La mia casa dov'e'?
dal 16/10/2002 al 20/11/2002
Segnalato da
16/10/2002
La mia casa dov'e'?
Istituto Italiano di cultura, London
Where is my home? Graham Fagen, Flavio Favelli. The exhibition explores issues of 'home' or specifically of leaving one's home: moving, being forced to leave, to sell-up, or emigrate. The loss of a house/home, carries with it the risk of loss of identity. A personal environment is our compass in space and time.
where is my home?'
Graham Fagen, Flavio Favelli
The exhibition entitled "la mia casa dov'è? where is my home?"
curated by Vittorio Urbani - director of Nuova Icona, Venice -
consists of works by the artists Flavio Favelli (Italy) and Graham
Fagen (Scotland). The exhibition explores issues of "home" or
specifically of leaving one's home: moving, being forced to leave, to
sell-up, or emigrate. The loss of a house/home, carries with it the
risk of loss of identity. A personal environment is our compass in
space and time. Romans measured the world distances as distances from
Rome, i.e. from home. When we say "China is a distant country", this
"distance" is meaningless for Chinese people but a useful criterion
for us. The eventual return brings new risks: feelings of
disappointment and loss of familiarity.
Graham Fagen (Glasgow, 1966) is an artist exploring with humour the
context of contemporary visual culture, through the use of different
media. For this exhibition Fagen explores the contradictory legacy
of the last Stuarts: a name familiar to all Scots. Although the
Jacobean movement seems to be long dead, the issues of traditional
Scottish identity are cogent in the time of the debate and confused
perspectives, which arise through the process of Devolution which
Great Britain is undergoing. The artist work from within his own
national tradition and historical problems, and carves an unlikely
new identity for the Scottish national hero, the last Stuart 'Bonnie
prince Charlie'. Who could be more at home in Scotland that a local
gentleman? But in reality the figure in question suffered the
troubles of exile and death in Rome. In the context of contemporary
society, heroes and super-heroes are familiar figures in which
common people put unrealistic expectations of hope and revenge. Maybe
the return to London of the Young Pretender - as the Prince is
historically known - could give a thrill of a dangerous disturbance
to that - at least partially soul-less and bureaucratic - process of
Devolution.
Flavio Favelli (Firenze, 1967) works in spaces which have
lost their identity and function, like dilapidated factories,
abandoned buildings and the like. From found objects and wasted
materials, he is able to create poetic but powerful installations of
'quasi-furniture' - things that seems to have a functional attitude
although mysteriously maintaining an esthetic nature. For the show in
London, Favelli will install a 'grand' mirror (in Italian, one
'specchiera') in the first floor hall and a few more
furniture-sculptures, like a large carpet and side tables which play
with the concept of elegant housing and at the same time retain a
feel of temporariness and poverty. An impoverished nobleman is
perhaps the dweller of Favelli's palace. The exhibition has been
commissioned - and is substantially funded - by the Italian Cultural
Institute of London. The two artists will create new work, and will
re-install it personally. The exhibition is conceived as migrant -
rather than 'travelling'. The exhibition will later travel to Venice,
at the Nuova Icona's gallery. An additional showing ('migration') in
Istanbul is planned. At each venue the show will be reshaped
according the local characteristics.
Image: 'La vetrina dell'ostensione I', via Rialto, BO, 2001.
curator: Vittorio Urbani
opening: Thursday October17th, 6.00 p.m.
period: until November 20; opening hours 10 a.m. - 5
p.m., Monday to Friday
Italian Cultural Institute, London