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12/10/2011

Commercial Road

Unit G15 - London Metropolitan University, London

cura.magazine in collaboration with the London Metropolitan University and a network of Roman galleries - Federica Schiavo Gallery, 1/9 unosunove, Monitor, Furini Arte Contemporanea and T293 - presents "commercial road project".


From October 2011 to October 2012, five international emerging artists - Andrea Sala (IT), Per-Oskar Leu (N), Jesse Ash (UK), Willam Cob bing (UK) and Pennacchio Argentato (IT) - will alternate their work within the space of a year, presenting new and site-specific works in the display window of the University, giving into Commercial Road, in the East End, a few steps from the historical Institution of the Whitechapel Gallery.

The artists are therefore invited to re-interpret the original space of a showcase, that due to its nature, constantly visible to the public, will transform every work into an out-and-out project of public art.

With this initiative cura, also activates in the physical space an opportunity of encounter between artists and international curators, put side-by-side in a critical analysis of the works in each intervention.

A catalogue edited by cura.books, with the critical essays and the photographic documentation of the five projects will be published at the end of the five events cycle, on November 2012.

All the information concerning the project is available at:
www.commercialroadproject.com

Andrea Sala (b. 1976, Como, Italy) with TUTI FRUTI is the first of the five artists called to intervene in the window space of the London Metropolitan University, giving into Commercial Road, in London East End, a few steps from the Whitechapel Gallery. Commercial Road Project is a collaboration launched by cura.magazine with a network of five Roman galleries – Federica Schiavo Gallery, 1/9 unosunove, Monitor, Furini Arte Contemporanea and T293 – that will produce within the course of a year, from October 2011 to October 2012, the unpublished works of the five artists involved – Andrea Sala (IT), Per-Oskar Leu (NO), Jesse Ash (UK), William Cobbing (UK) and Pennacchio Argentato (IT).

Andrea Sala sees Commercial Road’s showcase as “the public that is within it” (Bruno Munari)

It is an opportunity to synthesize the elements of an investigation always aimed to the forms of design, of architecture and to the idea of display as “place” where to create new ways of “exhibit.”

A space without a skin, exposed 24 hours a day to the sight of the passers-by, where the modular element of display, designed on the geometrical trajectories suggested by the surrounding environment, retrieve the models of historical Minimalism – from Frank Stella, with the oblique and interrupted lines of his paintings, to Donald Judd with his serial modules and algific materials – as well as Hélio Oiticica’s forms, overlapping with the apparent ease of Tropicalism.

Here, an inclined and mirrored surface is inserted in the window space, with diagonal slits that become the central element of their function:
The artist affirms “Only in these cracks something can happen”.

Andrea Sala brings all the structural elements of a common commercial showcase to their essence: the plexiglass’ tubes in their primary colours, yellow, red and blue, that recall the neon lights of the shops; the mirror, which orders and, at the same time, multiplies the exposed merchandise, like in many fruit markets in Montréal – city where he lives and works – the display, set up, perhaps, as to show (or not) other products in the future, but today it is still and only a fruit display.

A catalogue edited by cura.books, with the critical essays and the photographic documentation of the five projects, will be published at the end of the five events cycle, on November 2012.

ANDREA SALA (Como, 1976) lives and works between Milan and Montréal, Canada. He graduated in Milan at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. Since his early works he developed a specific attention to the forms of design and ar- chitecture, questioning the materials that con- stitute them and their formal values. Selected personal and group exhibitions: M/S/M, Molinari Foundation, Montréal, 2011; Totem e Taboo, Museums Quartier Wien, Vienna, Austria, 2011; L'Ultima Sigaretta, Fede- rica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, 2011; Manimal, Ka- leidoscope Project Space, Milan, 2010; SI – Sindrome Italiana: le jeune création artistique italienne, Le Magasin – CNAC, Grenoble, Fran- cia, 2010; La Scultura Italiana del XXI secolo, Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation, Milan, 2010; Ci- cognino, Optica Center for Contemporary Art, Montréal, Canada, 2009; Design of the show Actions: What You Can Do with the City, CCA, Montréal, Canada, 2009; Networks, Fede- rica Schiavo Gallery, Rome; Allunaggio and other Landings, MACO, Mexico, 2008.

FEDERICA SCHIAVO founded the Roman gallery in January 2009, once concluded her role ad head of the curatorial department of Hangar Bicocca in Milan. The space opened with the first solo show in Italy of the American artist Jay Heikes and focused its attention on the research, development and promotion of a new generation of artists coming from the whole world, on the variety of medium, among them video, performance and painting. In the last years, the gallery was selected by the fairs Artissima, Turin (2011/2010/2009) and Frieze Art Fair - Frame London (2010). The artists re- presented are: Salvatore Arancio, Simona Bar- bera, Bhakti Baxter, Pascal Hachem, Anne Hardy, Jay Heikes, Ariel Orozco, Gabriele Porta, Ishmael Randall Weeks, Andrea Sala, Rob Sherwood.

CURA. is a curatorial project that revolves around the production of a quarterly maga- zine (cura.magazine), a publishing house (cura.books) and a space (cura.space), through which it investigates the contem- porary artistic production and promotes the most actual developments of the emerging practice, thanks to the collaboration with in- ternational artists and curators, the produc- tion of artists books, limited editions, exhibition projects and curatorial consulting.

LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY /
THE CASS
The Cass (Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Media and Design) is internationally renow- ned for its unique range of courses, state- of-the-art facilities and high quality teaching. Staff include working practitioners – many internationally celebrated in their fields of research–visiting lecturers, indu- stry freelancers and artists-in-residence. We are located within the vibrant creative com- munity of galleries, designers, artists, mu- seums and cultural industries that surround the City campus. Students have access to excellent wor- kshops, studios and specialist technologies to support their learning, including Metropo- litan Works Digital Manufacturing Centre. Strong links to employers and industry offer access to live projects and commercial briefs- students have recently done work for the BBC, Orange, Transport for London and Habitat. The Cass has excellent relationships with institutions such as the British Jewellers’ Association, the Design Museum, Whitecha- pel Gallery and The Worshipful Companies of Furniture Makers and Goldsmiths. The Cass is involved in a variety of festivals and pro- jects including Eat My Shorts, The Animal Gaze Symposium, London Design Festival, London Jewellery Week and Photomonth. Cass students have displayed work at inter- national festivals and have won competitions such as the 100% Design Award, RSA Design Directions, Goldsmiths Craft Council Awards, The Formica Award, Channel Mesh scheme, and European Animator of the Year.

PROGRAMME
October 2011 – Andrea Sala (Federica Schiavo gallery)
January 2012 – Per Oskar Leu (1/9 unosunove)
March 2012 – Jesse Ash (Monitor)
June 2012 – William Cobbing (Furini Arte Contemporanea)
October 2012 – Pennacchio Argentato (T293)

For more information:
cura. press
press@curamagazine.com

cura.
via ricciotti 4 - 00195 Roma
T +39 06 96039672 / F +39 06 96039673
info@curamagazine.com
www.curamagazine.com

Opening: October 13 at 6.30 pm

Unit G15 - London Metropolitan University
41 Commercial Road - London

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