The facts:
41. Edition: 27 – 30 January 2017
– 178 Exhibitors
– 153 Galleries
– 48.000 visitors … read more
In the first part of our Arte Fiera review, we described basic conditions of this year’s art fair in Bologna. With regard to the curatorship, we will present in the following some stands, which attracted our special attention.
Entering the first hall 25, the visitor was greeted by Studio Trisorio from Naples. Its silent poetry was introduced by two photos with sea view by Raffaela Mariniello and Stefano Cerio. Inside the booth waited an arrangement with one photo by Eulalia Valldosera and two works by Rebecca Horn. Vis-à-vis, “Mondo rosso” (Red world) by Fabrizio Corneli and the “Corpi Fragili” (Fragile Objects) by Alfredo Maiorino form – by their colours – a harmonious complement. More works by Maiorino, Umberto Manzo and Sergio Fermariello were fitting well in this hanging, since they revive the dominant white.
A quasi installation was the stand of Z20 Sara Zanin from Rome, with the Solo Show featuring Ekaterina Panikanova. The book paintings are a mixture between painting and collage. Presented in different sizes, mostly hanging on the wall, but some spread on the floor, together they reveal a single entity.
Bonioniarte from Reggio Emilia juxtaposed two very different artists: the 2004 deceased Paolo Minoli and the 1970 born Rudy Pulcinelli. The colourful paintings and reliefs by Minoli contrasted to Pulcinelli’s mostly monochrome sculptures. Wisely, the gallery positioned the wonderful weathered steel compositions by Pulcinelli at the outer wall of the both, so that they could not destroy the conversation between monochromes and colours. A satin steel stele established the transition between the two separated compartments.
Even more contrast was accentuated at the double stand of Gallerie Rolando Anselmi from Berlin and Rome and Niccoli from Parma. In particular, the installation of Arcangelo Sassolino’s tire in front of Gianni Pellegrini’s blurred painting was a highlight.
Eduardo Secci from Florence brought four artists together. Zimoun works with affordable packaging materials. From this, he creates automatized artworks with elements of kinetic and sound art. For the Arte Fiera he made a huge site-specific installation. Monika Grzymala transfers lines and drawings into the three dimensional space. The result are paper reliefs and extensive installations. Alfredo Pirri’s pictures are as well at the border between painting, relief and installation, but the result is strongly to distinguish from Monika Grzymala. However, Alice Browne does “real” paintings, even though they are playing with the rules of gravity and perspective.
Oltredimore from Bologna presented the painter Rufoism as Solo Show called “Spaventapasseri in giro” (Scarecrows en route). Marco Perroni who works under the pseudonym Rufoism, is in the research to express eternal subjects like solitude, identity search, escape, in figurative style. Since he mostly paints on a brownish ground, be that on linen canvas, jute or paper, the exhibition is an optical entity itself. Moreover, the curator Chiara Gatti grouped the huge works in couples and the smaller paper works all together in one corner. In consequence, new images occur as diptychs and a polyptych.
The gallery Spazio Testoni, as well from Bologna, took on the challenge to expose four artists from different backgrounds together. At the left part of the stand, Marcello Morandini met Alberto Zilocchi. Their creations in black and white complete each other, even though the works of the younger architect, sculptor and designer Morandini are based on architecture and the recently rediscovered Zilocchi is to locate in the movement of constructive art around the groups Zero and GRAV. A transfer to the two younger artists was made in the centre of the booth. Here were two reliefs by Zilocchi from ca. 1977 confronted to two of Donatella Lombardo’s “Partiture mute” from 2016. The right part of the stand was dominated by the poetic creations of L’orMa: delicate flower compositions, often in movement. On the exterior wall were more works by Donatella Lombardo, where she dealt with html-codes and artisanship.
At first sight, the booth of Montrasio Arte from Milan, Monza and Innsbruck, seemed a little bit disordered. Ceramics in the middle, at the sides sculptures, paintings and reliefs. However, at a closer view, there were so many formal connections between the artworks, dating from the late 1940s, until the early 1970s, crowned by Gianni Moretti’s “Umbra” from 2016. It was interesting to lose yourself in a labyrinth of so many different creations, to find every now and then a nice new outlook to the next section and to rediscover artists like Franco Bemporad, Ettore Colla, Lucio Fontana, Leonardo Leoncillo, Fausto Melotti, Giulio Paolini, Bepo Romagnoni, Angelo Savelli and Salvatore Scarpitta.
Considerably lighter is the scenography with a single artist, who is consistent in his work. Glauco Cavaciuti from Milan had shown Massimo Kaufmann as Solo Show. They succeeded successfully to confront older and recent paintings in different colour shades.
In the section Nueva Vista, the gallery Mario Mazzoli from Berlin, exclusively presented younger artists, with kinetic and sound art or “silent” sculptures and photos. Michele Spanghero’s “Ad lib.” from 2013 attracted the visitors from far by its sound and as well drew their views after entering the stand seeing the organ pipes piloted by a pulmonary ventilator. Besides the folding “Foundling” by Edith Kollath more archaic appeared. Another transfer into ancient times seemed to be done by the exhibition of three old books in a display case, until one recognized that these books by Edith Kollath are “breathing”. Additional works came from Shingo Inao, Donato Piccolo and Oscar Santillan.
Conversely, the Galleria dello Scudo from Verona focused on the older generation, with creations mainly coming from the late 20th century, with some exceptions by Marco Gastini and Giuseppe Spagnulo, who were represented as well with recent works. Nonetheless, the staging of the booth was impressive: sculptures, paintings and reliefs were suitable assembled with regard to the colours and the materials. A colourful painting by Tancredi held the different divisions together.
The Contini Gallerie d’Arte from Venezia, Cortina D’Ampezzo combined as well several established artists from different disciplines. One part of the stand was dedicated to Manolo Valdés’ paintings and sculptures. His “Dama a caballo” from 2013 was a fitting background for his bronzes. These in turn were well together by the material with the fragments of Igor Mitoraj. A nice detail was the photo “Eros bendato screpolato” by Giovanni Ricci Novara confronted with Mitoraj’s works, while the Robert Indiana was a little bit too gaudy in this context.
Vecchiato Arte from Padova and Pietrasanta opposed Josepha Gash-Muche’s glass works – predominant in grey shapes – to a flashy red creation by Beatrice Gallori. A wonderful presentation of these two female artists with over three decades difference in age.
A brilliant exhibition was produced by 10 A.M. Art from Milan. Artists around the movements of optical-kinetic and constructive art dominated the stand. In consequence, most artworks were from the 1960s, with exception of one new drawing by Marina Apollonia from last year. 10 A.M. Art had chosen only oeuvres in black and white, to contrast them to the contemporary coloured creations by the young Polish artist 1010. Furthermore, the opposition is not only by the tonality, but also by the three-dimensionality: while the older works have partly spatiality, which creates the impression of movement, 1010 is dragging the viewer into the deep somewhere behind.
Another example of consequent curatorship was the booth of Il Mappamondo from Milan. The gallery transformed a simple fair stand into the flashy “Demo Pop Circus” by Francesco de Molfetta. Already from the outside, greeted the façade, which was designed like a circus entry, with a ticket shop on the other outer wall. Stand posters announced the event. Even the inside imitated a circus tent, with a red carpet and drapery. De Molfetta aka “Demo” creates sculptures in pop art style. They are inspired by Fast Food, figures from films, comics and advertisement.
For the photo section, there are two galleries to be named: Maria Livia Brunelli from Ferrara and Made4Art from Milan. Maria Livia Brunelli brought photos from Silvia Camporesi, Mustafa Sabbagh, Anna di Prospero and Stefano Scheda, Made4Art Elena Franco. The youngest of these artists is Anna di Prosporo who presented inter alia the “Self-portait with my mother” from 2011.
Surly, there were much more interesting artworks to see, but it is impossible to show them all.