Close up on

MARCO DI GIOVANNI
У К Р А Ї Н И
performance-installation

25 novembre – 16 dicembre  2006

OPENING
Saturday 25th November 2006 6.30 pm

Galleria Il Ponte continues its Close Up show series with Marco Di Giovanni,’s performance-installation. Running at the same time as the Giuseppe Spagnulo exhibition, this show takes a close look at a specific aspect of this young sculptor’s work.
The need for this exhibition was born of a trip taken by Marco di Giovanni to the Ukraine, and requires the spectator to project his gaze beyond the walls of the gallery: the artist can be seen on a white circular base, and has thrown off the sandals used on the long walk there. He has his face turned towards the inside of a large tube, which crosses the space in the direction of the Ukraine, renowned for its blue skies and yellow fields of wheat…
The pieces of metal – he often uses rusty old pieces of tubes, of tanks etc – sink into the ground and break through the walls, defying the laws of space. They invite the spectator to “live” inside them, involving him in a wholly different experience of the perception of things. For this he uses a series of rudimentary cathode tubes, lighting tricks, lens-based mechanisms, magnifying glasses and mirrors. These help him highlight perspectives and points of view, making us witnesses of a tricky, ironic vision of the world. Rather than being placed in a space, installations and performances rise up, emerge and overflow from the space and radically transform it. The event is often staged in the first person, and involves the spectators (who in their turn become actors)… “I’d like to create tension between the space, the piece and the person looking at the piece. It’s not a coincidence that my pieces are often accessible: they change as the point of view of the spectator changes, even though they are static. So people are actually a part of the pieces, and are perhaps one of the “materials” used.
Marco di Giovanni is one of the artists most worthy of attention in New Italian Sculpture. He was born in Teramo in 1976, and lives and works between Imola and Solarolo. He has exhibited constantly since the end of the Nineties, especially in Italy but also abroad (Centre Pompidou, Paris 2002; Galleria Carloni SpazioArte, Frankfurt, 2004) - in private spaces (Galleria 10.2!, Milan 2002; Otto Gallery Arte Contemporanea, Bologna 2003; Galleria Arte Ricambi, Verona 2003; Il Chiostro Arte Contemporanea, Saronno 2005; Galleria Spazia, Bologna 2006) and public ones (Galleria Civica, Modena 2003; Giardini di Villa Guastavillani and GAM, Bologna 2005) presenting his work in both personal and collective exhibitions. He is currently participating in the 49th edition of the Campigna Prize, an important event for young Italian contemporary art. This is taking place in the medieval town of Santa Sofia (Forlì province), where fourteen young Italian artists are engaged in a dialogue with the territory through their artistic expressions.

Press office: Susanna Fabiani: catalogue and photographs available on request
susy@galleriailponte.com