Tanti auguri e saluti is the exhibition dedicated to the work of Iginio de Luca curated by Pietro Gaglianò for the Marina Bastianello gallery. The title takes up the phrase translated into various languages and engraved by NASA on the Golden Records of the Voyager space probes launched into the solar system as a testimony of humanity destined for possible extraterrestrial forms. On show are a series of works from recent years that follow the trace of suspension, of the threshold condition, between inside and outside, visible and invisible, public and private, comic and tragic, personal and political.
There are two devices through which the visitor’s experience unfolds. The first, visual, consists of a conspicuous structure made of innocent tubes holding two panels on which as many posters will be affissi every day, images taken from De Luca’s blitzes in public space or from other works, always connected to the sphere of relations between the individual and systems of power. The second device, sound, takes the form of a similar structure where two loudspeakers transmit a sequence of audio works on a loop, all created by the artist by sonorising materials and places or reworking national anthems, the supreme expression of an abstract and abused collective identification. A mirrored and rotating megaphone watches over both devices, including the visitor in a mesh of symbols, between protest and control.
At the end of the exhibition, in a secluded, dark space, a lightbox with the image of a kiosk of fires and plants flashes to the rhythm of morse code, one of the many that illuminate, incessantly, incomprehensibly, the night in Rome. The message is, of course, Best wishes and greetings.
Iginio De Luca. Tanti auguri e saluti, a cura di Pietro Gaglianò, Marina Bastianello Gallery, Mestre Venice (Italy), until March 14.
On 12 March, there will be a talk by the artist and a video projection at the M9. Museo del Novecento in Mestre.
images: (cover 1) Cover exhibition (2-3-4) Iginio De Luca, «Tanti Auguri E Saluti», Marina Bastianello Gallerym Mestre. february 2023 © Luis do Rosario
