notes on Manifesta7 - the approach to the public

Last week I went to Manifesta7 (again!) as I wanted to see some of the works better than how I did during the opening days. I have to admit it was much better this way (no more than...let's say 7 visitors in each one of the venues?!)

I have enough topics about it to fill this blog for weeks so I guess it's better to write different posts.

What I noticed immediately is that the different curatorial approaches were so evident in the different venues.

Rovereto was almost didactic: each work had a short text and info about the artist. The visitors had a lot to read before they started looking at the works.

Trento was completely opposite (I guess how does a "normal" visitor react to something like this - someone told me they felt completely lost).

Bolzano had the same short text (this time in 3 languages: don't forget the German translation please!) while Fortezza was something I really couldn't explain. The infos on the works were so hard to find that at some point I gave up and just wandered around.

It's not so important to discuss from my point of view, but I would really like to think about a visitor that does not know anything about contemporary art. Some of the venues really tried to reach the public while other were rejecting it completely, and this is something I don't really feel as a right position. I don't want to sound obvious, but as long as we will have exhibitions like this everyone in Italy will say they don't understand contemporary art and that contemporary sucks. (You should have read the comments of people outside the venues after 1 month of exhibition!!!)

One more thing I would like to say is about the ordinary maintenance of the exhibition: after one month the exhibition looked already like it was 3 months old.

The works in Rovereto railway station were mostly damaged. Seems like no one is looking after them, I guess they expected this when they decided to show part of them in a place which is so crowded (and where people didn't choose to see art) but I think most of the damages could be avoided. It's almost the same for Trento: the day I visited it a lot of works were closed because I guess the people that were working there didn't know how to use it: when they changed their working turns, the new staff put everything back to normality.

It's such a huge event, I guess this should not happen. Uhm.

(But I still have lots to say about it, also a lot of good things! So I will be back soon)

about Damien and money

Seems like everytime you read something new about Damien Hirst some part of the article HAS to talk about money. And so it's also this time: I was reading about his next auction at Sotheby's in september.

He will sell something like 220 works for a total expected amount of about 65.000.000 £ (without any mediation from his galleries - which I bet are pretty happy about it)

And what it's even more interesting is the title of the auction session: "The Beauty Inside My Head Forever". Uhm. I am wondering what's the use of such a poetic and tragic title for something like this.

I prefer to look at The Little Artists and their funny reproductions of Hirst's works. At least there's still something ironic in it.

spruzz

"spruzz - scene del contemporaneo" is a website held by young and passionate Daniela Lussana. the site has different sections and presents interviews to young artists and pages about their works. Daniela chooses the works and the artists that best represent her idea of art, and gives them space and voice. you can now find an article about a talented italian sculptor, Stefano Calligaro, and an interview to the turkish artist Sukran Moral.
Daniela usually asks three questions to the young artists she wants to talk about, so for my blog I decided to ask her three questions as well, to make her talk a little about herself too. I found it really interesting as she usually prefers to give room to works of others.
Check the link section at the bottom of the page to visit her website


1. who's daniela lussana?

Daniela is someone with a free spirit, a dreamer with her feet on the ground, who likes people and all their differencies. Good in organizing, unable to follow the rules, passionate, who is still surprised by many artworks, and still is moved by manual, poetic and lyric abilities.

2. how did you decide to create spruzz?

Spruzz comes from the will to say my opinion in this wide artworld.
The “young artists” section comes from the need to give my opinion about artistic choices.
The “interviews” section is because of my curiosity, the pleasure of having a reply to my questions, to know, discover, study other people and their knoledge, the need to choose the person I want to interview and the type of questions with freedom.
Spruzz will grow more and more, I have lots of ideas that will become reality at the right moment.

3. what impresses you in an artpiece so much to make you choose and artist and dedicate him/her a space on your website?

The research, a professional way of working, passion, and the “need” to make art. It's not a work itself to attract me, it's everything that surrounds the artist and his/her need to produce artworks.
I am attracted by art as a research that looks to the future, which is experimental but did not lose emotions and passion, and above all, humbleness.

aspra.mente

I really appreciate when a project doesn't need to be defined with useless borders and this is the reason why I really like aspra.mente. you should put in a mixer 4 clever minds, artists, curators, cooks and even gardeners to produce something that could taste close to them.

aspra.mente is a project born in Venice from a workshop, but soon became something different: a group in which each member has her own identity, goes on with her works, travels and brings something new to the whole group. their project mainly focuses on food design connected to social practices, but here (again!) is quite hard to draw a line that could separate their work from other art practices.

their last (and great!) installation, called Vaccinium, is currently on view @Manifesta 7, the european Biennal that is taking place in Italy, in Trentino Alto Adige. the work focuses on one of the less famous products that the territory, the blueberry. (Trentino Alto Adige is really famous because of its apples, actually).

the linear and clear installation includes some wallpapers that explain to the spectators the benefits of the blueberry and what really impressed me positively what the total "understatement" appearance of the whole installation, who underlines the content of the project.

good job indeed! I can't wait to see what next..in the meantime you can check their website in the blog section on your right.

Everybody Pecha Kucha!

...here's what I learned today (and it's something I really want to share with you readers)
I feel really good tonight because I can finally say I know what a Pecha Kucha is! It consist in a format of presentation for creative works in a fast and informal way. It was originally created in Tokyo in 2003 and soon spread in many other cities around the world, as a way for young designers, artists and architects to talk about their works and keep the interest of their audience up.
The original idea was the format of 20x20, 20 images shown for 20 seconds each, but it can be adapted to many different occasions and presentations, and it also became a format used in the business world.
What I found even more interesting about it is the great amount of websites and videos that explain and show techniques about it.
So that's all for today..stay tuned :)

Cattelan @Boijmans van Beuningen

During my recent trip to the Netherlands I had the chance to see the famous work by Maurizio Cattelan realized for that Museum as a site specific work. I always thought that piece was great because it worked very well as a picture also: the inner meaning of it remained equally strong even if not seen in the "real" version.

But what I found in reality was both funny and tragic at the same time: a plexiglas cube has been placed onto Maurizio's head.

I feel this changes the whole meaning of the work and I don't understand if it was really necessary as a solution to avoid people touching the piece. So there was a little bit of a strange bitter taste in my mouth as I left the museum (even though it was a great place to visit) and the curatorial corner of my brain kept thinking about that all the day...

Let's start!

My first post will explain the idea of this blog (which came out during my last sleepless night!).

Everything begun last winter during my stay in NYC. I had the chance to meet a brilliant artist and art professional, Jesse Hamerman. He told me about his artistic project called "another day, another word". (You find the link in the link section of this blog).
Basically the project consists of an archive of words that Jesse records everyday. Each day corresponds to a word. When you visit the website on the homepage you find the word of the day and when you go through all the words in the archive you can create different sound mixes just by passing your mouse on the different words, so that it becomes something between a sound and a visual/conceptual work.
The words can be chosen for their sound or because they're connected to something happened during the day and this is really fascinating because you can find from the most complex to the most trivial ones.
What I love about this project is that it's all about using art as a daily practice, to fight laziness and to keep the mind busy having a "mission" to do every night.

This is what I would also love this blog to become.
It will be a way to keep my mind busy just by writing something (hopefully every night). I will use artworks, articles, exhibitions or quotes that came to my mind during the day as materials to write about.