AlbumArte presents
Gregorio Samsa | WHERE IS ABEL?
curated by Adriana Polveroni
Opening Monday, 8th June 2015 at 7 p.m.
June 9th – July 20th,2015
AlbumArte | Via Flaminia 122, Rome
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AlbumArte presents the solo exhibition by Gregorio Samsa entitled “WHERE IS ABEL?” curated by Adriana Polveroni.
For this occasion the spaces of AlbumArte will be home to some traces of the “National Pavilion of the State of the Artist”, a fictional pavilion conceived by Gregorio Samsa. He has taken a fantastic journey back in time and imagined it in the context of the opening of the International Exposition in Paris, an event that actually took place on the 25th of May 1937. Alongside this he has also included his own personal pavilion entitled We Are Lucid.
The exhibition occupies a series of rooms, where several original documents of the era are on display, such as the official guide and original newsreel footage of the opening of the Exposition, which are the historic materials upon which the artist has intervened and which he has altered. They are shown next to some works – themselves visible within these materials – that appear as the residue and the remnants of a sort of mental journey, in which reality and fiction are mixed together. As well as designing the architecture of the pavilion, Gregorio Samsa has also created its banner and standard: that of the “State of Lucidity of the Mind”. This functions as a symbol of belonging to a “State of Being” that transcends any kind of nationalism, submerging its own identity within mutual dialogue.
The artist sees the Paris Exposition of 1937 as a particularly significant moment, as it was characterized by impressive and imposing architectural scenery, by means of which a number of countries expressed their various different ideologies. For his own Pavilion, the artist was inspired by the concept of the great towers of antiquity in order to identify not a political ideology, but a sacred and universal place.
On the summit of the pavilion stands the “room of the vision”, which houses a sound-sculpture, in addition to the picture that gives the exhibition its title: “WHERE IS ABEL?”. A collage of fabrics, this work constitutes an image that takes us back to the origins of humanity, by evoking the first murder in history. The iconography of the work stems from a reflection regarding violence perpetuated upon innocent victims that we still see in the media every day.
The re-evocation of the historic event, through the physical and mental route delineated by the exhibition, emphasizes the absurdity of a form of rationality that degenerates into violence after abandoning constructive dialogue.
Gregorio Samsa is an independent artistic duo formed in Rome in 2010. He has made several solo exhibitions in Turin, Rome and Milan. In 2012 he was a finalist for the Terna Prize 04 with the work “Babel”, category megawatts. The issue of the dialogue, declined in its various facets, is at the center of his artistic research. Gregorio Samsa defines himself a single artist whose work is the result of two minds in a constant dialogue. Gregorio Samsa was born in Rome where he lives and works. Self-taught, uses different media such as video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting. Main exhibitions: VIAGGIARE SICURI (1st Biennal Exhibition One Night Event, different locations Milan, July 2014); 1+1=1 / HUNGRY GHOST” (curated by Antonello Tolve, Cinema America, Rome, November 2013); REAL / VIRTUAL (solo show, curated by Adriana Polveroni, Artissima 18 Side Event, Turin, November 2011) http://gregoriosamsa.com
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Thanks to Casale del Giglio
Opening Hours: from Monday to Friday 3-7 p.m. (or by appointment)
FOR MORE INFORMATION
info@albumarte.org T/F +39 063243882
Press Office: ChiNa Press Office china@chinapressoffice.it
Chiara Ciucci Giuliani +39 3929173661 – Nicoletta Guglielmucci +39 3932231307
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