Curated by Carolina Lio
Opening: Saturday 3rd November, at 6.30 p.m.
From 3rd November, 2012 until 26th January, 2013
Catalogue in gallery
direction Gianfranco Matarazzo
Saturday, 3rd November at 6.30 p.m., the GiaMaArt studio inaugurates and moves to the ground floor of its already well known location of Via Iadonisi, 14 in Vitulano. Presenting the exhibition: "The Party is over", Stefano Bolcato’s personal exhibition, one of the winning artists of the first edition of ORA.
Gianfranco Matarazzo’s choice to move his art gallery to the same premises which were once occupied by the workshop of a blacksmith, Vittorio, was dictated by two fundamental reasons. Firstly and most importantly, is the desire to reopen the physical space in which Vittorio (Gianfranco’s beloved father) conducted his craft. By reopening the physical space, the colors of the paintings and installations flood the place, making it live again which goes beyond any requirement of space. The second reason is related to continuity. Since the “forge", in a figurative sense, is the place where new ideas are generated, the place in which they grow and form new talent, the passage "from workshop to workshop" is linear and does not involve the radical changes, but only an adaptation, from art to art.
The project will present a series of works done in recent months by the artist in a project prepared specifically for the gallery and its new spaces.
Stefano Bolcato follows a recognizable and consistent pop research that he has carried out for many years. All his works are, in fact, “located” in his own personal parallel universe populated by small characters and assembled LEGO bricks. In this, a dimension recovered from the times of childhood and laden with a strong symbolic connotation, the artist creates scenes as much ironic as dramatic. Real life in all its facets is demystified and made a caricature in the instant that it is reconstructed in a game for children, allowing us to look at the human comedy from above and to rethink and weigh every situation. In this way, we can identify the dynamics of playfulness and even comedy behind everything that happens to us, not taking anything on too seriously in the consumer and pop key of present day. But this is not without a critical and melancholic vein that acts as the central core of not only the location of the works in the exhibition but also Bolcato’s entire research. Among the nuances of the title chosen for the exhibition we find a sense of indefinite nostalgia and surrender at the face of an inexorable sense of closure and defeat.
As Carolina Lio, curator of the exhibition explains in the catalogue: “Perhaps it is the world of childhood that has ended, or more generally the time for illusions. The moment we realize that we are actually describable by toy theaters, here the obvious questions arise regarding the approval of contemporary art, the meaning of our actions and how much reality there is in the apparent individual freedom conquered by modern man. “Addressing social issues, from current events to the most discussed political issues, Stefano Bolcato, there where he jokes can at the same time also emphasize the patina of fiction that surrounds our daily actions and the enforcements destined to break out into grotesque situations from which we defend ourselves by exercising a sort of continuous inhuman detachment from the world around us.
The exhibition will be open until January 26th, 2013 from Tuesday to Saturday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and by appointment. Times may vary, always check by phone. Bilingual catalogue with text by the curator available in the gallery, GiaMaArt studio editions.
Comments 1
Say something