformation that anticipates its complete regeneration. From an enclosed space dedicated to working, to a public space open to everyone, a temporary reclaim of the place that passes through art.
A huge area, so big that you lose spatial awareness. It shouldn’t be scary, it needs to instead be part of it all. There shouldn’t be any antithesis between the container and the contained, but rather a perfect coincidence and superimposition where art is able to express all of its aesthetical charge; its impulsive, emotional, brilliant and always changing gestures. Gestures and aesthetics. Tangible traces but at the same time emotional.
The practice of artistically entering spaces and places that have been abandoned, or which are subject to regenerations plans is nothing new: there are numerous national and international examples, each of them brimming with individuality. Let’s not forget the spontaneous – and thus removed from social and curatorial projects – examples of many writers that have always used warehouses and abandoned buildings as old dusty canvases. Moving Forward, in Outdoor V has been able to first of all highlight the need for a moment of reflection and for renewal, and at the same time it re-opens the doors to common and volatile practices, part of the movement itself.
Removing any references to aesthetic labelling, Outdoor wants to talk about art, no labels no big names. So that the general is narrowed down to the individual, through a journey that takes you to visit the huge rooms of the Dogana.
The repeated, marked and deformed actions by JBROCK. The coloured irony by Laurina Paperina. The word, actions and geometry by Blaqk. The delicate aesthetic research by Faith 47 in stark contrast with the sensual pop of Lady Aiko. The famous conceptual marks by Dot dotdot. The loss of usualspatial reference points by Thomas Canto. The encounter and confrontation with Brus, Ike and Hoek. The new and different stylistic and aesthetic researches by Tnec and Jack Fox, the character invasion by Galo, the tangled and pulsating iron skein that compose the outside installation by Davide Dormino, and to conclude the surreal and super colourful work of Buff Monster. All of these represent the babel tower in which you can find, not different languages,but different accents of the same universal language that is art. To focus on the fact that from a distance it is possible to better distinguish blurry shades and differences.
It’s not an exhibition that intends to summarise the Street Art movement and phenomenon, but rather a starting point, the beginning of a thought process that wants to make of art an extraordinary instrument for dialogue and congregation.
In the previous years the spectator has been invited to look up to unexpectedly find stains and coloured traces, but this time the spectator is invited to get up, cross the entranceand dive into a space with a number of different tracks and layers from other pasts. The spectator has to actively choose to go there: stepping into the Dogana means to conquer a space step by step, creating a desireto explore these 5000 sq. m.
So, Moving Forward!
Antonella Di Lullo
A video interview realized by Benedetta Perilli and Francesco Collina for RepubblicaTV
::: JBROCK, “Self Portrait”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Impulse and exactness that carry a strength capable of covering huge surfaces: marked traces seemingly incomprehensible invaded area. An uncontrollable impulse that come forward before any words, ideas or reflection of the artistic work. It is an impulse that discloses the essence and emotions the artist and hi art communicate. This is the starting point of JBROCK's work.
The initial dizziness experienced from these powerful marks soon leaves space for contemplation, a precise look investigating every mark and colors that introduce new perspectives. This project invites the viewer to be completely absorbed by the work, to get lost into it, in a constant balancing act where two-and three- dimensionality waver and are confused.
::: JBROCK, biography :::
I was born in Rome in 1979. I do writing since I was 12 and I’ve never stop just because – today like yesterday – I suppose there’s nothing in my life that should make me feel better.I think that every human being have a way of life, written on his DNA, and the most difficult thing – in this tour called life – is to find it, identify in and then fight to pursue it. With passion and devotion.I was lucky enough to find my way of life.You? Follow your instinct and your passion and do not be fooled by any other bullshits.
::: GROUP AND SOLO SHOWS :::
• Fomento, Galo Art Gallery, Torino, 2013• The Others Art Fair, Torino, 2013• Tour Paris 13, Parigi, 2013• Back 2 Back to Biennale, evento collaterale ufficiale della 55° Edizione della Biennale di Venezia, Esposizione & Live Performance, Venezia, 2013• Street Art Contest, programma di lancio per il canale Sky Arte HD, Roma, 2012• Festival Emergence, a cura di Giuseppe Stagnitta, Giardini Naxos, Catania, 2012• Attack Festival 2012,”contemporary nihilism reflection”, Foligno, 2012• Alterazioni Festival, Arcidosso, 2012• Cartabianca_roma, a cura di Nero, sguardo contemporaneo e Carla Subrizi, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Villa Croce, Genova, 2012• PasteModernism3 Outpost Festival, Cockatooisland, Sydney, Australia, 2011• Camponeschi, “Aperitivo d’arte”, a cura di Umberto Scrocca e Achille Bonito Oliva, Roma, 2011• Smells like the Streets, Mondo Bizzarro Gallery, Roma, 2011• Mixup, Spazio Concept, Milano, 2011• Natale Natale 3, Casa delle Letterature, Roma, 2010• Veleno, Mondopop Gallery, Roma, 2010• Urbancontest, manifestazione promossa dal Comune di Roma e il Ministero della Gioventù, Roma, 2010• Outdoor, a cura di Christian Omodeo per NUFactory, Roma, 2010• The AnimalRoom, Macro Future, Roma, 2010• Skate like canvas vol.1, Rising Love, Roma, 2010• Urban painting xmas show, Live painting e mostra allo Spazio Concept, Milano, 2009• Interplay-Premio Termoli, Termoli, 2009• R.A.M. – Rome art and music, a cura di Christian Omodeo per NUFactory, Roma, 2009• Spaghetti stencil, Avantagarden Gallery, Milano, 2009• Urbanpainting-recycled, Spazio Atrion, Carugate (Mi), 2009• Urbanpainting-outdoor, Spazio Atrion, Carugate (Mi), 2008• City Slang, Dorothy Circus Gallery, Roma, 2008• 44+1 autoritratti, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma, 2008• Scala Mercalli, a cura di Gianluca Marziani, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma, 2008• Bazarone, Ex Lanificio, Napoli, 2007
::: Laurina Paperina, “ Proud to be a loser”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Cat and mouse chasing each other. The old time classic form the cartoons world, treasure of childhoods, is re-lived through Laurina Paperina's fantastic and colorful fantasy in a completely new way: it isn't a chase any longer, a playful war, but it's a clear definition of characters and their identity.
The bright colors and the bitter irony remove any link with the world of cartoons, perhaps revealing the true roles and identities of these beloved characters, their real being and condition.
The big black cat finally grabs hold of his losing opponent in front of the mouse's den. The latter is mocking whilst holding a scythe, and saluting the spectator that looks into his den. The kind of salute and the invite to enter are concealing a dark sarcasm.
::: Laurina Paperina, biography :::
Laurina Paperina (1980, born in Rovereto, Italy) is an Italian artist who lives between Italy and Duckland, a small town in the Universe.
She studied at the Institute of Art in Rovereto and the Academy of Fine Arts in Verona, Italy.She paints, draws, creates installations and video animations.Working predominantly with the imaginary of contemporary heroes, Her works reference contemporary pop culture and the 1980s and ‘90s eras of her childhood. Paperina has over the past years created artworks especially about on the Art World that present a ironic commentary in response to current events.
::: GROUP AND SOLO SHOWS :::
Laurina Paperina has show her work internationally, including solo and group exhibitions in galleries, Art Foundation, Museums and public spaces (The Elisabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, USA / Stadtgalerie, Kiel, Germany / Triennale di Milano, Italy / Palazzo della Permanente, Milano, Italy / MART - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rovereto, Italy / CCA Kunsthalle, Majorca, Spain / Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Victoria-Gasteiz, Spain / Museo Pecci, Milano, Italy / Kunsthaus Essen, Germany / The Royal Standard - Liverpool Biennal, UK / Janco Dada Museum, Haifa, Israel / École supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Nimes, France / J. M. Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan (WI), Usa / Madre Museum, Napoli, Italy / The Pacific Design Center, Los Angeles, USA / FRAC Languedoc Roussilon, Montpellier, France / Hunterdon Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ, USA / Kunst Merano Arte, Italy / Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy / Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia, Italy / Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea di Trento, Italy).
Her work has been featured in exhibitions in Italy, Usa, Germany, France, United kingdom, China, Belgium, South Africa, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Israel, Ireland and Mexico.
Publications include: Art in America, New Times Miami, SF Gate, SF WEEKLY, San Francisco Chronicles, Global Times, XL Repubblica, FAUX Q, Totally Dublin, Le Parisien, Le Figaro, Monopol, DPI publishing, Arte al Limite, Exibart on paper, Work Art In Progress, Kult, Espoarte and Arte Mondadori.
::: BLAQK, “Utitled”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
From wall to the floor the idea of movement, of Moving Forward, is total: a work though with and for the space, a complete invasion, almost embracing, a wave that crossed the whole room with the intention to disorientate the spectator. The message left behind, the last layer of the artwork, is difficult to interpret but it accompanies the spectator in this broken down and restless movement. A work of contrasts: the messy handwriting against clean and precise geometric lines; the wildness of the quick actions behind each letter almost reigns over the exactness of the straight lines; the colors white, black and yellow give the artwork a real but temporary three dimensional movement. It is recommended to appreciate the artwork from the center of the room, looking round 360 degrees.
::: BLAQK, biography :::
Blaqk team consists of Greg Papagrigoriou and Chris Tzaferos (Simek). Both are Graphic Designers who live and work in Athens. Simek got involved with graffiti since 1999 and Greg with wall paintings since 2009. At first, they liked one another’s work, so they did the experiment to unite what they do, they loved the result of their collaboration, so there comes the creation of Blaqk. Blaqk team is a combination of graphic elements, that characterizes the work of both - geometric forms, geometric patterns and calligraphy-typography (often used as an abstract decorative elements in their compositions). They adjust their creations outside based on the location they have chosen. Blaqk are really interested in finding special places- abandoned places with natural textures. they used deferent types of materials. They both decide the artwork they make. Geometric patterns and lines are Simek’s artworks basically and Greg works on calligraphic-fonts and sometimes geometric forms that contain all their details. Blaqk have a common design method of work. What they do is sometimes strictly geometric and sometimes more abstract. They love to experiment a lot and try new design methods. Blaqk created in March 2011.
::: Lady Aiko, “Unititled”;
WORK DESCRIPTION :::
The expressive power, sensual and colored, typical of the artistic research by Lady Aiko can be find in these two artworks. At a glance they may seem like two different pieces of artwork, but they share a spatial factor: they may be antagonistic in front of each other, but they are born from a dialogue with the room and the artist's gradual discovery of it. Two kneeling figures that frame the entrance, like two-dimensional and contemporary caryatid that protect and incite the spectator to walk through to the next room. The two kneeling figures are holding spray cans in an act full of contemporary sacredness representing the love for art. A large and illusory canvas with a dominant golden inlaid frame is architecturally framed with the room's wall. This represent love for an embrace and kiss, with the tenderness of the gesture in contrast with the acidity of the fluorescent colors. An artwork that has been thought of and constructed in perfect harmony with its surrounding space, that invites the spectator to move, to come and go into the room to discover and appreciate it in all its aesthetic charge and power.
::: Lady Aiko, biography :::
AIKO was born in Tokyo, Japan and has lived and worked in New York City since the mid 90’s. She received a BFA at Tokyo Zokei University in the field of graphic design and filmmaking, before taking her MFA at The New School, NY graduating with honors in Media Studies. . Her work in film has been highly influential on Urban Pop; she directed the seminal digital biography on Takashi Murakami, Super Flat [1998] and ran his studio in Brooklyn long before he was internationally known. In 2008 she collaborated with Banksy, posing as a Japanese tourist and taking the now famous pictures of him doing unauthorized installations at MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Natural History Museum and The Met which catapulted that artist to fame and was later used in his Academy Award winning documentary “Exit Through The Giftshop”.
After her apprenticeship and work at Murakami’s studio, AIKO teamed up with two young American artists known as FAILE, collectively creating work for the outdoors, galleries and print editions. After 5 years of collaborating in the US and international streets and museums, she departed the group to develop her individual artist career as AIKO. Her paintings utilize mixed media including spray paint, acrylics, latex enamels, oil bars, coffee stains, rhinestones, glitter and pigments. Her images often come from her daily documentation and photography, and she applies such techniques as collaging, stenciling, silk screening and hand painting to create a dense, layered image full of life and positive energy, as her name AIKO [Translation: LOVE] would suggest. After years of living in the US, AIKO has fluidly hybrid the essence of American contemporary art movements such as Abstractionism , POP Art , Graffiti and Street Art with the Japanese traditional aesthetic in which she was originally trained. Her paintings and murals tell a story, playfully portraying femininity, sexuality and the beauty of human life and her historical important is that she has the inside track to be the artist who unites Western and Eastern culture with her work.
::: GROUP AND SOLO SHOWS :::
AIKO is recognized in the contemporary art world as among the most important artists to emerge in the new millennium. She is also well respected with the graffiti and street art scene. Her large scale works indoors and outdoors are installed in many cities, including the Wynwood Wall Project, curated by Jeffrey Deitch, in Miami, commissioned pieces for the Standard Hotel on both coasts and the 2012 commission to re-paint the historic ‘Keith Haring Wall’ on Bowery and Houston, the urban center of downtown chic . For the season of spring and summer in 2013, Louis Vuitton released an AIKO silk scarf as a collaborative accessory line of FOULARDS D’ARTISTES. The Japan Society majorly featured her work in a landmark exhibition in March 2013 “Edo Pop: The Graphic Impact of Japanese Prints”Her work has been exhibited at the MACRO Future Rome Italy, Shanghai MOCA China, Brooklyn Museum NY and PS1/MOMA as well as other major museums and galleries globally.
Text by Michael McKenzie, American Image Art
::: DOT DOT DOT, “Untitled”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Perfectly recognisable signs that mean much more than their iconographic and economic representation. Perfectly aligned logos that hide another message. An apparently very colorful game . The work by the Norwegian artist DOT DOT DOT is a summary of his personal vision of the evolution of the Street Art. Technology, communications, media and peculiar aesthetic are the key and unavoidable concepts that make up the artistic current; which doesn't seem to be made of just aesthetic power. Street Art today is so much more. It encloses al these paths that all need to be walked. The journey is one which must be made of many stops.
::: DOT DOT DOT, biography :::
DOT DOT DOT is a pseudonym for an anonymous stencil artist from Norway. Following in the footsteps of many artists before him, DOT DOT DOT prefers to remain anonymous. This is possibly due to both his long career in graffiti as well as the allure of mystery. What we do understand is that his prolific career started in 1997 in Oslo, where he was born. He has since operated under many pseudonyms but settled on DOT DOT DOT after succesfully shifting to a more conceptual and figurative style. He began focusing primarily on stencil work in 2007 and has gained notoriety in Norway for being one of the country's leading street artists
::: Thomas Canto, “Gravité B”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Be ready to loose every spatial point of reference because “nothing is like it seems, and nothing is like it appears, because nothing is real”.
An intricate series of lines and geometries suddenly appear at the end of an intricate path crossing different rooms, populated by a multitude of artistic forms and styles; a sudden vision that leaves you baffled. The known three-dimensional reference points are out. An engulfing installation that strikes us from different directions; from behind to project us forward without knowing where the end is. A series of splinters, shattered pieces of substance that seem to pass through us without ever hitting us. The space seems to be transformed and altered; the rectangular room has lost its corners blending itself into other geometries.
The experimentation with closed spaces that begun half way through the last century has been absorbed by Thomas Canto and reprocessed in an absolutely contemporary way.
Only when there is enough trust and knowledge of the surrounding spaces it become possible to understand where a certain material starts and where it ends; the differences and the similarities; what is two dimensional and what is three dimensional. But it will never be a complete understanding.
::: Thomas Canto, biography ::::
Born in1979, lives and works in France.
Thomas Canto transposes his personal vision of his environment on canvas; proposing an abstract and duplicate vision to the disorganized entanglement of the mix tures of his urban life. On one hand, the city in sections of walls or blue prints, on the other humanity and its individuality.
Fond of precision work and keen on pure aesthetics, technique holds a prominent place in his production. His gestures, as well as the materials and tools he uses evolve together with his art, and his work continues to gain clarity through experience and time. The patience and meticulousness displayed give an almost industrial aspect to his treatment of modern architecture. Especially in his last works that are totally encased in Plexiglas boxes 3D where nylon wires and paint mingles to perfection.
::: Faith47, “Madonna mia proteggimi”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
The delicate aesthetic research of the South African artist Faith47 completely takes over the long corridor, as if it has always been there, and suddenly emerges form it.
As if to protect time going by, changes, the location and all the artworks found in the Dogana, this hieratic figure of a woman dominates the forces of the sea and marine monsters wrapped around each other; mythological creatures which seem to run away under her impressive weight.
Magestic, she is laying on a turbulent waive that is about to sweep a large boat transporting not only goods, but also people that are running away.
A long red string that takes us on a journey to South Africa, which is also evoked by the writings on the lateral walls; messages casually left there and found again by the artist under bridges in the outskirts of Cape Town. Between mythology and real life stories, “Madonna mia proteggimi” conducts the spectator along the corridor of the Dogana with no fears. Capable of uniting inspiring sources far removed from each other - like the heterogeneous Roman aesthetic with the Latin inscription, to the Michelangelo-like concreteness of this contemporary Mother Nature, and all the way to real-life stories that may be distant to us - Faith47 has rendered us a unique work that carries with it poetic beauty.hat is two dimensional and what is three dimensional. But it will never be a complete understanding.
::: Faith47, biography :::
Faith47 is an internationally acclaimed street-and studio-based artist currently living in Cape Town, South Africa.
Following an active street art career spanning more than fifteen years, her work can now be found in major cities around the world. Using a wide range of media, including graphite, spray paint, oil paint, ink, photography and collage, her approach is explorative and substrate appropriate – from found and rescued objects, to time-layered and history-textured city walls and their accretions, to studio prepared canvas and wood.
Through her work, Faith47 attempts to disarm the strategies of global realpolitik, in order to advance the expression of personal truth. In this way, her work is both an internal and spiritual release that speaks to the complexities of the human condition, its deviant histories and existential search.
Faith47s first solo exhibition, Fragments of a Burnt History (2012, David Krut Gallery, Johannesburg) considered the transformation of Johannesburg into a more representative African city, exposing the harsh realities of day-to-day life and capturing the remnants of South Africa’s complex history in a personal and symbolic manner. Through the creation of an immersive environment in the gallery space, this work challenged the viewer’s detachment.
::: SOLO SHOW :::
Her solo exhibition, Aqua Regalia (2014, London) further extends the possibilities of immersive spaces, enveloping the viewer into a sacred ‘room’ filled with collected objects and other intricacies from everyday life that – together with figurative paintings – explore the notion of the mundane as sacred and celebrates the discarded and unwanted as holy.
::: ROME'S PAVILLON; WORKS DESCRIPTIONS :::
This huge room is first of all a homage to the movement that has found its place through art. The entire room is the result of an artistic encounter between the three artists that have been on the Roman and International scene for some time: Brus, Hoek and Ike.
Several writers go into warehouses and abandoned buildings to use them as dusty canvases. This a completely spontaneous practice, thus not attached to a specific cultural or curatorial project and has been the starting point for this artistic encounter. There is no intention to create a museum-like artwork, it is more of a wish to highlight the weight that this movement has on shaping the streets of our city.
The strength of the gesture, the exactness of the traits and the strong impact of the colors have completely invaded the space. Brus's research into handwriting and his excellent ability to play with architectural elements of the wall, divided in two colored bands, is only spatially opposed to the wall by Hoek and Ike; a perfect union and communication between the puppets drawn by the former and the color-shifting almost abstract shapes of the latter.
The white of the floors shouldn't be seen as an insurmountable boundary, but rather it should be seen as an invite for the spectator to enter and walk the entire room, to approach the work gently and tactfully pick on the different artistic styles, gestures and impulses.
:::BRUS, biography :::
I write BRUS and I come from Rome, Italy. I´ve been painting graffiti since 2001 and will continue to do it until my hands fall off.I´m trying to change the mentality of my city, I travel a lot to learn new things. I love writing in every way, graffiti, calligraphy etc. As a child my writing was bad so I decided to change that. What better opportunity than graffiti?I have 2 families, MOAS crew and SDT. Im a fan of the old school styles of NY, but still think that graffiti should move along and try new things. I do not believe in the existence of a ”King”, i believe you can be both king and toy at the same time if you don’t have the right attitude. Most important is to move forward and never stop. Graffiti is a style of life!!
::: HOEK, biography :::
As an artist, Hoek was born in 2001 when, during his Freshmen years of school, he discovered the world of graffiti, and chose them to become the most suitable mean to express his creative soul. After the graduation at the Artistic high school, the Comics Academy and three years between VFX, cartoons and airbrushing, he quested his fortune in the tattoo business bringing, of course, the graffiti flavor to it.
::: IKE, biography :::
Ike was born in Rome in the great 80's. In 1995 he got in touch with the hip hop environment and he got deeply fascinated. In 1996, for the first time in his life, he holds a spray can, and that moment changed his life, adding a different taste and thousands of shades. Today, besides graffitis, he tries to recreate in his works, the experience and the feelings of his traveling, to communicate with the public.
::: TNEC, “Untitled”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Reality twisted has an almost architectural touch, it's a spatial research and a reflection on how the truth can have different shades and may be interpreted differently. It's a precise study on a space and a translation of this thought in an artwork that surprising for its aesthetics and modernism.
:::TNEC, biography :::
Tnec was born in rome in 1989. He has been fond of graffiti since he was a young boy, mastering his technique throughout the years. He integrates to his artistic growth a passion for graphic design, especially lettering, which is constant in his works.Tnec explores the Universe of letters to create an original and personal mark, using handmade techniques and instruments combined with a modern visual approach and graffiti's art.
::: Jack Fox, "Untitled"; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
The visual work by jack Fox depicts two characters hugging each other and presenting themselves to the public in a friendly way. He uses black and white to traces shapes, sometimes bitter traces, but that hold a strong communicative power.
::: Jack Fox, biography :::
Keya Murphy is a young African male, living in the city of Cape Town. He is an illustrator, painter and produces electronic music. He has painted walls in many cities during his travels, under the name JACK FOX. He is working towards gaining a greater knowledge of everything new and creative.
::: Galo, “Untitled”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Galo's artwork is hundreds of eyes looking at you and examining you from a really crowded corridor, and is made of bright colors that are in contrast with the candor of the walls. These characters have long been part of the artistic research by the Turin artist Galo. They are made by just one long and continuous line with curves and breaks that gives life of these characters, which appear the same but that are deeply different.
Impossible to count, these characters take over the space, ready to scrutinise the spectators. The art that has been observed throughout the Dogana is now looking back: from observer to observed, the spectator is called to walk the corridor with no fears.
::: Galo, biography :::
Galo has been seen painting nearly every surface imaginable: fat bellies and flat ones, old walls and young electricity boxes, toilets and fences, ceilings and floors, canvas, wood, bikes and cars...sometimes he gets carried away.He graduated art school and worked as a graphic designer, before turning his back on just about everything except love and paint and layer after layer and went deeper into what can all be called the Galoverse.With Galo, life is art and he spends his life sharing his art, wherever, whenever and with whomever he can. His work has shown in three continents, in
::: Davide Dormino, “Derailed”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
5 Km of iron rods; environmental dimension.
His work is an intricate mass of iron rods rising from train tracks. Form a strong and apparently tamper-proof material a movement is born, it is the beginning of a transformation and a new life. Like Davide Dormino says: “ DERAIL is a voluntary breakage of preconceived scheme, a transformation that is a new beginning. DERAIL is the continuation of two parallel lines that will never meet, that rebel and into an organic flow that overrides a boundary. A dead-end track is the end of two railroads that have been cut off with a clean cut. It is a barrier but also an arrival. Derailing means losing control over your own trajectory”. DERAIL comes as a result of the artistic meeting the space, that specific location: the train tracks.
The installation can only be enjoyed from inside of the long corridor of the Dogana. From the last windows of the space it is possible to observe this apparently lifeless artwork. The viewing from indoors shouldn't be seen as a division between the spectator and the artwork, an impossibility to get close to the work. Instead it should be seen as a wish to have different points of view of the space and reflection on the Dogana. The artist conceives the location as more than just a container for art, it is the contents itself, an integral part of it that completely fuses into the idea and the material that Davide Dormino has managed.
::: Davide Dormino, biography :::
Davide Dormino was born on the 19th of June 1973: he's a sculptor and a visual artist. By drowning he expresses his research for the sculpture's design. He' always looking for new shapes developing the archaic iron's processing techniques. He also creates a conversation between other artistic expressions such as music and fashion to feed his work constantly. He faces the dimension, using any useful scale to represent his idea and to insert it in the right container. Small and big artworks, transformed materials, but adjusted to the will of interpretation of his artistic and contemporary spirit.
::: Buff Monster, “Untitled”; WORK DESCRIPTION :::
Buff Monster in the spaces of the Dogana is an unexpected surprise from different points of view. His artwork suddenly appears at the end of a long journey, in the last room. It is the result of a lucky encounter (organized by Galo) and the artist's enthusiasm for the festival.
Like the shapeless and gelatinous alien creature from the Blob movie, the surreal and hyper colored character created by Buff Monster has landed from space. It doesn't scare away like the creature from the movie, ready to eat anything it encounters, but instead it brings you closer and almost moves you its bright shimmering pink color.
::: Buff Monster, biography :::
Buff Monster made a name for himself by putting up thousands of hand-silkscreened posters across Los Angeles, and other far-away places. His work is characterized by happy characters living in brightly-colored bubbly landscapes. Along with meticulously executed paintings, he has created a wide range of merchandise ranging from prints and stickers, to vinyl toys and plush
Director—Francesco Dobrovich
