From painting to images 234 Gallery, Buffalo State College, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY Oct 29 - Nov 3rd 2007
art installation
November 1st presentation and screening of Domenico Fargnoli's video From painting to images
press release
The one person show which the artist Franca Marini has created ad hoc for the spaces of the Buffalo State College, State University of New York, where she has been invited as a Visiting Artist, is a true installation.
Through the interplay of copper threads - which could allude to that vitality thanks to which the artistic realization of image is possible - the artist traces a path which leads us to the fulcrum of the whole installation: a large painted canvas placed as if within an ideal screen and formed of overlapping panels suspended by thin copper wires.
In this work Franca Marini has attempted to represent, by pictorial means, the video art image construction process in which multiple images can co-exist simultaneously and fuse into a constantly new mobile image. Her current interest for installation projects, which is the creation of artworks conceived for a specific space, also seems to have a contact point with video art: in both the artist extends expressive and communicative potential to its outer limits, actively intervening in the space always felt as the place inhabited by the viewer and permeated by his/her presence. The suspended sculptural forms, created by the interweaving of copper wires from one point to another in space, will not materially be able to exist any longer once they are removed from the place which they were born for, just as video art images are only perceivable when projected onto a screen. This could pose interesting questions about artwork transformation in meaning and accessibility in contemporary society. Only the painted canvas, characterized by the jute’s rough texture, will continue an autonomous existence of its own.
On this occasion, the video “From painting to images” by italian psychiatrist and video artist Domenico Fargnoli will be presented. This video, based on a re-elaboration of Franca Marini‘s pictorial work inspired the latter for the creation of this show. The video will also be an integral part of the performance “Image and moviment” staged by the dance company of choreographer Keith Ferrone with music by pianist Stefano Maurizi and the Pankow musical group. It will be performed on October 28 at the “Festival della creatività” in Florence.
Through the interplay of copper threads - which could allude to that vitality thanks to which the artistic realization of image is possible - the artist traces a path which leads us to the fulcrum of the whole installation: a large painted canvas placed as if within an ideal screen and formed of overlapping panels suspended by thin copper wires.
In this work Franca Marini has attempted to represent, by pictorial means, the video art image construction process in which multiple images can co-exist simultaneously and fuse into a constantly new mobile image. Her current interest for installation projects, which is the creation of artworks conceived for a specific space, also seems to have a contact point with video art: in both the artist extends expressive and communicative potential to its outer limits, actively intervening in the space always felt as the place inhabited by the viewer and permeated by his/her presence. The suspended sculptural forms, created by the interweaving of copper wires from one point to another in space, will not materially be able to exist any longer once they are removed from the place which they were born for, just as video art images are only perceivable when projected onto a screen. This could pose interesting questions about artwork transformation in meaning and accessibility in contemporary society. Only the painted canvas, characterized by the jute’s rough texture, will continue an autonomous existence of its own.
On this occasion, the video “From painting to images” by italian psychiatrist and video artist Domenico Fargnoli will be presented. This video, based on a re-elaboration of Franca Marini‘s pictorial work inspired the latter for the creation of this show. The video will also be an integral part of the performance “Image and moviment” staged by the dance company of choreographer Keith Ferrone with music by pianist Stefano Maurizi and the Pankow musical group. It will be performed on October 28 at the “Festival della creatività” in Florence.
La Nazione, November 11, 2007
Franca Marini's American Dream. From Siena to the University of New York
by Giulia Maestrini
Franca Marini's recent show in New York rather than an adventure, a new experience or even a challenge has been a kind of homecoming, a return to her artistic origins in those same United States which marked an artistic and professional turning point for her at the end of the eighties. Born (in 1962) and bred in Siena, Franca Marini went back to America just a few days ago with a one person show called “From painting to images”created for the spaces of the Buffalo State College, State University of New York.
Its success is hardly surprising since working on the other side of the Atlantic has always brought Franca Marini considerable professional satisfaction, ever since she left Italy, more than twenty years ago, as a young artist with a suitcase full of dreams, to seek her fortune in San Francisco, California.
For her then, the present invitation on the part of the State University of New York is a way of coming full circle as well as a tribute. Franca Marini has been invited to Buffalo as Visiting Artist not simply for the exhibition, but for a whole series of events dedicated to her work, including a lecture on pictorial techniques by the artist in person. In fact, as she herself says, “the most interesting part of this experience has been the special relationship with the students, their involvement in every stage of the event including the preparation of the exhibition”. What Franca Marini has created ad hoc for the spaces of the State University is a composite installation - in part created on site in the US - which, through the interplay of pictorial elements, painted on jute, with sculptural components suspended on copper wires tries to portray, via the pictorial image, as the title suggests, the video art image construction process.
The very decision to use an installation, an art form which exists only if and when it is set in the space it is created for, recalls the concept of video art whose creations live only in the moment when the are projected on the screen. In this case the video in question is “From painting to images” in which Italian psychiatrist and video artist Domenico Fargnoli re-elaborates Franca Marini‘s pictorial work and which inspired the latter for the creation of this show. Simultaneous with the New York show was a viewing of the video in Florence organized by choreographer Keith Ferrone as part of a performance staged at the “Festival della creatività”.
This one person show marks another milestone in Franca Marini's interesting career, after significant past exhibitions in San Francisco, New York and Costa Rica.