curated by Laura Barreca
03 > 04.2008
Domani, a Palermo /Artisti italiani in residenza is a cycle of residencies by five Italian artists: Stefania Galegati, Marcello Maloberti, Francesco Simeti, Liliana Moro, Flavio Favelli. The artists involved are to be guests in Palermo in the striking surroundings of the Galleria Francesco Pantaleone, in the heart of the historic Vucceria area.
At the end of his residency, each artist will create a one-person show, a specific exhibition project which will reflect his personal experience of the city and the way in which he has approached the city during his stay in Palermo. It is an event intended to express an interplay between the artist, the city and the work produced for the occasion.
The aim of the project is to welcome and present to the people of Palermo a group of artists who are already well recognised on the national and international art scenes. The lack of exhibition space in the city often makes it difficult for artists in Palermo to establish a network of art contacts even on the national level. With this in mind, and with the wish to open up the city to the contemporary, the Domani, a Palermoprogramme presents an opportunity to develop new educational paths for bringing the Palermo public towards an understanding of contemporary art.Domani, a Palermois a cycle of five exhibition events that will take place during 2007 and 2008.
For the third event, the Galleria Francesco Pantaleone is honoured to hostFrancesco Simeti(Palermo, 1968), who since 2005 has been residing in New York.
Francesco Simeti’s first personal show in Palermo presents a series of recent works: several woodcuts representing landscapes ravaged by natural disasters, a sculpture in plaster and brass, in which the artist reveals a personal allusion to the noted stuccos of the workshop of Giacomo Serpotta, with whom he shares a taste for decoration and formal elaboration. Finally, in a separate part of the gallery, a revolving cylindrical lamp creates colourful patterns using images of missile and space rocket trails. At first glance Francesco Simeti’s work is a playful and joyful explosion of images and colours that crowd the surfaces, giving the spectator the impression of looking upon a highly refined and well-executed object. On closer inspection, however, the works reveal scenes of war, of mass evacuations, of the tragedies that are represented daily in images in newspapers and the media, which the artist sifts, selects and reuses in his works. The reiteration of such images inevitably creates addiction, leading to the absence either of critical thought or of reaction to the media hegemony that politics exercises upon society. A type of visual and cultural ‘anesthesia’ is created through an excess of information. Francesco Simeti develops this reflection upon aesthetic value by various routes, including the production of large wallpapers, design pieces such as chairs, lamps and other ‘oggetti d’arte‘ in which the function hides – albeit barely – evidence of a deep if veiled sense of political and social protest.
Francesco Simeti (Palermo, 1968) lives and works in New York. He is known on an international level and has exhibited in numerous museums and exhibition spaces, both public and private – including: Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia; The Rome Quadriennial, The National Modern Art Gallery, Rome; Netherlands Media Institute, Amsterdam; The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia; The RISD Museum, Providence; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York; Mu.dac, Lausanne.
The project Domani, a Palermo. Artisti italiani in residenza was the idea of Francesco Pantaleone, gallery owner, and of Laura Barreca, PAN (Palazzo delle Arti Napoli) associate curator.
The show is produced in collaboration with the Galleria Francesca Mininiof Milan and artegiovanesicilia.
