The Fondazione Filiberto Menna—Centro Studi d’Arte Contemporanea, in collaboration with the Provincia of Salerno and the Comune of Salerno, founding members of the Fondazione, are pleased to announce the project PER AQUAM, by Fabrizio Cicognini, the first installment of the cycle Tempo Imperfetto, curated by Antonello Tolve and Stefania Zuliani.
The core-concept of Cotognini’s project for this exhibition, articulated in several installations rigorously site specific, is the sea, conceived as archive and treasure chest of memories, limitless repository of objects and relics coming from a past that water and time, «that mighty sculptor» (M. Yourcenar), transform, conceal, and, sometimes, return back to us.
Starting from Desantnik USV50—a model of diving helmet produced in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, and here employed as personal interpretation of Apollo’s bronze head that surfaced in the bay of Salerno—the artist has envisaged an aquatic itinerary that articulates in the Museum’s space. This itinerary aims at offering to the public a series of constructive contradictions, analytical actions, and underwater paths impacting on past and present. Thus, the diving helmet becomes an «artefact of contemporary archaeology», but also a useful «tool» «to travel through the water in search of new archaeological discoveries», of new spells, of new haunting atmospheres.
Disseminated through the museum’s collections, there are drawings representing Ichtyomorphs, creatures in the shape of fish, like The Sea Bishop or The Sea Monk, and some glass Dragonflies, water insects symbolising the warrior’s unquenchable disquiet of the spirit. A light up diptych, a light box describing the two «medusas», the mythological Greek monster and the jellyfish (medusa), connects the two floors of the museum. Taken all together, these artworks take part in a process of gentle contamination between themselves and the archaeological artefacts stored in the Museum, tracing an itinerary aimed at celebrating the Tyrrhenian Sea, its hidden treasures, and its culture. Immersion, a sound-track produced in collaboration with the sound artist Carlo Marchionni, acts as a link between the different works of art and propagates through the museum’s space, turning it into a total work of art. The effect is the production of a fairytale-like narrative bridging different moods and languages, to the point of joining together the realm of archaeology with that of contemporary art.
During the opening the artist will invite the public to a critical conversation devoted to the discussion of his research and the motives behind the creation of his project for the Salerno’s Museo Archeologico Provinciale. The project Tempo Imperfetto is supported by the DISPAC – Dipartimento di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale dell’Università di Salerno e dell’Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata. Other technical supporters: Associazione ArteXa and Fonderie culturali (The Foundation’s President Prof. Angelo Trimarco), Modula srl and Eusebi Arredamenti.
«PER ACQUAM», site-specific project by Fabrizio Cotognini within the project «Tempo Imperfetto», curated by Antonello Tolve and Stefania Zuliani, produced by Filiberto Menna Foundation. Museo Archeologico Provinciale di Salerno (in via San Benedetto, 28). Opening: May 7th, 5p.m., on view from May 8 until June 7, 2014 (tutti i giorni dalle 9,00 alle 19,30, lunedì escluso).
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[toggle title=”Fabrizio Cotognini • biography”]Fabrizio Cotognini was born in Macerata (1983). He currently lives and works in Civitanova Marche. He graduated in painting and sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Macerata (2009) and has presented his works in several exhibitions, among which: Le ragioni della pittura. Esiti e prospettive di un medium (Castelbasso, 2013, curated by L. Cherubini and E. Viola); Errors Allowed (Ancona, 2013, cur. M. Valentini); Disorder (Milan, 2012); Symbiosis (Rome, 2012); Ma quale, tra tutti i mondi, è il più esclusivo? (Salerno, 2011, cur. A. Tolve); Artday 2 (Macerata, 2011, cur. Franko B); Arte italiana a Fukuoka (Fukuoka, 2010, cur. A. Maugeri); Low (Chicago, 2009, cur. S.I. Ray); Contaminazioni (Morrovalle, 2009, cur. I. Quintavalle); Artika (Recanati, 2008, cur. N. Alessandrini); Pitti Uomo (Florence, 2007). In his works, which moves along the archaeological and historical horizons of art, Fabrizio Cotognini constantly refers to antiquity revisited through a contemporary approach, and privileges drawing as key element of an artistic research that also employs the new media. For him, time, memory, and history are majestic entities that he overturns, twists, and bends in scenic apparatuses that enhance their instability. In so doing, Cotognini joins word and image in a conversation involving sign, drawing, and writing, a conversation which becomes a place for contemplation and, at the same time, of reflexive concentration. It may also seem, and just seem, one of those glosses reminiscing the pleasure of reading ancient books, or even a late-Gothic illumination or a precious decoration revealing its exquisite details.[/toggle]
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images(1 cover) Studio sulla testa di Apollo, from the series of drawings on paper, 2014, 23x31cm cad., courtesy Prometeo Gallery (Lucca-Milano). Project «PER ACQUAM», first of the cicle Tempo Imperfetto promoted by Fondazione Filiberto Menna (Salerno) and organized in the Museo Archeologico Provinciale di Salerno, curated by Antonello Tolve and Stefania Zuliani, photo by Laura Paoletti.
