V3 A8038

Albericus Belgioiosiae Auroborus

Luigi Ontani

日期
29.01.2019 | 16.03.2019
画廊
文件
OTHER

Massimo De Carlo gallery is pleased to present, Albericus Belgioiosiae Auroborus, a new exhibition by Luigi Ontani.

Luigi Ontani has described his practice as "the adventure I live as a person of art”, where art and life are inseparable, becoming a journey of pursuing and exploring one’s identity against historical canons. In his extensive career the eclectic artist has traversed different media, using objects, hand-colored photographs, papier mâché, ceramic sculptures, slide projections and performances to explore fictional re-creations of identity and regression into childhood and memory. Each body of work the artist has created is united through the usage of himself, as the centre point to explore a multitude of personae, embodying himself as his favourite heroes from mythology, fairy tales, history, and art history.

For Albericus Belgioiosiae Auroborus, Ontani has created a narrative that embodies the history and the architecture of Palazzo Belgioioso, the prestigious palace housing the gallery, completed in 1787 by architect Francesco Piermarini, and that was renowned for being the beating heart of the life of the wealthy and cultured Milanese of the time. The interaction between the space and the artist is strongly enthused by the characters and the events that have shaped the rich history of the building and that become tangible in the form of eight large ceramic masks, created by Ontani specifically for the occasion. Through each work the artist creates a narrative that continues and strengthens his exploration of individual identity, here through symbolism and heraldry.

Each mask on display creates a dialogue between historical symbols and mystical Oriental suggestions, key elements of the poetics of Ontani’s practice. Adorned with anthropomorphic details, like eyes and nose, this mannerist type of work confers to each emblem in the exhibition its own stylistic and symbolic importance, powerfully infused with mythological and oneiric details.

PalmAltrove, the golden star shaped sculpture at the centre of the second exhibition room, summarizes the union between Indian symbolism and the history of the West: the allegorical mouth, whose shape is inspired by the cosmic gardens of the Maharaja Jai Singh observatories in Delhi and Jaipur, gives life to a miniature of the leaning Tower of Pisa through the alchemy of the breath; the Etra d'ESTEtica mask at the entrance is dedicated to the art of painting, adorned with a long tapered brush and small mythological figures that at first glance appear as splashes of colour on a golden palette.

Using the same stylistic cipher and sense of humor, the artist has revisited the ancient emblem of the Belgioioso family, once symbol of the historical prestige of the family and present in the family's herald visible in the centre of the gallery ceiling and in the ouroboros dedicated to Alberico di Belgioioso, the nobleman and Milanese aesthete who commissioned the construction of the building in the 18th century.

With chronology and literature as the main driving forces behind the exhibition, a key reference point for Ontani is avant-garde writer Giorgio Manganelli’s book Discorso dell’ombra e dello stemma. As Manganelli observes, “to be crazy is the mother of art and literature”: Luigi Ontani restores the purity and innocence of his iconographic research in a kaleidoscope of images and complex references, roots of conceptual thought. Albericus Belgioiosae Auroborus is a sculptural exploration of identity that combines heraldic iconography with the hypertrophic imagination of the artist.

Luigi Ontani

路易吉·翁塔尼(1943年生于韦尔加托,博洛尼亚)是当今意大利最具影响力,也最杰出的艺术家之一。翁塔尼的作品代表了与当时贫穷艺术相反的立场。


他的摄影、绘画、装置、表演和中世纪活人静画 (TABLEAUX VIVANTS) 都与东西方极为丰富的图像传统相关。他常常是自己作品中的主角,穿着历史、宗教、或是文学故事中神话人物的服装,并借鉴了近代或更久远的多种资源。


翁塔尼于上世纪七十年代开始了他的职业生涯,以其生动的活人静画而闻名:在拍照或是录像中,他以各种方式展现自己,从皮诺曹到但丁,从圣塞巴斯蒂安到酒神巴克斯 — 他将历史、神话、文学和流行的主题全部拟人化。翁塔尼在他的艺术生涯中,尝试过各种各样的技术表达自我:从早期用灰泥创作的系列作品“OGGETTI PLEONASTICI”,到用瓦楞纸板切割成不同物体的“STANZA DELLE SIMILITUDINI”系列。创作技巧本身并不是艺术家想达到的目的,它们只是为翁塔尼创造了用来实验和阐述他最感兴趣的主题的机会:一趟穿越神话、符号和图像表现的跨时代之旅。


他的作品曾在多个国内外重要展览,以及个人展览中展出,包括:博洛尼亚当代美术馆(1990年);法兰克福艺术博物馆(1996年);罗马水晶宫(2000年);纽约 PS1当代艺术中心(2001年);比利时根特 SMAK(2003-04年);意大利法恩扎国际陶瓷博物馆(2006年);罗马 LORCAN O’NEILL GALLERY(2007-08年);那不勒斯 CAPODIMONTE MUSEUM(2010年);伯尔尼美术馆(2012年);罗马HENDRIK CHRISTIAN MUSEUM ANDERSEN(2014年);罗马圣路加学院(2017年)。翁塔尼也曾参加多届威尼斯双年展(1978年,1986年,1995年)。

Luigi Ontani 40 O8 Dp