Indugi

IN OCCASION OF THE 53rd INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION, VENICE 2009

A project born in Venice, following the encounter of two artists, for a gallery space and feeling the natural rhythm of things. A project which was formed more in awe of places, that let themselves be drawn from the mystery and history of certain objects, and which one dared to experiment the impenetrable material of glass; which declined in daily work use and unravelled in the words of several meetings. A project which afforded the luxury of the rhythm of walking and which found along the streets and water enough credible notes in order to create an exhibition.

Bruna Esposito followed sound, water and some obvious aspects of degradation in the lagoon city and proposes new works that here in Venice find unpublished resonance: ‘Bells and feathers are as much Venice for me as spires, pigeon droppings and lace.’
A common theme between these two artists is water yet again ‘(...) gives and takes many things, the sea, the most varied. Eroded by salt water and sand even the corks on bottles take on the aspect of archaic witnesses. (...) Light caresses the darkness in the abyss. What I cannot see shines deep below. I meet souls of big and small things. On the obstinate continuous flow of the waves, the stones, wisps of straw, the fragments of shells and network of tiny human presences can be heard at night in chorus with closed mouths.’ (B.E.)

When I’m asked to write about my works I feel awkward. When, luckily enough, the piece comes out well, I think it speaks for itself, in a language that all on two feet around the world hopefully will find comprehensible. In my moments of sheer optimism I even imagine a U.F.O. understanding it. This presumption, of not needing to add anything further, is because I feel that matter speaks with sincerity, or rather sings, exactly what it represents. The matter in itself is like a song already written, with numerous echoes. A little like what happens with proverbs.

For example in the Italian proverb: ‘Between what we say and what we do there’s an abyss lying.’
In this case, the word ‘sea’ is such an abyss and so immense that the sense of the proverb becomes like a warning of abyss and immense. Other proverbs where there are several simple ones, where the rhyme makes an impression on the person. So, I hope that these works too, that friends call ‘Eliche’ (‘propellers’), and I’m stubborn enough to call them ‘Without title’. (B.E.)

Since 1999 Maria Morganti regularly paints with pastels and oils. The papers are all painted horizontally. Almost every day, she systematically adds a layer of new paint on top. From paper to glass, from layers of colour on paper to layers on glass in mosaics the change has been magically natural. In the old Orsini furnace, Moranti discovers that the technique for producing golden mosaics coincides with her ‘way’ of thinking and carrying out painting on paper. Three layers of colour, one on top of the other....at the bottom blue-aquamarine, determining colour in the technique itself; then gold and silver, in small sheets of 7cm x 7cm and ending with a thin layer in blown glass that determines the colour from each time.

The difference from one fragment to another is determined by the metal leaf and the colour of the blown glass, but above all by the cut the artist carries out around the central square of the gold leaf. In this way, ‘ each single piece will be different from another – the artist highlights – and each one will be a unique piece.’ Just like ice on the inside all the transparency and profundity in colours and the ‘glass paper’ by Maria Morganti speaks with her ‘glass diaries’ and with the works by Bruna Esposito.

With the support of ANGELO ORSONI SRL, Venice
in cooperation with Federico Luger Gallery, Milan / Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice thanks to Gabriele Pimpini.

BRUNA ESPOSITO | SHORT BIO

Bruna Esposito was born in 1960 in Rome, lives and works in Roma, Italy
After Fine Arts High School, she attended shortly at the department of Architecture in the State University in Rome. She lived and worked in New York from 1980s where she studied dance with Batya Zamir.
In 1984 she attended at the Whitney Museum’s Indipendent Studio Program. From ‘85 she lived and worked in West Berlin where she received a grant from the I.B.A. in support of a project for “Two Public Compost Toilets”. In 1989 returned in Italy and in ’90 she attended at Mosaic school at C.I.S.I.M. in Ravenna.
In 1994 / 95 advanced sculpture instructor at Temple University in Rome.
Her works exhibited at several international exhibitions, among which the institutional
shows: Documenta X in Kassel, the 48th And 51st Venice Biennials. Istanbul Biennale in 2003. Korean Biennial in 2004. Awarded in 1999 with the P.S.1 Italian Studio Program. Golden Lion for the national Pavillion together with four artists at Venice Biennale in 1999. Winner, as most voted by the public, of the Italian young artist National Prize in 2000.

MARIA MORGANTI | SHORT BIO

Maria Morganti was born in 1965 in Milan. From 1985 to 1990 she moved to New York . Since 1995 she has lived and worked in Venice.
At the very beginning she concentrated on oils on canvas and pastel on paper. In this early phase of her career she also painted large-scale canvases. Between 1988 and 1995 her activity was mainly concerned with red monochromes, and later on she began to become involved with the stratification of planes of different colours. In recent years she has concentrated on installations, using canvas and paper to create various works which, when presented together, form a single whole. Furthermore, her work is based on the concept of “edges” as the meeting point of stratification and time, and this refers to the temporal aspect of making works. Recently she has noted down “diaries” of her work, gathering up the leftovers of the paint used for her canvases.. In 2006 Corraini published her diary-book “Storia di un quadro”, The History of a Painting; now with him she has a project based on the idea of the diary itself.

She showed in different galleries and museum in Italy, Europe and the United States.
Some galleries: Florence Lynch Gallery, New York; Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venezia; Galleria Plurima, Udine; Galleria Rubin, Milano; Galerie S65, Koln; Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre, Paris; Barbara Behan, London.
Some institution and museum: Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia; Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venezia; Grand Palais, Paris; Triennale, Milano; Quadriennale, Roma.
She has been written about by, among others, Giovanni Maria Accame, Chiara Bertola, Mel Gooding, Susan Harris, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, Angela Madesani, Mauro Panzera, Gabi Scardi, Barrry Schwabsky, Giorgio Verzotti, and Angela Vettese. Her works are to be found on the contemporary art archive site www.italianarea.it.