Da Google Map
Pier Paolo Calzolari è l'artista che, il prossimo 14 Settembre, la galleria Kamel Mennour ha scelto per inaugurare i nuovi spazi in Rue du Pont de Lodi, nel 6 arrondissement di Parigi, mantenendo la sede più storica in Rue Saint-André des Arts.
Comunicato stampa
For his first exhibition at galerie kamel mennour, Pier Paolo Calzolari will make use of both exhibition spaces: a collection of mostly older works will be shown in the gallery on the rue Saint-André des arts, while the artist will be inaugurating the new space in the rue du Pont de Lodi with works that are largely recent.
An emblematic
figure in the Italian contemporary art scene and part of the Arte Povera
movement, since the 1960s Pier Paolo Calzolari has developed an unusual œuvre
based on the use of certain recurring materials: tobacco leaves, salt, fire,
frost, copper and lead. They play a role in a very
personal universe distinguished by a hermetic and alchemical poetry, where each
material is subject to transformations, but also causes them. Salt and ice
conserve, but sometimes they can also burn like fire. And frost, produced by
ancient fridge motors, enveloping sheets of metal like a virus, evokes the
whiteness of Venetian marble reflecting the midday sun. The art of Pier
Paolo Calzolari is inspired by a Franciscan vision of the world, which seeks to
establish an equal relationship between beings (be they human or animal). So
much so that effects of horizontality have become hallmarks of his work,
reminiscent for some of a theatre stage. In a Calzolari exhibition, each work
competes to establish the thread of a drama, dream or mystery (in the medieval
sense of the word). This theatrical dimension unfolds in strange performances
peopled with albino animals, but also with sculptures. Calzolari has often
compared his work to a temple in which the sculptures were “never envisaged as
a finished act […], but rather as different parts of an organism that spark a conversation”.
This explains why each element of these exhibitions takes the form of a
dreamlike ceremony – indeed, it is all about capturing a dream. “When the
dreamer dies,” the artist asks himself, “what happens of the dream?”
Born in 1943 in
Bologna, Pier Paolo Calzolari lives and works in Fossombrone, Italy. His work
has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including at: Galleria
Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’Pesaro (IT), Fondation Marguerite et Aimé
Maeght (FR), Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume (FR), Castello di Rivoli Museo
d’Arte Contemporanea (IT), Galleria Civica di Modena (IT), Galleria d’Arte
Moderna, Villa delle Rose (IT), Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain of
Nice (FR). Since 1967, he has also participated in major group exhibitions,
such as: “Where are we going? Opere scelte dalla Collezione François Pinault,” Palazzo
Grassi – François Pinault Foundation (IT), “Notations/Forms of Contingency: New
York and Turin 1960/1970s,” Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (USA),
“Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden, Washington DC (USA), The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,
(USA), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (USA), Tate Modern, London (UK), “Arte
Povera,” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota (JP), “The Italian
Metamorphosis, 1943- 1972,” Triennale, Milan (IT), Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg ( A),
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (USA), “The Knot Arte Povera at P.S.1, MoMA
P.S.1, New York (USA), “Prospect ’68,” Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf (DE),
“Op Losse Schroeven: Situaties en cryptostructuren,” Stedelijk Museum,
Amsterdam (NL), “Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form/Works, Concepts,
Processes, Situations, Information,” Kunsthalle Bern, Bern (CH); and he has
taken part in various international biennales, such as: 39th, 44th and 52nd
Biennale di Venezia (IT), as well as VII Biennale de Paris (FR), XII Biennal de
São Paulo, São Paulo (BR), Documenta IX and Documenta V, Kassel (DE). His work
is currently on view at Fondazione Prada, Venice (IT)
