Italy in Korea, SongEun : We Have Never Been Modern

In May 2014, SongEun Art Space presents its third special annual project, titled Italy in SongEun : We Have Never Been Modern featuring promising Italian young artists who are showing for the first time in Korea.

The exhibition We Have Never Been Modern aims at questioning the disappearance of guarantees and foundations for the future. We are left with the gaping ideological void of a modernity that has failed, or indeed perhaps never existed, and the impression of having been divided, segmented and trained. Rethinking the mechanisms of construction of the work of art, this exhibition tries to question where we can situate the artistic production of today and of Italy in particular and what the answer is.

The works of twenty-two Italian artists of the younger generations featured in the exhibition are indicative of the way in which Italy’s artistic life has addressed facts and values over the last few decades, calling into question the power that determined them and the discourse that transmitted them. All the artists invited to the show, together with the curators, know that we do not control what we produce, so the sphere of our certainties will be smaller than that of our actions. In any case experts are as blind as we are.

The exhibition takes its title from an essay by Bruno Latour in which the French anthropologist of science reflects on the idea of modernity seen as progress advancing rationally and evenly throughout all corners of the earth. At the core of his critical thinking are the paramount issues concerning those Western societies who have imposed their own modern mind-sets on individual local cultures. What does it mean, today, to be modern? Being modern no longer means riding on that time arrow that drew a clear line between the past and the future. On the contrary, more and more art evades the modernist requirement and aspires to a timeless condition while, at the same time, addressing present-related issues or engaging with the more recent history and localized situations that then become the starting point for a range of subjective but nonetheless universal explorations. These are the questions at the core of the project.

The twenty-two Italian artists selected for the show were born in the years from 1965 to the mid ’80s and are grouped according to a sensibility that is shared across the generations and to lines of research that appear in the various artistic paths. The aim is that of showing, although not exhaustively, the aesthetic and expressive changes experimented by the latest generation of Italian artists. What emerges is an artistic production in line with other contexts such as: architecture, media, literature, philosophy, anthropology, social sciences and with areas adjoining the field of the visual arts. The exhibition is part of the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul program to promote Italian contemporary art.

‘We Have Never Been Modern’ is a process of analysis and mapping of the Italian art scene through five separate sections, each one addressing an aspect of the artistic take on a certain idea of modernity.

Artists: Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Meris Angioletti, Francesco Arena, Elisabetta Benassi, Rossella Biscotti, Tomaso De Luca, Ettore Favini, Chiara Fumai, Piero Golia, Francesca Grilli, Adelita Husni-Bey, Margherita Moscardini, Valerio Rocco Orlando, Adrian Paci, Giulia Piscitelli, Paola Pivi, Moira Ricci, Marinella Senatore, Alberto Tadiello, Diego Tonus, Luca Trevisani, Nico Vascellari

Guest Curators: Angelo Gioè (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul), Maria Rosa Sossai

What does it mean, today, to be modern?

1. Giorgio Andreotta Calò (1979-)
Scolpire il tempo (Sculpting time), 2010
Installation view from Extralarge, MACRO, Rome, 2013
Installation of variable dimensions: three bronze sculptures with wax and water
Raffaella and Stefano Sciarretta Collection, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Courtesy the artist
Photo Giorgio Benni

2. Meris Angioletti (1977-)

Golden, Brown and Blue, 2013

Slide projection. Six slide projections, coloured gels and text. Variable dimensions

Courtesy the artist and SCHLEICHER/LANGE, Berlin

3. Francesco Arena (1978-)

3,24 mq, 2004
Installation view: Francesco Arena, Nomas Foundation, Rome, 2008
Wood, furniture
270 x 120 x 230 cm
Raffaella and Stefano Sciarretta Collection, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Courtesy the artist and Monitor, Rome
Photo Francesco Cartocci

4. Elisabetta Benassi (1966-)

Son of Niobe, 2013
HD video transferred onto DVD, color, silent, approx. 2’
Courtesy the artist and Magazzino, Rome

5. Elisabetta Benassi (1966-)

Per una lira io vendo tutti sogni miei, 2009
Coin (100 lira), Ø 2.2 cm
Courtesy the artist and Magazzino, Rome

6. Rossella Biscotti (1978-)

Le teste in oggetto (The Heads in Question), 2009
Silver gelatin print on baryth paper
110 x 141 cmLe teste in oggetto, particolari (The Heads in Question, details), 2009
Eight c-prints
39.5 x 27 cm each
Raffaella and Stefano Sciarretta Collection, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Courtesy the artist

7. Tomaso De Luca (1988-)

An Incomplete Portrait of Anchises and Love is Soft but Hard Sometimes, 2013
Video, color, sound; ink on paper, slide projection
Variable dimensions
Installation view at Van Horbourg, Zürich
Courtesy the artist and Monitor, Rome

8. Ettore Favini (1974-)

Cantra, 2011-2013
Installation of variable dimensions (detail); iron, wool, wood
Courtesy the artist and Aike Dellarco, Shanghai

9. Chiara Fumai (1978-)

Still from the video-performance Chiara Fumai reads Valerie Solanas, 2013
Winner of Furla Art Award 2013
Courtesy the artist and A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia

10. Piero Golia (1974-)

May Be Not Even a Nation of Millions…, 2004
Human skeleton, diamond, gold
28 x 172 x 100 cm
Raffaella and Stefano Sciarretta Collection, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Courtesy the artist

11. Francesca Grilli (1978-)

194.9 MHz, 2006
Video still
Digital video, 5’22″
Courtesy the artist

12. Adelita Husni-Bey (1985-)

Gestures of Labour, 2009
Video still
Silent video, S8 transferred to DVD, 5’39”
Courtesy the artist and Laveronica Arte Contemporanea, Modica

13. Margherita Moscardini (1981-)

1xUnknown, 2012-ongoing
Partial view of the installation
Mini-projectors, power packs, paper, paperboard, concrete, miniDV videos, sound, MDF
Courtesy the artist and Ex Elettrofonica, Rome
Photo Dario Lasagni

14. Valerio Rocco Orlando (1978-)

Personale è Politico (The Personal is Political), 2011
Green neon, 20 x 142 cm
Raffaella and Stefano Sciarretta Collection, Nomas Foundation, Rome
Courtesy the artist
Photo Giorgio Benni

15. Adrian Paci (1969-)

The Column, 2013
Video still
Video, colour, sound, 25’40’’
Courtesy the artist, kaufmann repetto, Milan, and Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

16. Giulia Piscitelli (1965-)

Guerra/e Pace (War and Peace), 2013
1957 Italian edition of War and Peace by Lev Tolstoj, 26 x 6 x 18 cm
Courtesy the artist and Galleria Fonti, Naples

17. Paola Pivi (1971-)

Untitled, 2009
Photographic print on aluminum, 125 x 161.8 cm
Photo Hugo Glendinning
Courtesy the artist and Massimo De Carlo, Milano/London

18. Moira Ricci (1977-)

20.12.53-10.08.04
Lambda print on Dibond
20.12.53-10.08.04, 2004-2014
Fifty photographs of variable dimensions; framed size 40 x 40 cm
Courtesy the artist and Laveronica Arte Contemporanea, Modica

19. Marinella Senatore (1977-)

That’s us, 2010
Video still
High definition video on Blu-ray Disc, 15′
Courtesy Peres Projects, Berlin, MOT International, London & Bruxelles, and the artist

20. Alberto Tadiello (1983-)

25L, 2010
Flat sheets and bars of iron, bolts and nuts, plastic tubes, air compressor, air horn
280 x 240 x 250 cm
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, Turin
Courtesy T293, Naples – Rome

21. Diego Tonus (1984-)

Hour of the Wolf, 2010
Film still
Film Mini Dv, color, sound, 7
Courtesy the artist

22. Luca Trevisani (1979-)

Bisogna urlare in un bosco per sentirne l’eco (You gotta yell in the woods to hear its echo), 2012-2013
Exhibition view, Studio Geddes, Rome, 2013
Painted cnc cut mdf, site specific dimensions
Courtesy the artist, Studio Silvia Geddes, Rome, and Galerie Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin