Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato
Saturday, November 26th, 2016 |4 pm | Valle di Blenio | Canton Ticino – Switzerland
Vernissage exhibition “Schlosshotel Pension Riviera” by
Fabrizio Giannini
Opening: Saturday, November 26th, 2016 at 4 pm
From November 27th, 2016 to February 25th, 2017
As part of the curatorial project foreignness, the exhibition “Schlosshotel Pension Riviera”, by Fabrizio Giannini, opens on November 26th, 2016.
The title of the exhibition is representative of a particular idea of exoticism, which permeated Canton Ticino in the last century and reinvented the landscape, through the imagination of people in the South.
The landscape thus becomes a place of continuous intersection and a new visibility system, reassembled with elements which are both extraneous and intentional. This incorporation does not simply concern the behaviour, or the essence, but also involves both the experience and the subjectivity.
The work of the artist is perfectly inserted into the aforementioned curatorial theme through the accurate choice of elements which are “forced” to interact among each other. For this purpose, Giannini applies juxtaposition and transposition/overlay techniques, performing a delicate process of balancing, de-contextualisation and demystification of society’s endogenous and exogenous factors. The process is intended as an interaction among nature, art and communication.
The artist submits nature and art to a practice which is at the same time conceptual and aesthetic, made of sudden incursions, invasions and adaptations to a fast-moving environment.
In his works, elements such as Mediterranean plants like the palm tree and the agave, which became peculiar components of the exotic natural landscape of Canton Ticino, appear as invasive and extraneous factors, while remaining in absolute but “artificial” harmony with the native vegetation that covers valleys and mountains of the pre-Alpine regions.
Giannini goes further, with ease and courage, to place the extraneous factor in an artistic historical context as a distinctive and visually prevailing element, and he does it with an irony and freshness intent and highly impactful gestures.
Works of extreme interest are created to analyse the relationship between art in its aesthetic forms and art in its more conceptual expressive forms, establishing analogies with the social context, where institutional culture and progress move, and the natural context, where we find the consumer society and the territory, whose equilibrium is threatened by the consequences of an unconditional progress.
The work of the artist can also be considered as a “formatting” and decoding process of our society, which is led back somehow to a virtual dimension with complex mathematical origins, leaked from a perpetual vortex of computer algorithms. With the exhibition, this concept is proposed through an impressive video installation, in terms of a deafening, repetitive, synthetic tune, which simulates a conceptual aesthetic dramaturgy of strong emotional impact.
Fabrizio Giannini (1964), born and raised in Lugano, studied in London and Paris, from where he started his artistic career.
From the ’90s, he has taken part in several exhibitions: from Milan to Turin; from Paris to London; from Uppsala to Tampere (Finland), to South Corea. He won in 2001 the federal prize of art and he has exhibited many times his artworks in Lugano.
His artworks’ production is very heterogeneous, but the common topic is the study of the use and excessive use of images in the world of media. Television has always been part of the work of Fabrizio Giannini, and, in the last years, the web also became an integral part of his production.
The foundation La Fabbrica del Cioccolato is in charge of the cultural activity in the former industrial complex Cima Norma. The activity of the foundation begins in 2016, with the launch of the curatorial project foreignness, conceived by the artistic director Franco Marinotti, a project analysing the interaction between different art forms and the territory, intended as evolving cultural, social and political heritage. The term foreignness [estericità] involves different ways of feeling stranger, different, not belonging, and consequently detached from a particular constantly evolving environment.
La Fabbrica del Cioccolato foundation has the following general sponsors and technical sponsors: Banca dello Stato del Canton Ticino, Winteler, Dazzi SA, Cham Paper Group, Assimedia; institutional sponsors: Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo Bellinzonese e Valli, Comune di Blenio, Organizzazione Turistica Regionale Bellinzonese e Alto Ticino, Comune di Acquarossa, Comune di Serravalle; Media partners: Plug-in contemporary art and culture, Ticino Finanza and Metalocus.
Ongoing events at La Fabbrica del Cioccolato: Paper Building, by Daniel González, visible on the main building’s façade, and CacaoCollective, by Ivo Rovira and Ana Ponce, open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 pm to 7 pm. It is highly recommended to announce any visits at the following e-mail address: info@chocfact.ch
Future events scheduled at La Fabbrica del Cioccolato: Three Grades of foreignness, by the Israeli multimedia artist and composer Yuval Avital (March 2017); the Spanish artist Juan López (June 2017); CH.Terraforming, by the artist Miki Tallone (September 2017), and the video installation Luogo, Tempo, Desiderio by the film director and documentary maker Claudio Zulian (November 2017).
Programme updates are available on the website www.chocfact.ch
General information:
Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato
what: vernissage of the exhibition Schlosshotel Pension Riviera – foreignness [estericità] project
when: Saturday November 26th, 2016 at 4 pm
bus service: for the vernissage, free shuttle bus from Lugano and Camorino and back. Timetable: from Lugano pensilina 2:30 pm, from Camorino (Fust parking) 3 pm, from Torre back to Camorino and Lugano 7 pm
artists: Fabrizio Giannini
critical essay: Rita Selvaggio
artistic director: Franco Marinotti
duration: from November 27th, 2016 to February 25th, 2017
entrance: free, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 12 pm to 7 pm or by appointment requests@chocfact.ch +41 79 794 00 16
contacts: requests@chocfact.ch www.chocfact.ch +41 91 972 27 14
address: Stabili Cima Norma | Strada Vecchia 100 | CH-6717 Torre-Blenio
Fabrizio Giannini Untitled, 2016 Inkjet print on Moab cotton matte paper 300 gr Dimension: 111×165 cm Courtesy the artist
Fabrizio Giannini Untitled 141, 2016 Inkjet print on canvas Dimension: 135×170 cm Courtesy the artist
Fabrizio Giannini Shining white, 2016 Direct Inkjet print on aluminium panel 2 mm Dimension: 120×80 cm Stroboscopic lamp Installazione/Installation Courtesy the artist
Fabrizio Giannini. Room 3 (overview ). Exhibition ‘Schlosshotel Pension Riviera’, Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato. Courtesy the artist.
Fabrizio Giannini. Room 2 (overview). Exhibition ‘Schlosshotel Pension Riviera’, Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato. Courtesy the artist.
Fabrizio Giannini. Room 1 (overview). Exhibition ‘Schlosshotel Pension Riviera’, Fondazione La Fabbrica del Cioccolato. Courtesy the artist.
