curated by Cecilia Alemani
Maria Antelman,
Rosa Barba,
Kerstin Br盲tsch,
Philippe Decrauzat,
Haris Epaminonda, David
Maljkovic,
David Noonan,
Lisa Oppenheim,
Ryan Trecartin /
Lizzie Fitch
Opening: Tuesday 26th May 2009 h18:00
Press Office: Cristina Pariset T. +39 02 48 12 584 F. +39 02 48 12 486 Cell. +39 348 5109589
cristina.pariset@libero.it
/Solaris_cartella_stampa.zip
During the same evening the openings of Kaleidoscope with
Jos De Gruyter, of
Jana Sterbak at
Raffaella Cortese gallery and of
Pierpaolo Campanini at francesca kaufmann gallery will take place.
Gi貌 Marconi Gallery is pleased to present the group show Solaris, curated by Cecilia Alemani.
Borrowing its title from the cult sci-fi novel by Stanislav Lem, Solaris presents the works of ten
international artists, many of whom are exhibiting in Italy for the first time. Set on a planet inhabited by
an alien intelligence, the novel Solaris depicts a world in which desires come true in the form of
hallucinations. The researchers living in the orbit of Solaris are affected by a mysterious psychosis:
their most painful memories, their sweetest passions and their repressed fears materialize as 'guests':
these imaginary beings are perfect copies of the loved ones the astronauts had left behind on earth.
Hovering between the past and the future, the artists in Solaris draw imaginary landscapes inhabited
by fictional creatures, dreamy visions and hypnotic forms. Appropriating traditions that range from op
art to psychedelia, from modernist architecture to documentary cinema, the artists in this group show
鈥 all more or less in their thirties 鈥 seem to be exploring new, possible worlds in which hidden
memories and prophecies of future civilizations come to the surface.
By juxtaposing the nostalgic films of Italy-born Rosa Barba 鈥 whose work is also included in this
year!s Venice Biennale 鈥 to the desolated ruins of Croatia-born David Maljkovic, and by mixing the
fractal geometries of Swiss
artist Philippe Decrauzat with the multiple identities of American artist
Ryan Trecartin, the exhibition composes an atlas of a new geography of desire. American artist Lisa
Oppenheim presents a series of images of sunsets photographed by US soldiers in Iraq, while Greekborn
Maria Antelman inspects the surface of the moon before it was violated by human presence. The
collages of Cypriot
artist Haris Epaminonda, who recently exhibited at the Sharjah Biennal, portray
scientists and speleologists exploring the depth of the earth.
An atmosphere of cosmic amazement pervades the exhibition, which includes more than thirty works
presented on two floors of the gallery. Precious inlays of abstract whirls and auratic images appear in
the large drawings of
German artist Kerstin Br盲tsch. In the linen silkscreens by Australian artist David
Noonan 鈥 who was featured in the last Tate Triennial - masked faces alternate with twisted bodies.
The installation of the
American artists Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin explode in a new theater of the
absurd, in which avatars, clones, and other genetically modified creatures continuously change their
sex and identity, following the uncontrollable stream of their dreams.
The exhibition is curated by Cecilia Alemani, an independent curator who lives in Milan and New York,
where she is Curatorial Director of the new not-for-profit space X. She has recently worked on the
exhibition Italics. Italian Art Between Tradition and Revolution, 1968-2008, curated by Francesco
Bonami at Palazzo Grassi in Venice (2008) and at the Museum Of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2009).
From 2007 to 2008, she served as Curator of Special Projects for Artissima, Turin, Italy. She is a
regular contributor to Artforum.com, Domus Magazine, and Mousse Magazine.