"next to normal"
vedovamazzei
Galleria Umberto Di Marino
Via Alabardieri 1, 80121 Napoli, Italy
Tel.+39 081 0609318 Fax +39 081 2142623 mail:
1st April>21st May, 2016
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To complete the cycle of monographic exhibitions organised for the ten more ten programme, the Galleria
Umberto Di Marino is delighted to present a new solo show by vedovamazzei on 1 April 2016. It is a mutual
tribute to the dialogue that has continued unabated since the exhibition that was held for the opening of our
Naples gallery in 2005.
The exhibition consists of a series of works produced over the last ten years which are still largely unfamiliar to the Italian public. They provide a way of reflecting on several rather controversial historical views considered crucial for European identity.
By exploring a detached viewpoint, various interpretations of the traumatic events that have shaken the collective conscience can be condensed into an icon and an aesthetic synthesis, questioning the principles of membership of the international community.
The first work, made specially for the exhibition, illustrates the horror and atrocity of the massacre of Srebrenica in 1995 when Dutch UN peacekeeping troops allowed Serbian forces under Ratko Mladic to torture and kill thousands of Bosnian Muslims. The gallery entrance is covered in sandblasted graffiti that expresses the anger contained in the words written on the walls of the rooms: “UN united nothing”. Other examples of graffiti containing jibes and insults from the torturers and perpetrators are mapped onto a pair of gloves to regain possession of a worrying lapse in the historical memory of western policy, leaving a trace of those who washed their hands of all responsibility for the tragic events during this period.
Simultaneously, the series of portraits Nine smiling communists (2007) refers to the hypocritically benevolent approach of European intellectuals towards the crimes committed by the Communist dictatorship. The reference to the text by Martin Amis Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million is emphasised here by reducing the portraits to shreds, reducing them in size and reconsidering the charisma exerted by some of these leaders over western culture.
This is the same intellectual community who, a few decades later, would visit the small house in the French countryside (The most visited place ever) which was the luxurious exile of the person largely responsible for the repression of human rights in Iran: Ruhollah Khomeyni.
The failure of the attempt to engage in dialogue has cast its shadow over events culminating in current conflicts. One of the most spectacular examples of this failure was the capture of Bin Laden with the destruction of his much more modest last residence in Afghanistan (The most wanted place ever). To emphasise the naïve spirit of some initiatives, vedovamazzei leaves the task of reproducing these places to the eye of a Neapolitan landscape painter. Beside it, the viewer is provided with a comfortable observation point in the form of a gilded sofa displayed at the Proje4L Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul (2008). On the back, the words “Anything goes” seem to be a warning that something will always escape our attention if our critical faculties are not on full alert.
Lastly, the work Next to normal (2010) is a meaningless doodle, an extreme everyday gesture of a Jewish child who was sent to a concentration camp. It remains a stark reminder of the irrational violence that afflicts humanity: with the passage of time, we can observe the same violence stripped of the emotional baggage of political views, highlighting the utter banality of evil.
vedovamazzei
Group founded in 02/01/1991. Stella Scala 1964 / Simeone Crispino 1962. They live and work in Milan
Selected solo and group exhibitions
2015
UN united nothing, curated by Gianluca Riccio, Certosa di S.Giacomo, Capri
2014
The end of a work never made, (Non Basta ricordare) three days performance Maxxi Museum, Rome Myopia Anthology, Magazzino, Rome
2013
Non Basta Ricordare, collezione Maxxi, curated by Hou Hanru. Roma Exquisite Corpse, Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris.
2012
No Necestitas Suerte, Istituto Italiano di cultura -Galeria Fucares, Madrid Cara domani. Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, curated by Caroline Corbetta, MAMbo, Bologna. Una magnifica ossessione, MART di Rovereto. Dormitorio pubblico, Ugo Mulas 1954, curated by Marianna Vecellio, Campoli Presti Gallery, Paris.
2011
Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, curated by Christian Viveros-Faunè and Jota Castro, Dublin Contemporary REBUS, curated by Mario Codognato, Simon Lee Gallery, London
2009
25Aprile, vedovamazzei, Galerìa Fùcares, Madrid, Spain
2008
Focus on Contemporary Italian Art, MAMbo, Bologna. 11 dicembre, Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Napoli. Dawn of Tomorrow, Contemporary Art in Italy from Italian Collectors, Proje4L/Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, Istambul.
2007
Public Art Projects Art 38 Basel Fit To Print, Gagosian Gallery, NYC
2006
Greatest hits vedovamazzei”, curated by Mario Codognato, M.A.D.R.E. Napoli.
2005
vedovamazzei, Praz-Delavallade. Paris Ma c’è proprio bisogno dell’aldilà?, Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Napoli. Fuori Tema, XIV Edizione della Quadriennale d’Arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma, Roma War is over, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Maria Cristina Rodeschini Galati, Gamec, Galleria d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Bergamo
2004
vedovamazzei, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino
2002
3eme Biennale de Montrèal, curated by Claude Gosselin, Montrèal, Canada
2000
Soggettività e Rappresentazione, curated by Giorgio Verzotti and Francesco Bernardelli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea del Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Torino
1999
Vedovamazzei, Galleria Artra, Milano
1995
Vedovamazzei, Studio Guenzani, Milano. Beyond the borders, Kwanjiu Biennal, Kwanjiu, Korea
The exhibition consists of a series of works produced over the last ten years which are still largely unfamiliar to the Italian public. They provide a way of reflecting on several rather controversial historical views considered crucial for European identity.
By exploring a detached viewpoint, various interpretations of the traumatic events that have shaken the collective conscience can be condensed into an icon and an aesthetic synthesis, questioning the principles of membership of the international community.
The first work, made specially for the exhibition, illustrates the horror and atrocity of the massacre of Srebrenica in 1995 when Dutch UN peacekeeping troops allowed Serbian forces under Ratko Mladic to torture and kill thousands of Bosnian Muslims. The gallery entrance is covered in sandblasted graffiti that expresses the anger contained in the words written on the walls of the rooms: “UN united nothing”. Other examples of graffiti containing jibes and insults from the torturers and perpetrators are mapped onto a pair of gloves to regain possession of a worrying lapse in the historical memory of western policy, leaving a trace of those who washed their hands of all responsibility for the tragic events during this period.
Simultaneously, the series of portraits Nine smiling communists (2007) refers to the hypocritically benevolent approach of European intellectuals towards the crimes committed by the Communist dictatorship. The reference to the text by Martin Amis Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million is emphasised here by reducing the portraits to shreds, reducing them in size and reconsidering the charisma exerted by some of these leaders over western culture.
This is the same intellectual community who, a few decades later, would visit the small house in the French countryside (The most visited place ever) which was the luxurious exile of the person largely responsible for the repression of human rights in Iran: Ruhollah Khomeyni.
The failure of the attempt to engage in dialogue has cast its shadow over events culminating in current conflicts. One of the most spectacular examples of this failure was the capture of Bin Laden with the destruction of his much more modest last residence in Afghanistan (The most wanted place ever). To emphasise the naïve spirit of some initiatives, vedovamazzei leaves the task of reproducing these places to the eye of a Neapolitan landscape painter. Beside it, the viewer is provided with a comfortable observation point in the form of a gilded sofa displayed at the Proje4L Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art in Istanbul (2008). On the back, the words “Anything goes” seem to be a warning that something will always escape our attention if our critical faculties are not on full alert.
Lastly, the work Next to normal (2010) is a meaningless doodle, an extreme everyday gesture of a Jewish child who was sent to a concentration camp. It remains a stark reminder of the irrational violence that afflicts humanity: with the passage of time, we can observe the same violence stripped of the emotional baggage of political views, highlighting the utter banality of evil.
vedovamazzei
Group founded in 02/01/1991. Stella Scala 1964 / Simeone Crispino 1962. They live and work in Milan
Selected solo and group exhibitions
2015
UN united nothing, curated by Gianluca Riccio, Certosa di S.Giacomo, Capri
2014
The end of a work never made, (Non Basta ricordare) three days performance Maxxi Museum, Rome Myopia Anthology, Magazzino, Rome
2013
Non Basta Ricordare, collezione Maxxi, curated by Hou Hanru. Roma Exquisite Corpse, Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris.
2012
No Necestitas Suerte, Istituto Italiano di cultura -Galeria Fucares, Madrid Cara domani. Opere dalla Collezione Ernesto Esposito, curated by Caroline Corbetta, MAMbo, Bologna. Una magnifica ossessione, MART di Rovereto. Dormitorio pubblico, Ugo Mulas 1954, curated by Marianna Vecellio, Campoli Presti Gallery, Paris.
2011
Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance, curated by Christian Viveros-Faunè and Jota Castro, Dublin Contemporary REBUS, curated by Mario Codognato, Simon Lee Gallery, London
2009
25Aprile, vedovamazzei, Galerìa Fùcares, Madrid, Spain
2008
Focus on Contemporary Italian Art, MAMbo, Bologna. 11 dicembre, Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Napoli. Dawn of Tomorrow, Contemporary Art in Italy from Italian Collectors, Proje4L/Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art, Istambul.
2007
Public Art Projects Art 38 Basel Fit To Print, Gagosian Gallery, NYC
2006
Greatest hits vedovamazzei”, curated by Mario Codognato, M.A.D.R.E. Napoli.
2005
vedovamazzei, Praz-Delavallade. Paris Ma c’è proprio bisogno dell’aldilà?, Galleria Umberto Di Marino, Napoli. Fuori Tema, XIV Edizione della Quadriennale d’Arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma, Roma War is over, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Maria Cristina Rodeschini Galati, Gamec, Galleria d’arte moderna e contemporanea, Bergamo
2004
vedovamazzei, GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Torino
2002
3eme Biennale de Montrèal, curated by Claude Gosselin, Montrèal, Canada
2000
Soggettività e Rappresentazione, curated by Giorgio Verzotti and Francesco Bernardelli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea del Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli, Torino
1999
Vedovamazzei, Galleria Artra, Milano
1995
Vedovamazzei, Studio Guenzani, Milano. Beyond the borders, Kwanjiu Biennal, Kwanjiu, Korea
Opening :
1st April 2016 from 7pm to 10pm
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