The new exhibition space DAS opened at the right time for the Arte City. Its first exhibition showed contemporary local and international artists, some with a glance to what might be upcoming in this place. Guido Segni at Adiacenze considered how artworks could be conceived in the era of automation of work. Rob Chavasse focussed on the past and future commercial aspects of the vitrines of Tripla and Simone Marini indicated new directions in our daily life.
Guido Segni: Till the End – Adiacenze
Rob Chavasse: Shutter – Tripla
Simone Marini: Nuove Direzioni – Autostazione di Bologna
Prisma
DAS
Via del Porto 11/2, Bologna
http://dasbologna.org
30 January – 10 February 2019
Just closed, is the first presentation “Prisma” at the new exhibition space of DAS (Dispositivo Arti Sperimentali). Prisma was divided into the more or less classical group show “Homo Sapiens” curated by Davide da Pieve, and two video installations. Moreover, there were performances during the weekend of the Arte City.
The main hall was dominated by “Immer müde und scheiss Wetter in New York” (Always tired and shitty weather in New York) by Paul Barsch and Tilman Hornig. It was a gathering of personalised umbrellas, showing people lying in beds. A little bit more difficult to discover, were the works by Filippo Cecconi: four Amazon dash buttons, which almost got lost at the huge walls. Nevertheless, it is a simple way of questioning our society’s consumer behaviour using the internet. More poetic – alike the umbrellas – are “Picasso’s” glasses, lying on a dusty floor. In the adjoining room, Paolo Bufalini was represented by an untitled work, a chain mail, embracing a crystal ball. Are these the Middle Ages reminding utensils allowing a glance into the future?
These more or less minimalist artworks from “Homo Sapiens” were complemented by the two video installations by Alex Pietro Marra and LeleMacrojanni in separated rooms. The first artist, projected a video animation on a light permeable screen, to allow the rays to cause another projection on a second screen and even at the wall behind. In union with the sound, “Virtual_DAS” might be an outlook to the future of the new exhibition space.
“Nobody’s Tales” is an interactive book, which combines the historic format for text recording with contemporary mediums like video and image projection. The observer is invited to thump through the book in his/her own pace, to discover films, documentaries, narratives and fictions, combined with literature elements. It is a journey through the currently technical feasible and possibilities in the future. As a whole, the new exhibition space of DAS, which is supported by the municipality of the city of Bologna, is a place to keep an eye on.
Guido Segni: Till the End
Adiacenze
Vicolo Spirito Santo 1/B, Bologna
www.adiacenze.it
1 February – 16 March 2019
Also Guido Segni questions about the future, but in a different direction. His investigations point to the possibility to create artworks in a time of an automated production process. He experiments in programming algorithms aimed at artistic creation online/offline and accordingly presents material manifestations of his research as classic panel images, but increasingly video’s or computer animations. The title giving work “Till the End” (2018) is a video generated by an algorithm, which selects photograms from the internet. This ongoing oeuvre, only stops when the technical conditions are no longer available.
Consequently, Guido Segni reflects also on time, for example in illustrating his productive time in “The artist is typing” (2016). Moreover, he is following his five-year-plan “Demand full laziness” since 2018. This long-lasting performance is “a time span where to rethink and explore new relationship between automation and leisure time, artistic gesture and digital production, human imagination and algorithmic muse.” It is not only a questioning about creative possibilities in the future, but also about working conditions, the role of labour in our society and our obsession of work and production with a glance to the increasing automation.
Rob Chavasse: Shutter
Tripla
Via Indipendenza 71 f/g/h, Bologna
www.spaziotripla.com
31 January – 14 February 2019
For its last exhibition before closing this artist-run-space, Tripla invited Rob Chavasse to shape the three vitrines in the via Independenza. The artist has created three wallpapers, by manipulating an inkjet handgun, originally conceived for commercial purposes, like printing barcodes etc. The normally smaller information codes are enlarged. It is a reference to the closing non-profit gallery and the potential commercial future of the space. Moreover, it might be a glance to data manipulation in all its types.
Simone Marini: Nuove Direzioni
Autostazione di Bologna
Piazza XX Settembre 6, Bologna
29 January – 3 February 2019
Appropriate to the environment, Simone Marini installed street signs in the foyer of the bus station, indicating streets with names referring to social media, search engines and sharing websites. Like streets and squares, the bus station is a physical point where people meet. The artist’s new directions designate virtual gathering places, which might be less personal. Nonetheless, the internet and its possibilities has become an existing reality in many people’s lives.
All about the Arte City 2019
What happened during the Arte City 2019 in Bologna?
Part 1: Arte City 2019: Exclusion, Inclusion, Disturbance
Part 2: Arte City 2019: What the future brings …
Part 3: Arte City 2019: Poesy from heaven and the underground and in between the two