Italian Institute of Culture in Prague and AlbumArte present:
Anteprima#4 | Gianni Politi
Artist-in-residence at Italian Institute of Culture in Prague
Prague, August 20th | September 30th, 2014
Opening reception for Solo Show “giovane pittore romano”: September 15th at 6 p.m.
Italian Institute of Culture in Prague, Vlasska 34, 118 00 Prague 1
curated by Paola Ugolini
AlbumArte is pleased to present, as part of Anteprima – a programme of cultural and artistic exchanges – the Italian artist Gianni Politi (b. Rome, 1986) who will be invited, for this fourth edition, to be the artist-in-residence at the Italian Institute of Culture in Prague. In addition to his residency, Politi will put on his first solo exhibition in Czech Republic called giovane pittore romano for which the artist will elaborate a site-specific project.
Inspired by the 17th century architectural monumentality of the Institute, the artist focused on the courtyard of the Baroque Chapel. As the curator Paola Ugolini wrote, Gianni Politi conceived “three large and materic-surface paintings, whose thick finish is slightly highlighted by delicate and golden brushstrokes. Thus the painting surface turns out to be illuminated, depending on the trajectory of the light, and the canvases are so much uneven that they seem three-dimensional (…) paintings that clearly deviate from Gianni Politi’s previous production due to their innovation and the new technique applied, opening a season where the materic-surface of white monochrome paintings gets closer and closer to the whirling and virtuous sculpture of the Baroque period”.
The work of Gianni Politi focuses on the need to understand tradition and to establish a dialogue with it. In his work there is a constant comparison with the conventional currents of Italian painting, although his research is closely linked to autobiographical events and therefore also deeply connected to the world of private emotions. The reflection on the contemporary practice of painting – within a cultural context such as that of the Italian Institute of Culture in Prague – it is important to understand the evolution of the language of the artists in recent generations. Starting from an interest in painting as a practice with a value in itself, Politi has recently moved on to explore various less canonical forms of representation that involve concept such as space and time, the before and the after. What he used to reject during the creation of his works as waste or a “by-product” is now reused so that it can become an integral part of a whole new landscape, as happens in his recent series of white and gold papers.
The event is organized by Italian Institute of Culture in Prague – directed by Giovanni Sciola together with AlbumArte, a non-profit cultural association chaired by Cristina Cobianchi and with Maria Rosa Sossai as Artistic Director. AlbumArte is engaged in supporting and promoting contemporary art in Italy and abroad. The association has collaborated with several public institutions such as MAXXI | the National Museum of XXI Century Arts, the Italian Institutes of Culture in Istanbul, Ankara and Prague, the Italian Embassy in Turkey, the French Institute of Culture, the Office of Cultural Affairs of the City of Paris, the Cité Internationale des Arts of Paris, the Cultural Heritage Ministry and the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale.
Info:
Artist: Gianni Politi – Artist-in-residence project: Anteprima #4
Produced by AlbumArte, Rome – From August 20th to September 20th, 2014
Solo Show: giovane pittore romano
Opening reception: September 15th, 2014 at 6 p.m. – curated by Paola Ugolini
September 15th – 30th, 2014 – Location: Italian Institute of Culture in Prague, Vlasska 34, 118 00 Prague 1, CZ
Opening hours: Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. / 2-5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
AlbumArte Space | Project for Contemporary Art | Non-Profit Cultural Association Via Flaminia122 – 00196 Rome Italy – T (+39) 063227802 F (+39) 063290296 E info@albumarte.org W www.albumarte.org President Cristina Cobianchi Artistic Director Maria Rosa Sossai Project Coordinator Valentina Fiore valentinafiore@albumarte.org
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