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7/3/2006

Silvio Wolf

Italian Academy at Columbia University, New York

Scala Zero

Curated by Laura Barreca and Olivia D’Aponte.

The exhibition is in cooperation with the Robert Mann Gallery, New York.

Scala Zero, a project created by Silvio Wolf, utilizes the La Scala opera house of Milan as a model for the artist’s research on the idea of theatre as a place of representation and make believe. For this project, Wolf created still and moving pictures in which both physical places in the opera house and the immaterial processes which occur there are shown at the same time. The photographs depict public, but deserted areas of the opera house (foyer, boxes, stairways and corridors) and the hidden systems for monitoring and controlling the auditorium and the stage (light controls, microprocessors, stage light control panels, etc.). Embedded in Wolf’s work is the idea of the dual nature of places such as doors, mirrors and the proscenium of the stage, all of which the artist sees as thresholds, in his particular vision of theatre.

The film Scala Zero, is based on the artist’s photographs and tells the story of a man’s journey through the opera house. The entire film was shot with a “subjective camera" and a live soundtrack, which means that the space and the events are seen through the eyes of a protagonist whose identity is never revealed. As the subject passes over the thresholds of this mysterious journey, we gain an increasingly clearer view of the secret life of the opera house: that reality hidden to the public gaze by the neoclassic architecture, the opulent gold de'cor and stuccowork, the velvet and the precious timber of the great stage on which the public is the unwitting actor.

Scala Zero, originally shot on 16 mm film with digital post-production was first presented at the Biennial of Venice in the United States pavilion in the year 2000, and is now shown in a re-edited “director’s cut" version on Dvd video in stereo. The Italian Academy presents for the first time in New York a selection of six photographic works from the series Sfocate (blurred) and the video Scala Zero 2004 Director’s cut.

Italian Contemporary Art in New York, curated by Olivia D’Aponte and Laura Barreca, is a new series designed to bring the best of modern Italian art to New York audiences. Too often we regard Italy as the source of classical art and forget to focus on its rich artistic contributions of today. Italian Contemporary Art in New York offers a selection of Italian artists who have recently earned international recognition, all of whom have chosen a language connected to historical traditions of Italian art. The aim of this series is to demonstrate this "Italian style" within the context of American culture.

Opening: Wednesday, March 8th,2006; 5:30 - 7:30

Italian Academy at Columbia University
1161 Amsterdam Avenue - New York
Hours: 10 - 4 pm Monday to Friday

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