Giulio Paolini / Mario Finazzi / Keren Cytter

On 5th April, GAMeC will present three solo exhibitions each one dedicated to Giulio Paolini, Mario Finazzi and Keren Cytter.

GIULIO PAOLINI FUORI PROGRAMMA Fuori programma is a monographic exhibition dedicated to Giulio Paolini, internationally renowned as one of the leading figures in the contemporary art field. The entire show was conceived by the artist himself as a site-specific installation, containing old and new work-spaces linked by geometrical patterns drawn in pencil on the walls.

The exhibition occupies four of the rooms at GAMeC, the main room at the Accademia Carrara, and a classroom at the Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti. In doing so, it emphasises the basic concept of the show: that of the Accademia being understood also as a “school”, not just a store for art, but also a place where knowledge is transferred and, above all, where traditional techniques in painting, sculpture and drawing are taught. Paolini has constructed all his art around this concept, and this exhibition is no different: the four rooms in GAMeC are titled Painting Hall, Sculpture Hall, Drawing Hall (dedicated to the three academic subjects, or better, to the three “ideas” of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing) and Paintings by the Author. Between them they house an installation in which the artist’s tools are assembled and Paolini’s biography is itself a theme.

The title of the exhibition (Fuori Programma, ‘Off the Programme’) is connected to the theme of education, in which the student should not just learn parrot fashion, but should search for a variation on the theme being taught, starting out from the basic rules.

The exhibition is commented upon by a bilingual catalogue, published by Silvana Editoriale, with contributions by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Giulio Paolini, Giovanni Valagussa, Elio Grazioli and Alessandro Rabottini.

Giulio Paolini (b. 1940, Genoa) Giulio Paolini is one of the key artists in the contemporary art scene from the early '60s. Although his experience has included Arte Povera and Conceptual Art he remains faithful to a peculiar form of contemporary classicism. His work has been exhibited at leading institutions, such as the MuHKA in Antwerp, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Tate Modern in London, the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich. He has also participated in many Documenta shows in Kassel (1972, 1977, 1982, 1992) and the Venice Biennale (1970, 1976, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997).

MARIO FINAZZI PHOTOGRAPHS

6 April – 16 July 2006

GAMeC is holding the first retrospective of the work of Mario Finazzi – an Italian photographer between the two World Wars – in a public museum in Italy. The exhibition will display a hundred or so of Finazzi’s photographs, which display the expressive freedom and complete autonomy he brought to his work. His overall production is fully documented in the photographer’s personal archive, which GAMeC received on free loan in 2003. It is one of the rare Italian photographic archives to have remained intact, and contains 1,500 negatives, 900 prints and more than 800 slides taken between the 1930s and 1960s. Finazzi’s work as a whole provides a perfect example of the aesthetic potential of photography, in its masterful use of the solarisation technique that typified his later career. Finazzi perfected a procedure, which he called Hot-line, that allowed him to accentuate the outline of the image by over-exposing the negative in different ways.

The exhibition is commented upon by a bilingual catalogue published by Lubrina Editore. It is the first monograph dedicated to Finazzi, and has contributions written by Italo Zannier, Mario Cresci and Maria Cristina Rodeschi Galati. The publication is completed by a CD containing the inventory of Mario Finazzi’s archive, and details of his participation in exhibitions and competitions during his life.

Mario Finazzi (Chiuduno, Bergamo1905–Bergamo 2002), photographer from 1933. Between 1936 and 1962 his work was shown in more than 150 exhibitions and competitions. In 1884 he was invited to show at the exhibition The Italian Metamorphosis 1943–1968, curated by Germano Celant at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. During his long career, Finazzi also displayed a strong cultural awareness, which culminated in 1947 in the founding of the group La Bussola in Milan, whose manifesto was co-signed by Giuseppe Cavalli, Federico Vender, Ferruccio Leiss, and Luigi Veronesi.

ELDORADO: KEREN CYTTER ATMOSPHERE

6 April – 28 May 2006

The Eldorado cycle of shows, dedicated to the most exiting artists of the latest generations, restarts with works by Keren Cytter – her first exhibition at a public institution in Italy. She is presenting two unseen works, Atmosphere and Dreamtalk (both from 2005) and Family, from 2002.

Cytter’s work lies halfway between experimental cinema and video art. Her short films take common situations as their starting point, representing them in typical cinema and TV formats, but mixing their narration. She investigates such themes as interpersonal relationships and the mechanisms of memory, using a means of expression that emphasises the ever-thinner boundary between life and its representation.

Atmosphere and Dreamtalk form a sort of diptych on the themes of memory, attraction and the perception of affection. The female characters in Atmosphere have an intense relationship in which the boundary that separates friendship from attraction is not clear; and their individual memories and mental images are strongly affected by perception and time shifts. Dreamtalk revolves around a young couple whose relationship is based on the events that take place in a television reality show.

Beginning from the opening day at the website http://www.gamec.it, it’ll be possible to read a conversation about the work between Keren Cytter, Alessandro Rabottini, Curator at the GAMeC, and Hila Peleg, Curator at the KW in Berlin.

Keren Cytter (Tel Aviv, 1977) lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. She has held solo exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2004), and the Kunsthalle in Zürich and Frankfurter Kunstverein (2005).

Pressetext

Giulio Paolini / Mario Finazzi / Keren Cytter

Giulio Paolini FUORI PROGRAMMA
kuratiert von Giacinto di Pietrantonio, Giulio Paolini

Mario Finazzi PHOTOGRAPHS
kuratiert von M. Cristina Rodeschini Galati, Italo Zannier
mit Marcella Cattaneo

ELDORADO: Keren Cytter ATMOSPHERE
kuratiert von Alessandro Rabottini