curated by Francesca Referza

Thursday, 27th September 2012 at 06.30PM the group exhibition Versus XVIII, curated by Francesca Referza will be inaugurated, with works by Alis/Filliol, Tomaso De Luca, Manuel Larrazàbal (alias Manuel Scano), Renato Leotta, Marco Strappato. Versus was created by Velan in order to compare the work of local artists with the work of artists coming from different areas in Italy and abroad and has become a classic in the programming of the Turin art centre, hosting more than 150 artists many of whom have established their presence in the contemporary art system.

The duo from Turin Alis/Filliol (Andrea Respino, Mondovì, CN, 1976 and Davide Gennarino, Pinerolo TO, 1979), starts from a traditional idea of sculpture, but from the technical point of view this tradition is at the same time confirmed and denied or rather contradicted. Duality is in the very centre of their art and the heuristic final result, left open on purpose by the artists, is nothing else than the collision of their own physicality. As far as materials are concerned, Alis/Fliliol alternate tradition and experimentation. The result is often an amorphous sculpture with anthropomorphic recognisable traits. A kind of object totem or of a phenomena agglomerate of material. Manuel Lazzaràbal (Padua, 1981) is an eccentric artist in the etymological  sense of the word, thanks to the cultural and geographic stratification of his origins. Playing with his own artist identity, Manuel Scano decided to substitute his surname with the one of his grandmother from Venezuela, with Basque origins, tracing in this way a sort of new beginning in his own research path. Manuel Scano’s art is more and more a sound – kinetic art, where the playful elements of the performance become more important than the visual results. The final result is often determined by casual dynamics only partially controlled by the artist, according to his own plan. The work by Tomaso de Luca (Verona, 1988) explores the analysis of the images through photographic documentation, installation-sculpture and video projections, using drawing as his favourite media, drawing often used in a serial way. Tomaso de Luca with his research, aims at the de-structuring of some of the stereotypes which are deeply rooted in contemporary society, like for example, the winner and the loser. In particular, by reorganising the concept of public space, architecture and monument, the artist comes to criticise the traditional masculine identity. Generous Palmstroke (2012), the work created by the artist for Versus, is the result, at the same time accomplished and extremely refined, of the contrasting dialogue between nature/artifice and man/architecture, which is typical in his research. In the research by Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982), his reserved nature of person from Turin but with Sicilian origins, his technical background and his analytic approach, together with a sort of critical rigour, produce results which are extremely poetic. His attention is concentrated on the recent past, experienced by the generation of the currently thirty-years-old people, and he creates environmental installation defined by himself ‘simulations of walks’, where photographs taken from the archive of our collective memory, small vintage objects, strongly characterised tissues and materials assume a different significance, thanks to the meticulous preparation hermeneutics each time re-invented by Renato Leotta, according to the space he is working in. His installations appear as image condensations of historical periods and geography, often recognisable, but deliberately not made evident by the artist. I would define Marco Strappato (Porto San Giorgio, FM, 1982) a found footage artist, that is to say an artist, who, like others in his generation, works using existing material (most of all photographs and videos) which he passes through an unmerciful process of analysis and internal de-structuring. Starting from images taken from his personal family archive, Strappato began to use ‘other’ images, which contained a mere hint of that amount of feelings. Trying to cancel the passivity of observation and favour the flowing of that multitude of mental relationship contained in each image, with More than nine landscapes (pyramids) (2012) the artist  passes from an initial two-dimensional visual condition to a more evidently physical one, even though always mainly mental. For Versus XVIII a catalogue has been published, completely renewed in the former edition. No more the traditional collection of text and images to describe the exhibition bur rather a lively and personal instrument, which has been interpreted personally by each artist.

The artists:

Alis/Filliol (Andrea Respino, Mondovì, CN, 1976 e Davide Gennarino, Pinerolo, TO, 1979) live and work in Turin since 2007

Tomaso De Luca (Verona, 1988) lives and works in Rome

Manuel Larrazàbal Scano (Padova, 1981) lives and works in Turin

Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982) lives and works in Turin

Marco Strappato (Porto San Giorgio, FM, 1982), lives and works in London

We thank the artists and the galleries Monitor, Rome; Gentili, Prato; Pinksummer, Genova; The Gallery Apart, Rome. The show will remain open from September 28th to October 31st 2012 from Thursday to Saturday from 3.30 pm to 7.30 pm