ZAIRA CARRER, GIOVANNI PAOLIN ENG
GuestRoomMaribor 2022
Zaira Carrer in Giovanni Giacomo Paolin
PINO POGGI
I’d like to be a blank page
Curated by: Zaira Carrer in Giovanni Giacomo Paolin[…] I’d like to be a blank page
because I hope that this different culture of mine,
of social aesthetics, archived then
reshuffled
and rethought,
will truly bring that wind
of new impulses,
to make us fly once again,
…not even too far….
but at least a little further.
This extract from Pino Poggi’s 2001 poem I’d like to be a blank page, shown in its full length on the gallery walls, is the starting point of the homonymous exhibition.
Poggi, born in Genoa in 1939, is an Italian artist whose importance to Slovenian art cannot easily be overstated. He’s the founder of the Arte Utile movement, which conceives art as a way to communicate and to reflect on today’s problems, always looking for a possible solution. He participated in several solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe, including the 1970 Venice Biennale and the 1977 Documenta exhibition in Kassel..
Conceived as a survey of Pino Poggi’s production, this exhibition features works different in their nature but similar in their substance, to convey the truly eclectic oeuvre of the artist, who never ceased to experiment with new materials and concepts. Moreover, it shows how these works always start from white space, a blank page.
But what does »being a blank page« mean?
It is first and foremost a space of possibility, where the artist can freely and fully express his thoughts and creativity, as for the video A Man Now Alone (1978 - 1979). The video, projected on white plastic foil (in a similar manner to the way in which the artist used it in several of his installations), is a socio-political film reflecting on current capitalistic society, always leaving us more and more isolated.
A blank page can also be a pure aseptic space that gives birth to different figures, whether in bronze, plaster, wood or simply sketched, because Poggi’s creativity is never constrained to a sole means of expression. These particular characters and images, like The Thinker Socrates (year unknown), or Aeneas and Anchises (2019), can either come from a distant past or from more recent times, as for Paganini (1965) or the Holy Supper (2000). In both cases, those artworks take a new life in this white space: they become a way to read the present and become open to the interpretation of the audience.
The Sisyphos (2003), here presented with a signed wooden sphere from a 1989 AU Environment, is an example of that: it can be seen both as a positive symbol, reminding us of Camus’ interpretation, or as a merciless criticism of today's society, constantly exploiting individuals for empty goals, promising an unexisting prize to keep the system running.
The past finds a new life in the model for the AU Environment: Sword of Damocles (materialized destiny) too: in this case, new dangers arise from the white space. In Greek mythology, Damokles was a man so blinded by the desire for power and wealth that he did not realize the problems connected to that. Nowadays, how many of us could see ourselves in that description? Proceeding in the exhibition space, we can notice that, for Poggi, a blank page doesn’t have to stay a blank page: it can be altered, shaped, molded, turned into something else: a paper foil can become rigid, a book can become a sculpture.
The artist, in fact, created several of what he called BookSculptures (or Artist Books), such as “Once Upon a Time..." (1965-1975), a stunning 28-page leporello, the title of which reminds us of children books, but which, in reality, it’s a visual comment on war and the horrors we keep on putting kids through.
Finally, a blank page is what the artist always tries to offer to his public, a space where people can communicate, learn, and evolve. He used to do this through his AU Process, through which he actively engaged the audience in discussions on a variety of topics, letting them share their opinions, and later building from these new ideas developed together. This is a crucial point in Poggi’s production, the same point with which the exhibition ends: the point in which not only a blank page is offered to the visitors but also a pencil for them to use.
Zaira Carrer
ZAIRA CARRER (b. Treviso, 1999) is an Italian graduating student based in Venice, where she is specializing in Arts Management at Ca’ Foscari University. She worked and carried out internships in several Venetian art institutions, such as Palazzo Franchetti, A+A Gallery, and La Biennale.
GIOVANNI GIACOMO PAOLIN (b. Dolo, 1989) is a freelance curator based in Venice. He holds a Master Degree in Contemporary Art History at Ca’ Foscari University while during the years He had the opportunity to take part to a lot of curatorial programs like CAMPO at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2014), Curating the new at University of Malta in Valletta (2016) and Curatorial Lab at V-A-C Foundation in Venice (2019). His professional background was built in years of liaising with private and public institutions such as Castello di Rivoli, MAXXI, Fondazione Elpis, Fondazione In Between Art Film and contemporary art galleries like Galleria Continua and PACE Gallery. A selection of recent projects as an independent curator of contemporary art include: Immersione Libera (2019), Six steps forward for one step back (2019), Una Boccata d’Arte (2020 - 2022).
The exhibition "Pino Poggi: I wish I was a blank page" will be on view from 9 June to 8 July 2022, every weekday from 1 PM to 6 PM. During the Lent Festival from 24 June to 2 July, opening hours will be extended. During this period, you can also visit us on weekdays between 5 PM and 9 PM, on Saturdays between 10 AM and 1 PM, and 5 PM and 9 PM, and on Sundays between 5 PM and 9 PM.
The residency of Zaira Carrera and Giovanni Giacomo Paolino and the exhibition of Pino Poggi were made in collaboration of Pekarna Magdalenske mreže and raum AU, with the support of the Municipality of Maribor, Vetrinjski dvor - Narodni dom Maribor and the Koroška Gallery of Fine Arts.