From September 6 to October 18, 2020, CSAC – The Study Centre and Communication Archive of the University of Parma presents the second appointment of the artist residency program Through time: integrity and transformation of the art work, realized on the occasion of Parma Italian Capital of Culture 2020+21, with the participation of Massimo Bartolini, Luca Vitone and Eva Marisaldi.
Since 1968, the CSAC Museum-Archive has preserved more than 12 million pieces divided into five sections: Art, Photography, Media, Project and Entertainment. After Massimo Bartolini, who on February 16th inaugurated the installation On Identikit (closed two weeks in advance, due to health emergency, on March 8th 2020), Luca Vitone, already protagonist of a residence at the CSAC in 2017 within the project #GrandTourists, will confront this precious heritage. On that occasion, Luca Vitone was literally able to immerse himself in the archives and collections of the CSAC, at the same time confronting the city of Parma and a network of other archives and museums.
Vitone, an artist who has always worked on the idea of place, cultural production and memory, proposes with this exhibition result of that residency: Il Canone, a tribute to the very concept of archive starting from the van used until the early 2000s by CSAC for the transport and acquisition of artworks and archives. This mean of transport – a metaphor for the action of taking and acting for the collection and construction of the archive – will be set up in the imposing central nave of the Abbey Church, followed by a long “parade” of artworks and projects representing a broad spectrum of the Italian artistic and cultural research of the twentieth century, selected by the artist with a very personal criterion, almost as if to reconstruct imaginary links between the works preserved at the CSAC and his biographical events.
For the artist, “entering the CSAC archive is like diving into a tropical sea, one known for snorkeling. It is impossible not to be fascinated by it, even if you do not recognize the fish, you are dazed by the colours, shapes and above all the quantity of animals to observe. […] But there was one thing that always came back to my mind: a white van, parked in the far corner of the square, as if it were abandoned, stood there with its inscription on the door ‘Università di Parma’ to testify its past role“.
In Luca Vitone’s vision, the van conceptually refers to Joseph Beuys’ 1969 work Das Rudel, in which 24 wooden sledges emerge from an old Volkswagen van. As for Beuys, also in this case, the 24 works and objects that the van of the University of Parma leaves behind are linked to autobiographical episodes of the artist or to authors who have deeply marked his artistic growth, rediscovered inside the CSAC archives. These include Ugo Mulas, Alighiero Boetti, Gianni Colombo, Lucio Fontana, Mario Schifano, Mario Nigro, Pietro Consagra, Alberto Rosselli, Afro Basaldella, Luigi Ghirri, Erberto Carboni, Archizoom Associati/Lucia Bartolini, Walter Albini, Giosetta Fioroni, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Maddalena Dimt, Franco Albini, Danilo Donati/Sartoria Farani, Ettore Sottsass jr. /Sottsass Associati, Andrea Branzi, the satirical magazine “Il Male” and even an anonymous, author of an imitation of a lamp by Vico Magistretti.
In the apse of the Church will be finally set up the monochrome entitled Stanze (CSAC, Parma) executed by Vitone himself with the powders of the CSAC in 2017, on the occasion of his residence, and later donated to the centre.
Luca Vitone was born in Genoa in 1964. Since the 1990s, he has participated in important national and international group shows and since 1994 he has worked continuously with the Nagel Draxler Gallery in Cologne, Berlin and Munich. In 2000 he exhibited at the P.S.1 in New York and presented at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome Stundàiu, a tribute exhibition to his native city Genoa. His first traveling retrospective “Luca Vitone. Ovunque a casa propria.’ dates back to 2006. Überall zu Hause presented at the Casino Luxenbourg, then in 2007 at the O.K. Centrum in Linz and finally in 2008 at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo. 2010 is the starting year of the collaboration with the Pinksummer Gallery in Genoa and the Michel Rein Gallery in Paris and Brussels. In 2012 he held two important solo shows: Monocromo Variationenal Museion in Bolzano and Natura morta con paesaggi e strumenti musicali at the Brodbeck Foundation in Catania. In 2013 he returns to the Venice Biennale, after a first participation in 2003 and the rejection of 2011, exhibiting for eternity at the Italian Pavilion in the exhibition Vice Versa curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi. In 2017 the Pac in Milan dedicates a large retrospective to him. His project Romanistan, one of the winners of the fourth edition of the Italian Council, is currently underway until 15 March 2020 at the Pecci Centre in Prato. Since 2006 he has been teaching at the New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan.
Through time: integrità e trasformazione dell’opera
Massimo Bartolini. On Identikit
Exhibition: 16 February – 8 March 2020
Inauguration Sunday, February 16, 2020, 11.00 a.m.
Luca Vitone. Il Canone
Exhibition: 6 September – 18 October 2020
Inauguration Sunday, September 6, 2020, 11.00 a.m.
Eva Marisaldi. Secondi tempi
Exhibition: 6 December 2020 – 31 January 2021
Inauguration Sunday, December 6, 2020, 11.00 a.m.