a cura di Saretto Cincinelli e Cristiana Collu

23 settembre -  22 ottobre  2017

San Giovanni Valdarno

Casa Masaccio – Corso Italia, 83

MK Search Art, Palazzo Panciatichi – Corso Italia, 14

Hans Bellmer, Marina Bolla, Monica Carocci, Daniela De Lorenzo, Elena El Asmar, Antonio Fiorentino, Stefano Giuri, Carlo Guaita, Humphrey Jennings, Leo Malet, Paolo Meoni, Laura Pugno, Man Ray, Andrea Santarlasci, Addo Trinci, Ylena & Victor Vorobeyev.

Sabato 23 settembre ore 18.00 | Palazzo d’Arnolfo – Museo Terre Nuove, Piazza Cavour, 1 introduzione alla mostra dei curatori Saretto Cincinelli e Cristiana Collu ore 18.30 | Inaugurazione | Casa Masaccio centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, MK Search Art Palazzo Panciatichi. Progetto realizzato nell’ambito di Toscanaincontemporanea2017 in collaborazione con: Galleria Nazionale di Arte moderna e Contemporanea, Roma e Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato.

FORT / DA risonanze e intermittenze del fotografico, a cura di Saretto Cincinelli e Cristiana Collu, pone al suo centro una riflessione sull’uso della fotografia in ambito artistico in un’epoca in cui la quasi totalità delle immagini transita da piattaforme digitali e lo stesso concetto di medium sembra destinato ad un definitivo superamento. Stabilendo una sorta di cortocircuito visivo tra alcune sperimentazioni fotografiche di protagonisti delle avanguardie storiche (Man Ray, Hans Bellmer, Humphrey Jennings, Leo Malet) e quelle di artisti contemporanei, la mostra non vuole istituire corrispondenze o filiazioni poetiche ma, semplicemente, registrare alcune analogie che, sottotraccia, paiono stabilirsi tra due diversi momenti storici, in base alle problematiche aperte dalla nuova plasmabilità dell’immagine; una plasmabilità che in un certo senso rende inevitabile la ridefinizione di un rapporto fra immagine digitale e pittorica e, più in generale, tra fotografia ed altre pratiche artistiche.

Le opere in mostra paiono accompagnare la progressiva transizione dell’analogico al digitale, con una sorta di carsico e discontinuo viaggio à rebours che mette in campo un ritorno verso la materialità, come negli intempestivi e volutamente artigianali collage di Daniela De Lorenzo o Carlo Guaita, nelle abrasioni delle immagini paesaggistiche di Laura Pugno, nella dimensione indicale e al contempo fantasmatica delle immagini analogiche di Monica Carocci, o nelle inusuali stampe su carta abrasiva di Addo Trinci, nella frontalità monumentaria e seriale delle foto di vasi trasparenti realizzate con il banco ottico da Marina Bolla, nel fuori fuoco o nel ‘mosso’ delle nature morte di Paolo Meoni, nella silenziosa e apparente staticità delle riprese video di Antonio Fiorentino, nelle foto parzialmente oscurate di Andrea Santarlasci, negli arazzi di grande formato e di derivazione fotografica di Elena El Asmar, nelle diapositive trovate, segnate da muffe graffi e infiorescenze di Stefano Giuri e infine nelle Photo for memory di Yelena e Victor Vorobeyev che indagano performativamente l’uso del fotografico in termini strettamente connessi all’atto della sua ricezione.

In continuità con le varie edizioni de L’evento immobile e con la più recente mostra Il fantasma del disegno, che hanno indagato il rapporto tra immagine mobile e immagine statica, Casa Masaccio rivolge ora l’attenzione alle ricadute intermediali e post-mediali che segnano la metamorfosi dell’immagine fotografica contemporanea.

Il fort /da contenuto nel titolo della mostra allude al cosiddetto ‘gioco del rocchetto’ sul quale Freud si sofferma in Al di là del principio di piacere. Gioco in cui l’assenza è evocata nella presenza e la presenza nell’assenza.

a cura di Saretto Cincinelli e Cristiana Collu

12 novembre – 31 dicembre 2016

Casa Masaccio | Corso Italia, 105 | San Giovanni Valdarno

MK Search Art | Corso Italia, 14 | San Giovanni Valdarno

artisti: Vincenzo Agnetti, Giovanni Anselmo, Afro Basaldella, Alberto Burri, Antonio Catelani, Gianfranco Chiavacci, Vicking Eggeling, Mario Mariotti, Fabio Mauri, Paolo Meoni, Ugo Mulas, Bruno Munari, Claudio Parmiggiani, Pino Pascali, Hans Richter, Walter Ruttmann, Giulio Squillacciotti, Massimiliano Turco, Eugenia Vanni, Luigi Veronesi.

sabato 12 novembre
ore 18:00 | Palazzo d’Arnolfo-Museo delle Terre Nuove, Piazza Cavour, 1
presentazione della mostra alla presenza dei curatori Saretto Cincinelli e Cristiana Collu
ore 18:30 | Inaugurazione

Senza titolo (la pittura come modello) si propone come una riflessione sull’astrazione e i suoi margini in pittura, scultura, fotografia e cinema d’artista.

L’esposizione, che pone il suo baricentro nelle sperimentazioni degli anni settanta (Giovanni Anselmo, Pino Pascali, Ugo Mulas, Vincenzo Agnetti, Claudio Parmiggiani, Gianfranco Chiavacci, Mario Mariotti), prevede alcuni strategici arretramenti che conducono sino alla riproposizione di opere seminali delle avanguardie storiche (Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Walter Ruttmann, Luigi Veronesi) e alcuni sconfinamenti nella ricerca contemporanea con riprese tematiche che vedono coinvolti artisti delle ultime generazioni nati o operanti in Toscana (Antonio Catelani, Paolo Meoni, Eugenia Vanni, Massimiliano Turco).
Due postille – quasi note a margine – alla mostra, sono costituite da XX, 1978, di Mario Mariotti e da La dernière image / L’ultima immagine, 2015, di Giulio Squillacciotti, opere filmiche che più che come ‘modello’ utilizzano la pittura e la sua storia come materiale e pre-testo.
Un’indagine dunque che mira ad unire lavori storici alle ricerche attuali in un racconto sincronico messo in atto attraverso le opere conservate nella collezione del Museo Casa Masaccio Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, ai prestiti concessi dalla Galleria Nazionale d’Arte moderna e Contemporanea di Roma; dalla Fondazione per le Arti Contemporanee in Toscana – Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci di Prato; dal Museo Giovanni Fattori – Fondo ex museo progressivo di Arte Contemporanea di Livorno e alla gentile collaborazione della cineteca del Goethe-Institut Rom.

Rassegna realizzata nell’ambito del progetto di iniziativa regionale Toscanaincontemporanea2016

20 giugno – 26 luglio 2015

San Giovanni Valdarno, Casa Masaccio e sedi varie

a cura di Pietro Gaglianò

con Vincenzo Cabiati, Pierluigi Calignano, Remen Chopra, Gaetano Cunsolo, Fabio Cresci, Giovanni De Lazzari, Orietta Fineo, Vibha Galhotra, Francesco Lauretta, Concetta Modica e Sophie Usunier, P.S. Jalaja, Pantani-Surace

Walking on the Planet con i processi della residenza e della creazione artistica site specific apre una riflessione sul modo in cui gli artisti abitano il pianeta.

Camminare è una forma di conoscenza diretta, che rallenta il tempo della percezione e lo restituisce a un’elaborazione non superficiale. Walking on the Planet mette in evidenza la necessità di conoscere l’ambiente circostante in tutte le sue forme, sociali, antropologiche, geografiche architettoniche; e lo fa invitando gli artisti a dare forma a opere site specific in dialogo con lo spazio urbano e culturale di San Giovanni Valdarno.

Nove artisti italiani, con base in Toscana o provenienti da altre regioni italiane, e tre artiste indiane abiteranno in una breve residenza lo spazio storico di San Giovanni Valdarno. Gli artisti italiani sono tutti legati al territorio dalla collaborazioni con Madeinfilanda; così come le tre artiste indiane hanno già legami con la Toscana e con il Valdarno.

Nel corso della residenza sono previste azioni specifiche e momenti di incontro con il pubblico, in particolare quello dei più giovani. I tredici artisti presenteranno infine il proprio lavoro allestendolo negli spazi di Casa Masaccio, e in altri luoghi espositivi in città, con un momento di condivisione con il pubblico che potrà prevedere anche performance e azioni collettive. L’inaugurazione sarà preceduta da un talk aperto al pubblico in cui il curatore, alcuni degli artisti, e altri ospiti si confronteranno sul tema della sostenibilità dell’arte e della sua importanza come fattore di coesione sociale.

Al progetto principale verrà affiancato l’allestimento de “La Camera delle Meraviglie”, con le opere di diciassette artisti, provenienti da tutta Italia ma già presenti in scorse edizioni di Madeiniflandia. Come in una wunderkammer della tradizione rinascimentale saranno esposte opere capaci di portare l’osservatore sulla soglia dello stupore, sfidando la linea di confine che caratterizza le tradizionali partizioni in naturalia e artificialia. Le diciassette opere  verranno accolte in uno spazio che contribuirà a costruire la dimensione di uno studiolo privato, un luogo di contemplazione e conoscenza.

Gli artisti coinvolti sono Adalberto Abbate, Stefano Arienti, Bianco-Valente, Francesco Carone, Antonio Catelani, Francesco De Grandi, Marta Dell’Angelo, Paolo Fabiani, Serena Fineschi, Michele Guido, Amedeo Martegani, Nero/Alessandro Neretti, Paolo Parisi, Luca Pozzi, Luigi Presicce, Pedro Riz à Porta, Eugenia Vanni.

Con Walking on the Planet, Casa Masaccio centro per l’arte contemporanea prosegue il programma  Casa Masaccio in residence, una piattaforma permanente di residenze d’eccellenza per la mobilità degli artisti e curatori sia italiani che internazionali. E in questa occasione stringe una nuova collaborazione con Madeinfilandia, “un luogo inventato da artisti per artisti per costruire occasioni di approfondimento diretto dell’arte e di loro stessi”, che dal 2010 opera nel cuore del Valdarno, nella cornice di un’architettura industriale dismessa, per promuove il lavoro degli artisti in una dimensione di autonomia intellettuale e creativa. Consolidata invece la collaborazione con l’associazione MK Search Art, attiva a San Giovanni Valdarno, in una rete di connessioni con la scena artistica emergente dell’India, grazie a una rodata esperienza di attività internazionali con il paese asiatico.

Iniziativa realizzata con la collaborazione del Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci nell’ambito del progetto regionale: “Cantiere Toscana Contemporanea” .

Tanya Goel  – Ps Jalaja – Aaditi Joshi – Prabhakar Pachpute

and a selection from the work of Casa Masaccio collection

Curated by Sumesh Sharma and Serena Trinchero

14^th December,  2013 –  26^th  January, 2014

Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno (Arezzo) Italy

Saturday, December 14 Casa Masaccio arte contemporanea and the Italian Cultural Association/MK Search Indian Art (MKSA) present the exhibition UN POPOLO SENZA MEMORIA è UN POPOLO SENZA FUTURO (people without memory is a people without future) curated by Sumesh Sharma and Serena Trinchero. The show, is the final event of the residency project Contemporary Renaissance that this yeat hosted artists Tanya Goel, PS Jalaja, Aaditi Joshi, Prabhakar Pachpute and the curator Sumesh Sharma .

On Saturday, Dec. 14, in occasion of the opening there will be a performance/conversation with Giovanni Pettena and Lapo Binazzi at Bibliocoop, spazio Soci Coop of San Giovanni Valdarno. At 6:00 p.m. is scheduled the opening of the exhibition which will be on display until January 26, 2014.

Casa Masaccio arte contemporanea and the Italian Cultural Association / MK Search Indian Art (MKSA) have promoted for the second consecutive year, the Contemporary Renaissance residence for young Indian artists (under 35) at Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno. The project, which has had great reviews in India, is also supported in this second edition to major institutions engaged in promoting cultural exchanges between the two countries, such as Italy-India, the Indo-European Association for fashion and design as well as Embassy of India in Italy and is part of the Regional Initiative Toscanaincontemporanea 2013.

In the house of the great artist, became a space for contemporary creation, the project develops aiming to create a permanent platform for residences of excellence for the mobility of artists, both national and foreign. The invited artists, through their artistic practices and the choice of different media, have been called to question and confront the local community, with art history, economic and social life of the city which over the centuries has experienced  various transformations.

The exhibition UN POPOLO SENZA MEMORIA È UN POPOLO SENZA FUTURO presents a reflection that occurs on different tracks with the purpose, not to connect two different cultures, but to propose a new vision for the future through a review of the past. A past not only identified in the glorious and celebrated one of the Renaissance, but also in events closer in time, as the latest edition of Masaccio (1968), which has seen among its protagonists some of the greatest exponents of Arte Povera and which represented a major event for the upgrade to the dictates of contemporary art.

San Giovanni Valdarno is the paradigm of the post-industrial city especially in the eyes of those who come from a strong growth in economy-such as India-which also involves an intensive exploitation of natural resources. With the end of the excavation to search for the lignite and the closure of most of the activities related to it, in an area between San Giovanni Valdarno and Cavriglia, the country seems to suffer a recession exacerbated by the state in which it is currently in the Italian economy. A town stuck in its urban development also physically by enormous factory Italsider, the symbol of a period of industrial prosperity that now seems far away and in time and space. The demand for labor, immigration and emigration are themes that engage and meet with the glorious artistic and cultural history of the place that gave birth to painters such as Masaccio and has been the scene of significant events in the cultural history of the country.

Even the history and role of San Giovanni Valdarno in the context of the contemporary art scene have been deeply investigated: the birth of the collection of Casa Masaccio and challenged last edition of Premio Masaccio in 1968, in fact, an integral part of the final exhibition which will open on December 14th.

Desiring to re-evaluate the past, not limited to the feeling of nostalgia, but on the contrary, aiming to identify clues to address the near future, in the exhibition space, the four Indian artists are in dialogue with masters of the past and some of the exponents of the season in the late Sixties and early Seventies that led Europe in an attempt to effect radical change in vision. Preliminary to this investigation and reflection on the events of 1968 is the performance/conversation, which precedes the opening of the exhibition, with two of its protagonists: Pettena and Lapo Gianni Binazzi; opportunity for discovery and connect with an event of importance national, but somehow forgot .

Tanya Goel, PS Jalaja, Aaditi Joshi, Prabhakar Pachpute share the space with the works of, among others, Giovanni Anselmo, Alighiero Boetti, Renato Guttuso: a dialogue facilitated in many cases by similarities and references in both methodological and conceptual ways. Other works in the collection however, in particular those from the first editions of the Premio Masaccio, established at the end of the Fifties, appearing as evidence of changes in the landscape and the evolution of the city.

Curatorial notes

The door of Aldo Sottani shoe shop stands opposite to Casa Masaccio arte contemporanea, the museum of contemporary art in San Giovanni Valdarno. Information on the various cultural events and news on the local soccer team is often pasted on the glass panes of the door. Behind those doors sits a man who was an apprentice to a shoe-maker since the age of 7. At 83 he repairs shoes so that he can enact the role of the town’s memory, his repair shop a more accurate centre of contemporary culture as it sits not far from the crossroads of the town designed by the Florentine architect Arnolfo di Cambio. The ‘ Calzolaio’  or the shoe shop holds an important image archive. Sottani became a photographer in his early 20s, but he collected images of the town from its past, collecting a large archive that often serves as a source for images during important publications, exhibitions. One such image records Gianni Pettena’s ‘Dialogo Pettena Arnolfo‘ where he boarded up in black and silver the Palazzo d’Arnolfo for the Premio Masaccio, prize organised the city’s council in 1968.

The jury composed by Giovanni Accame, Alberto Boatto, Gillo Dorfles, Corrado Maltese, Guido Montana, Claudio Popovic and Lea Vergine, was invited  by the cinema critic Marco Melani, selected 37 emergent italian artists, among them: Carlo Alfano, Giovanni Anselmo, Carlo Cioni, Ugo Nespolo, Alighiero Boetti, Giulio Paolini, Gilberto Zorio, Mario Nigro, Paolo Scheggi that brought about a radical understanding of art practice within Italy. Pettena established himself as an anarchitect.

Four artists from India in residency at the Casa Masaccio began a dialogue with their practice in the post-industrial setting of San Giovanni Valdarno, works that result from this experiment deal with the industrial remnants of production and materials that remain in the city.  The title of the exhibition is quotation from a vinyl board outside the abandoned and destroyed coal mining town of Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni just outisde San Giovanni di Valdarno  by the Chilean writer and political activist Luis Sepulveda. More than just a warning an attitude, a willingness to reactivation and set in motion that involves the memory of the past as the present and the future.

Artist brief description

Tanya Goel

The artistic work of Tanya Goel is based on the representation of light in art and architecture, due to the use of painting and video. Her interest in colour and pigment is a direct corollary and the result of her preoccupation with surfaces we constantly encounter in everyday life such as electronic signboards, shadows and reflections, moving images and television sets. Within this reflection an important moment will be the perception to the disjunction between colour as light/sight and the material pigments/technologies that embody colour. Those different moment indeed constitute a sort of global language of cities, reflecting a sense of ambiguity, dis-identification and homelessness that now characterize the urban landscape, despite illusory familiarity.

During the period of residency Tanya Goel has pursued her research focusing on the use of a trans-national industrial material, such as cement, studying its reactions with the color and linking its reflection on the reproducibility of the color of the blade Annunciation by Fra’ Angelico, which is in the Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Valdarno.

Inside of the exhibition of her works also will be called upon to engage in dialogue with the work of Giovanni Anselmo, Il panorama intorno fin verso oltremare,1996-1999, and with the works of other artists present inside the collection of Casa Masaccio. In fact, Goel shares with these artists a common methodology in working and surveying, going through a construction of the image or creating a video installation that draws its roots from the reality that surrounds us and the techniques of industrial production, touching elements that involve our existence.

Tanya Goel (1985) lives and work in New Delhi, India. She received her M.F.A in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art, a post baccalaureate in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She completed her B.F.A from the M.S University, Baroda. She has exhibited her works internationally in several group exhibitions, among them we remember the collective of the Sarai Reader 2013 – Exhibition 09, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi and the solo show 2 “left from here, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, New Delhi, 2011.

PS Jalaja

The focus of the work of Ps Jalaja is the man and its relation with time and space. In the eyes of the artist what makes man interesting is the essence of the individual and the loss of its characteristics once it is placed in a wider context, involving more people, and therefore the creation of human history. It’s just the multifaceted landscape of contemporary societies to create the multi-faceted world of paintings and drawings by the artist who seems to want to give voice to all, focusing on the stories of the men within humanity. Every element of her work is the tension with the space, in a tight battle to conquer a way to emerge.

Other constitutive element of the practice of PS Jalaja was the study of the history of the continuous flow of events, fights and lives, as it is today thanks to the thousand images produced by the media that at her eyes appear as events from the great visual strength.

During her stay in San Giovanni Valdarno PS Jalaja has continued her research on man/mankind trying to bring together the reality of Kerala, the region from which she comes, and characterized by a strong artistic culture, especially in the context of the murals with the stimuli found in Italy, thanks to the encounter with the masters of the past, as Leonardo da Vinci. In the exhibition A people without memory is a people without a future her work will engage a dialogue with the painting Still Life by Renato Guttuso .

PS Jalaja (1983) lives and works in Kochi.

He completed her studies at RLV College, Thripunithura in Kochi where she majored in painting and has exhibited his work internationally in group exhibitions. Among her most important exhibitions, the participation at Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 and at the Indian Pavilion, Prague Biennale, 2011.

Aaditi Joshi

Aaditi Joshi began to use plastic as a material to develop her artistic practice since April 2005. After the tragic event of the flood in 2006 that caused destruction in his hometown, Bombay, her interest in the material took shape proactively, especially thanks to the discovery of his qualities of strength and durability as opposed to its transparency. The plastic in her vision is not only a way to investigate the consumer society, but also to address issues related to it such as pollution and environmental situation. Through her series of works in plastic the intention is to try to destroy the distinction between form and content thanks to the changing forms that this material is able to take.

During the period of residence at San Giovanni Valdarno, the artist continued her experiments on the use of plastic, requiring the participation of citizens of the Tuscan town for the construction of her work. A real research that can be seen even from the logbook that will be exhibited in Casa Masaccio and that draws the attention of all on a global issue. The works of Aaditi Joshi will be placed in dialogue with the two works by Alighiero Boetti, Zig Zag (1967) and Columns (1968), works participating at Premio Masaccio 1968 and that, in particular Columns, refer to the idea of building a structure heavy and iconic (a column) through the use of a lightweight material and perishable as paper.

Aaditi Joshi (1980) lives and works in Bombay.

She graduated in drawing and painting at the LS Raheja School of Art in Mumbai. It was selected among the 20 finalists of the Skoda Prize 2012 and was awarded a scholarship to the Lucas Artists Residency Program 2012-2014 at the Montalvo Art Center, California. Her work has been exhibited in international exhibitions among which we remind a solo show in 2011, New Works at Gallery Maskara, Bombay and participation at India Focused presented by Creative India Foundation to SH Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China.

Prabhakar Pachpute

From 2010, the subject of the art of Prabhakar Pachpute is the life of the miners and the problems related to the strong exploitation of natural resources in India. A social and human condition that the artist knows well since the city his hometown, Chandrapur is known as the “city of black gold ” and the members of his family for three generations have worked in one of the oldest mines in the country. Because of the affinity between the industrial past of the Arno Valley and the current situation in India, during the period of residency, Prabhakar Pachpute research has focused on the mining history of Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, the consequences brought about by the end of lignite mining and the advent of post- industrialization. Reflections on the condition of migrants, working conditions in the mines of India as the study of the situation of Carrara and its anarchist roots are able to live thanks to its unique artistic practice based on the drawing. In his works, drawing is frequently associated with the use of shadows create by three-dimensional objects/sculptures, managing to create a special overlay formal languages and different contents.

Prabhakar Pachpute (1986) lives and works in Bombay .

He graduated in Fine Arts at the University Khairagarh, Chhattisgarh and continued his studies at the MS University of Baroda . His first solo show was in 2012, Canary in a Coalmine, Clark Huse Initiative, Bombay. In 2013 he exhibited in group shows such as The Exigence de Saudade, curated by Clark House at Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and Black OR White, curated by Galit Eilat at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

Curators’s brief information:

Sumesh Sharma (1980) is a young Indian curator founder with Zasha Colah of Clark House Initiative (Bombay). Clark House Initiative, was established as a curatorial collaborative concerned with ideas of freedom. They curated ‘I C U JEST’, a collateral event of the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2012 and more recently, were in residence at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris.

Serena Trinchero (1985) is an art historian and curator. She is master graduated at Università di Firenze, focusing her researches on relation between America and Europe in Twenties, reading this connection through out the study of little magazine published by Americans in Europe. She cooperated for a didactic program OpenStudios02 with Centro di Cultura Contemporanea Strozzina, Florence and she had curated several contemporary exhibitions involving young artists.

Museo Casa Masaccio

Museo Casa Masaccio is a public space for contemporary art, whose aim is to primarily present the best of Italian and international art. Their activities have created an important dialogue for Casa Masaccio with some of the most prestigious cultural institutions in Europe and internationally such as Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Association Française d’Action Artistique (AFAA), British Council, Berlinische Galleries, and Museum Boijmans, Rotterdam amongst others. Some of the artists with who Museo Casa Masaccio has collaborated are Bruce Nauman, Franz West, Cornelia Parker, Massimo Bartolini, Alberto Garutti, Mario Airò. Casa Masaccio collaborates with Italian and international emerging and established artists and curators to explore new paths of research. It also promotes opportunities for discussion and development with the young artists of the area, through the creation of laboratories, workshops and exhibitions. Since a few years now, Museo Casa Masaccio has become a permanent platform of residences for the mobility of national and international artists and curators. As the headquarters of the Municipal Collection of Contemporary Art, it preserves works by Alighiero Boetti, Giovanni Anselmo and other important artists, acquired or donated during the Premio Masaccio (1958-1968) and also from exhibitions which have taken place from 1980 onwards, until today.

Mk Search Art

MK Search Art (MKSA) was initiated in 2010 with the production of Crossroads: India Escalate, the Indian section at the fifth edition of the Prague Biennale (2011). The exhibition included 23 artists, and stands as amongst the most incisive representations of the contemporary scene in India within the context of an art biennial. MKSA’s project in Prague was entirely includes conferences and dialogues, which aimed to promote debates and a deeper understanding of contemporary Indian art. Through this project, the Prague Biennale represents the first example of a series of encounters that MKSA proposes at an institutional level in India and Italy, as an attempt to stimulate, through rediscovery, a cultural debate between Europe and India with the idea of extending it to emerging realities.

In 2011 MKSA organized Golden Quadrilateral, a performance by the Indian artist Monali Meher during the traveling exhibition Indian Highway at MAXXI in Rome and within India Day; a day of meetings with international guests dedicated to the cultural relationship between Europe and India and its different disciplines—art, cinema, poetry, literature and philosophy. In 2012 MKSA structured its activity in two main directions. The first, MKSA Association is in continuation with the series of cultural non-for-profit projects, such as the artists’ residency program in collaboration with Casa Masaccio Arte Contemporanea. The second is the foundation of the MKSA Gallery promoting emerging artists within the international context. In this context, and within this philosophy in these 12 months were realized a double personal exhibition by Monali Meher and Remen Chopra (Il Siero della Verità), a show by Alice Tomaselli (il dilemma dell’avanzo) and an exhibition by Lucie Fontaine  (Focaccia + Panino + Pizza + Tarallo). In 2013 MKSA, that now has an exhibition venue in San Giovanni Valdarno and one in progress in New Delhi, has been selected to participate at India Art Fair (IAF) where it presented a multicultural project featuring artists from India Indonesia, UK, US and Italy. In 2014 MKSA will be again at IAF, that represent the first fair in the Indian context.

Casa Masaccio Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea 

Corso Italia 83, 52027 San Giovanni Valdarno

Ph. 055 91.26.283  HYPERLINK “http://www.casamasaccio.it/”www.casamasaccio.it

e.mail: casamasaccio@comunesgv.it

free entrance

Mon-Sat 15.00 – 19.00 \ Sun 10.00 – 12.00 | 15.00 – 19.00

MK Search Art Association

Corso Italia 14, 52027 San Giovanni Valdarno

www.mksearchart.com

e-mail: info@mksearchart.com

Press Office : Ambra Nepi Comunicazione

Ph. 348-6543173

e.mail:  HYPERLINK “mailto:info@ambranepicomunicazione.it”info@ambranepicomunicazione.it

HYPERLINK “http://www.ambranepicomunicazione.it/”www.ambranepicomunicazione.it

Remen Chopra | Vibha Galhotra | Sonia Jose | Monali Meher

Curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki

1^st December 2012 – 15^th January 2013

Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno (Ar) Italy

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Programme:

Palazzo Arnolfo: 6:00 pm

Welcoming address: Maurizio Viligiardi, Mayor of San Giovanni Valdarno | Enrico Rossi, President of Regione Toscana; invited | Shri Debabrata Saha, Ambassador of India to Italy

Panel Discussion:

Residencies as an Exchange Platform (in context – Asia and Europe)

Panelists:

Maurizio Bortolotti | Art curator, writer and Professor at NABA Milan

Saretto Cincinelli | Art Curator

Mario Cristiani | Galleria Continua co-founder

IllySustainArt Project

Isin Onol | Art curator, writer – Turkey, Vienna; curator of 4th Sinopale Biennale

Nicola Trezzi | US editor of Flash Art and curator of Prague Biennale 5

Veeranganakumari Solanki | Art curator and writer; Contemporary Renaissance curator

Moderator: Roney Simon | MK Search Art co-founder and President of Indo-European Association of Fashion and Design

Casa Masaccio: 7:00 pm

Opening Reception

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Curatorial note:

San Giovanni Valdarno, the Tuscan town in the Arno valley in the historic district of Arezzo, traces a personal and significant association with art, culture and architecture. Being the birth place of the famous Renaissance artist Masaccio (b. 1401), there is a significant and protracted relationship with changing art movements and practices that integrate themselves within the inherent art and culture of this town. Though San Giovanni Valdarno was founded in 1296 by the Republic of Florence, it has integrated itself with cultures and influences from the surrounding regions, thereby imbibing multicultural elements from the very beginning. The architectural layout of the historic centre of the town was created by Arnolfo di Cambio based on the layout of Roman cities with a piazza forming the centre with two main roads on either side from which the town extends via secondary streets. Though San Giovanni Valdarno is an industrial town, it preserves its cultural and artistic heritage.

Artists and art movements over the centuries has been influenced by historic events, political turmoil and contemporary happenings. Artists integrate personal views and ideas into a universal language through their art practices, similar to the history of the town of San Giovanni Valdarno.

During the residency at Casa Masaccio, the artists have explored and excavated, through ideas and research, the historic nature, architecture and art of the town to integrate it into their personal art practices. Maintaining an identity of their own, the artists have created a dialogue that engages with San Giovanni Valdarno, its culture and people; and at the same time realised the development of new contemporary ideas and forms through their art. The works created during this period adopt a language that merge into the history of the town, but at the same time maintain universal identities of their own.

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Artists – brief information:

Remen Chopra |

Casa Masaccio: Remen Chopra draws deeply from the Renaissance period and school of thought, which was very central to San Giovanni Valdarno, the birth town of Masaccio. Her works resemble a detailed report of the artist’s impressions and connections with the intensity of the laws of universe. These complexities and layers of the universe become paths of departure, and central to the course. Rendering it through the theatrical realm, Chopra enacts the act of cleansing in her work to step into the second birth of spiritual awakening. This work becomes the beginning of a yearning for the ideal, conveying the impressions of the new Renaissance.

Brief bio: Born in New Delhi, and educated at the School Of Visual Arts New York, Remen Chopra naturally tends to combine diverse mediums like drawing, photography, painting, sculpture and installation to create works that are visually as layered as their conceptual depth. The treatment of her materials creates sensations and textures that allow the innovations to visibly layer beyond the surface. This furthers the need to make the content evident for the viewer, even if drawn from an intensely private and thoughtful place to be available and assessed. Driven by her search for a new sense of harmony in a post modern world harried by fragmented confusion, Remen Chopra’s concepts manifest the composed collective of her imagination.

Chopra has exhibited her works internationally in solo shows and group exhibitions. She is based in New Delhi, India

Vibha Galhotra |

Casa Masaccio: Vibha Galhotra’s art practice addresses trans-cultural in the global local specificity. She focuses on the context of displacement, nostalgia, identity, existence construction or deconstruction, the banal cultural condition in, around environment of negotiations in the new constant changing world. The works Galhotra has created during the residency are from her series ‘Orbis Unum’. Through this work, the artist has attempted to replace, deconstruct and dissolve the existential thought of the world of differences, religion, hierarchy, borders and power. Galhotra has drawn from the chastity of white to re-design the flags for One World, where the cultural and social symbols of geo-political places are denoted but not differentiated. The artist draws a reference from Einstein’s statement; “the acceleration of free fall with respect to the material is therefore a mighty argument that the postulate of relativity is to be extended to coordinate systems that move non-uniformly relative to one another . . . .”

Her Re-birth Day project, inspired by Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise engaged the first public art interaction for the people of San Giovanni Valdarno, who participated in the creation of this work on 16th and 17th November 2012. The work will be exhibited in San Giovanni Valdarno on 1st December and on Re-birth Day – 21st December 2012. The interaction of the people with this work will extend into the artist’s concept of her Orbis Unum series.

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Brief Bio: Galhotra’s work expresses the fusion of science and spirituality through the collective concern of schizophrenic spaces and effects on culture and human values. Her work crosses the dimensions of art, ecology, economy and activism. Though she claims that she is an artist but not an activist, there is a hint of activism or social responsibility. Her work is inspired by her social existence and concern towards this fast growing urban development and depleting living environment. She employs various medium, from photography, animation and found object to performative objects, installation and sculpture conceptually and symbolically to create experiential spaces.

Galhotra has exhibited internationally in biennales as well as national and international solo exhibitions and collaborations and her works have been published widely. She is the recipient of the Scholarship for Young Artists, HRD, Department of Culture, India and the Inlaks fine arts award. Currently, she has an ongoing solo exhibition Metropia at Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), North Carolina, USA.

Galhotra lives and works in New Delhi, India.

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Sonia Jose |

Casa Masaccio: Sonia Jose’s work during the residency at Casa Masaccio is a creation of her impressions of her immediate surroundings. Through her sensitive ability to absorb her surroundings, Jose has translated her observations of the architecture and diverse history of the associations of San Giovanni Valdarno with other towns and cities in Italy into her works and installation. The vitality of the centre and the knowledge of a trusted structure within the unknown is something that takes shape in Jose’s works, signifying the connection of the contemporary re-birth (Renaissance).

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Brief Bio: Drawing inspiration from everyday life and experiences, Sonia Jose’s art practice relates to the environment and personal/social history. Her work stems from a need to preserve and acknowledge lived experience – she is particularly drawn to the intimate and overlooked circumstances that surround routine life practices. Working with varied media that includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation – she investigates the relationships, exchanges and politics between place, architecture, object and individual.

Jose graduated in fine art from the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore. She has exhibited her works internationally and nationally in various biennales and exhibitions and has also held several solo exhibitions in India. She was awarded the Robert Bosch Art Grant for her art project ‘A place called home’ in 2009.

She lives and works in Bangalore, India.

Monali Meher |

Casa Masaccio: At this month long Casa Masaccio artist residency program, Monali Meher portrays the site- specific aspects of San Giovanni Valdarno. In her short period of time here; the artist draws from her experience with the new surroundings, its nature, and architecture, interiors of spaces as well as people and their customs. In spite of Meher’s physical appearance – which is fleeting or still – the emphasis is on the surrounding and its symbolic nature. These are reflected in her photographs and video works, which she has created during the residency. This series of works also reflects the performative nature of her art practice.

Brief Bio: Monali Meher studied at Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai, 1990. In 1998 received ‘Unesco -Aschberg’ Residency in Vienna by Federal Chancellery for Arts and Science and performed her 1st performance,’ Reflect: A personal window display’, at Jehangir art gallery in Mumbai with the statement, ‘Nothing is permanent & it’s a nature’s law’. Since then she has exhibited her performances internationally at museums and institutes.

Meher’s mediums vary from performance, video, photography, Installation and drawing. The aspects of site specificity, time, and changing identity, process & hybridization are important factors in her work. Her works and practice have been published extensively and she has participated in international in solo exhibitions as well as group exhibitions in museums and biennales. In 2000-’01 received residency at Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, funded by Dutch Ministry foreign Affairs & Nuffic, Huygens grant, in Amsterdam. Meher is based in Amsterdam.

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Curator’s bio:

Veeranganakumari Solanki is an independent curator and art-writer; based in Mumbai, India. She studied English Literature (B.A) and holds post-graduate diplomas in Indian Aesthetics; Art Criticism and Theory; and M.A History. Her curatorial experience has involved research on Emerging Asian and international artists and art practices, as well as Indian Modern and Contemporary Art. Solanki was a participant of the first Gwangju Biennale International Curators’ course, and has curated and co-curated exhibitions in India as well as internationally. She is the recipient of the first IllySustainArt Curator’s prize (2011) and the 1st Annual ALICE (Artistic Landmark in Contemporary Experience) Public’s Voice Award 2012 for best Emerging Curator. 

Inspired by and based on: Michelangelo Pistoletto’s The Third Paradise

Do something for everyone.   Do something for the world.    Do something for those who are close to you. Do something with those close to you.   Do something for others who are close to others. Come together for the rebirth of the world with those close to you.

Rebirth-day is the worldwide day of renunciation and volunteering.   Do something free for all. Do something free for the world. Do something free with those close to you. Do something free with those close to you; for others who are close to others.   Help the world be reborn free.

The great voluntary artwork of Rebirth-day is our rebirth in the world together.  Give me your trust, as I have given you mine. This is our work.

In the mirror we are together.  All are with us in the mirror. Now let us leave the mirror to change the world. Michelangelo Pistoletto

Vibha Galhotra, an artist from India, executed the public project Re-bith Day in November 2012 with the people of San Giovanni Valdarno, during her residency at Casa Masaccio Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy. She invited the people of San Giovanni Valdarno for an interactive work which was created by them over the course of two days of public interaction. They can now be a part of the development of this project, which is inspired by renowned Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto. Pistoletto initiated the Re-birth day project to talk about hope and get together  for  the beginning of his conceptualised “third paradise”.

Humanity has gone through two paradises. The first, in which it integrated fully with nature; the second, in which it expanded into an artificial world of its own, which grew until it came into conflict with the natural world. It is time to begin the third stage, in which humanity will reconcile and unite nature and artifice, creating a new balance at every level and in every area of society: the Third Paradise. The gestational process of Rebirth-Day, the first worldwide day of rebirth, has begun. We can all participate, with personal or group initiatives, actions and activities consistent with the process of responsible social change set forth in the Third Paradise.

Through her works, Galhotra expresses her concerns with the constant construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of the world/thoughts/societies/ countries and now of the earth. She has a belief and want, within her utopian thinking, to create one world. As an artist who constantly engages with community and peoples’ responses, she felt the necessity to create an ongoing dialogue with the people of San Giovanni to create a voice for the One World. For this, she invites you, the people of San Giovanni Valdarno to come together on 21^st December 2012; Re-Birth Day; around the work that you created to reflect, renounce and renew.

This year Prague Biennale and Flash Art had requested to Cav. Roney Simon, President of the Indo-European Association of Fashion and Design, to organize and present an Indian Exposition. Thanks to the initiative, the coordination and the relevant investment of the Indo-European Association of Fashion and Design and to the collaboration of MK Search Art, “Crossroads: India Escalate” exhibition was born and curated by Kanchi Mehta, a curator and art connoisseur from India.

This is the first time that such a Pavilion entirely dedicated to India has been presented within an Art Biennale in Europe.

The India Pavilion, which spanned through five large rooms on the 9th floor at the Microna, was on center stage with works of 22 artists from India who are emerging as well as established and have been recognized and selected for their diverse conceptual and contemporary ideas. India was the protagonist of the morning Official Press Preview during the inauguration day of Prague Biennale, received an overwhelming response by critics, artists, curators, collectors, journalist and magazines both Cech and International, becoming shortly the symbol of the entire Prague Biennale 5.

The inauguration day culminated with the “Round table India Escalate” hosted and moderated by President Roney Simon which consisted of His Excellency The Ambassador of India D. P. Srivastava, Peter Nagy, artists such as Anita Dube and T. V. Santosh with an introduction on India Escalate by Kanchi Mehta. The panel developed historic and cultural relation between India and Europe and generated a dynamic interaction with the audience, especially since the exhibition achieved to erase many pre-conceived notions of contemporary art from India.

Under the theme of India was also the Post-opening Party organized by Indo-European Association and Mk Search Art, in collaboration with Flash Art and Prague Biennale, which included traditional Indian dances, exhibitions and Asian cuisine. The program included a special visit to the National Technical Library, which was exceptionally opened for the guests of the party, and it was a way to celebrate the special presence of India in Prague Biennale.

The success of India Escalate is part of a wider project of the Indo-European Association and Mk Search Art, focused on discovering, supporting and promoting Indian contemporary art through managing and curating international art projects with the aim of building a cultural bridge between India and Europe.

PARTICIPARING ARTISTS: Anita Dube, Avinash Veeraraghavan, Charmi Gada Shah, Gig Scaria, Justin Ponmany, Minam Apang, Monali Meher, Nikhil Chopra, PS Jalaja, Ranbir Kaleka, Riyas Komu, Sakshi Gupta, Sarnath Bannerjee, Shah Betancourt, Shine Shivan, Shreyas Karle, Sonia Jose, Sudarshan Shetty, T. Venkanna, Tejal Shah, T.V. Santosh, Vivek Vilasini

CROSSROADS: INDIA ESCALATE – PRAGUE BIENNALE 5