EPITOME/HEAD/FEAR is the enigmatic title of Marco Bongiorni‘s (b. 1981, Milan) solo show, that opens the program of Rivoli2 – Fondazione per l’Arte Contemporanea: the new three-story art venue, placed in the heart of Milan and conceived as a hub for creative sharing and experimentation.
Retracing the last four years of the Milanese artist’s research, the exhibition focuses on the drawing – his main expressive form. But to reflect upon this language, Bongiorni goes beyond his traditional economy of means and preparatory forms: exploiting different materials and supports, he reworks images and found objects, combining sculpture and drawing to create finished pieces that are between flat figures and tridimensional artifacts.
On the raised ground floor, the artist presents Untitled_Teste Nere (2013), a maxi installation that fills the space with small sculptures made of wood sticks, books, historical pictures, fabrics and primitive portraits depicted with oil and graphite on paper and canvas. The complex setting-up, that recalls the artist’s studio, seems to point out an instinctive bond with handcrafted work and the pure act of building. The research of the essential drawing through the use of a linear mark, along with the process of assembling crowded but still balanced compositions, matches with the almost obsessive repetition of shapes and actions.
The artist’s presence is strong in each of his works. This is evident in the recurrent attempts of self-portraying – displayed also on the first floor – and it’s even clearer in the basement, where Bongiorni shows the ironic OBAOBABIKE (2013), a curious bicycle turned into a drawing machine that challenges its common characteristics. In a video that accompanies the real tuned vehicle hung on the wall, the artist rides the chopper-like bicycle, trying to find a motor strategy to keep the balance, while sketching a flower fixed on the handlebars. Playing with uncertainty and harmony, Marco Bongiorni gives his works up to their addresses proving that they only exist in the eyes of the viewer.
EPITOME/HEAD/FEAR will run until March 2nd 2014, don’t miss it!
