Serie Inversa_Exh#04
Serie Inversa_Exh#04
April 27, 2017 at 6:30 pm
Via Poliziano 32, Turin
TALK
Incastri / Joints
An in-depth talk with the artist Francesco Del Conte and the carpenter and restorer Jean Negri.
May 11, 2017 at 6:30 pm
at Via Poliziano 32, Turin
The meeting will provide an in-depth study of the work in the exhibition Joining, and the story of the artist’s seven-month residency at the Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu in Japan. Del Conte will reveal the hidden part of his project and the videos made at the workshop of the carpenter Toshiro Kobayashi during the phases of making the wooden joints that are at the basis of his research. The carpenter and restorer Jean Negri (1961, Mannheim) will participate in the discussion and talk about his experience with this technique and the differences between Western and Eastern technologies.
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The group exhibition _Exh # 04 concludes the annual cycle of the Reverse Series, a program sponsored by Project Diogene that carries out a survey in Piedmont to discover the artistic research paths currently outside the commercial or institutional circuits. The artists selected for the fourth edition of the project, which will be hosted in the spaces at Via Poliziano 32 starting on April 27, 2017, are Francesco Del Conte, Domenico Olivero, and Juan Sandoval.
Joining – by Francesco Del Conte – investigates the traditional joinery technique that over the centuries has shaped Japanese architecture. The work was conceived and produced by the artist in Japan during the 7 months research program at the Center for Contemporary Art CCA Kitakyushu. The project started when the artist commissioned eight different types of joints from Toshiro Kobayashi’s workshop, a carpenter based in the Ehime Prefecture who still follows the traditional procedure. The artist has studied these objects with the methodological rigor that the photographic medium grants, depicting them as the protagonists of a carpentry manual through the rhetoric of a neutral and objective timeline.
Each joint, made up of numerous parts, contributes to the building’s harmony, becoming not only an evident and functional paradigm of the concept of architecture itself, but also inviting us to reflect on the original relationship between man, space and living. The camera’s subject is not only something tangible and physical, it is also a form of knowledge; a fragment of history that breathes within the wooden shapes.
With Tusiri inundu 1827 (everything is resolved in doubt 1827) Domenico Olivero reflects on contemporaneity with humanistic spirit, investigating the fragility of memory and the new information technologies. On this occasion, the unstable form of nature becomes sculptural memory. The concept of multiplicity and creation is highlighted in the relationship between the physical form of a simple ball, made up of thousands of unstable crystals of snow, perceived by a laser scanner which converts it into a digital code. Through an automatic connection to a 3D printer, the code creates a stable physical object. An unnatural artifice, a figurative work, the memory of the reflection of light on a transparent body, or perhaps something else; perplexity is highlighted by the background images, a sky, and a QR code.
The project Nascondere (Hiding) is part of Juan Sandoval’s current research on the sculptural object, which arises in connection with a specific context, where the environmental impact caused by industries is particularly significant and in some cases disastrous. The artifact on display is the result of a process of extraction of soil and clays collected in the area between Naples and Caserta, where over the years various materials and toxic waste have been illegally hidden in legal and illegal dump sites. The project also concerns a significant action of hiding this artifact in the wall of a new building in Switzerland. Hiding indirectly regards the contradictory relationship between the levels of legality and illegality, about which it is often difficult to express an opinion or position. The outcome of Sandoval’s intervention can be read as visual announcement of something for which there are no visible instances, a kind of paradox of representation, a way to approach the object being investigated which takes on the shape of an apparition.
Artists’ Bios
Francesco Del Conte (Milan, 1988), studied graphic art at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin. Then he moved to Belgium and in 2013, he obtained a master’s degree in photography from the Hogeschool Sint-Lukas in Brussels with a thesis on the use of analog photography in contemporary society. His research focuses particularly on photographic film and he proposes installations with projectors and light-boxes arranged in the surrounding space. His most recent projects concern a series of objects and tools belonging to the industrial and architectural sectors. His work has been exhibited in Italy, Belgium, and Japan.
Domenico Olivero (Cuneo, 1964), is an artist with a highly conceptual approach, whose expressions adopt different techniques, particularly new media, used according to social and anthropological dynamics. His interest in communication strategies has led him to take action in the reality of the Internet on different topics: Cuneosuccede (Cuneo happens), a social dailynews on Facebook, do@time, a blog on art, or Pa-re-te, an on-line artistic project. Among his many work activities, we highlight the recent exhibitions of Oc-land, presented at different locations, operating on the formation of identity. He collaborates with the group E_qui.
Research by Juan Esteban Sandoval (Medellin – Colombia, 1972) has developed participatory projects in collaboration with cultural associations that deal with issues of immigration, economy, and local culture. He has created works with members of the indigenous communities in the Amazon region and in the Andes. His current research is focused on the worker’s role in the transformation process of cities and on the processes and materials that give meaning to the sculptural object.
Serie Inversa_Exh#04
Via Poliziano 34, Turin
from April 27, 2017 to May 20, 2017
Inauguration on April 27 at 6:30 pm
