CHARTA is an exhibition born from the collaboration between Areacreativa42 and the City of Rivarolo Canavese (Turin), developed around the artistic production of works on paper, with the aim of revealing the different forms, expressions and languages in which this medium can be used.
At Villa Vallero the exhibition includes the site specific installation by Daniela Bozzetto, the works of the Collece artistic group Collettivo Oltre Collage and the works on paper by a selection of Italian artists who were selected from the Art Prize CBM selected artists in the under 30 category.
The Wunderpapier exhibitions at Casa Toesca includes Japanese prints, engravings and productions on paper between crafts and art, and in the “Besso Marcheis” Municipal Library the exhibition includes the collection of Ex Libris from private collections, curated by Vincenzo Gatti.
Then the O.N.C.A patronage hosts two weekend pop-up exhibitions: Parade with works by three young local artists, and Silhouettes in which the theme of the female body is investigated and interpreted through the illustrations by Elisa Talentino and the photographs by Chiara Lombardi.
Finally, the Proloco Tourist Office host the pop-up exhibition Bestie Fantastiche by Gabriele Pino and will offer workshops for children and families.
CHARTA is also organised and supervised by young students from the University of Turin and the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts: Giorgio Bena, Miriam Bruno, Giulia Cordò, Andrea Fenu, Federica Polla, Marco Spampinato, Elena Toffanin.
Charta is an heterogeneous path in the use of material, techniques and visions, which generates connections between people, works of art and sites.
Art Prize CBM\OFF, curated by Karin Reisovà
Art prize CBM \ OFF is a free-theme exhibition -by invitation only- of works on paper.
It stems from the desire to meet again the artists who have been awarded, over the course of 9 years and 4 editions, among the Italian under 30 participants of the prize, conceived and organised by Areacreativa42. The first edition had started right from Villa Vallero and Casa Toesca, in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts in Turin.
Today our aim is to reflect on the future of the project, after the success it has had in all editions and the international dimension it has achieved.
The question we are asking is: “What do young artists need?”
The Prize was focused on our territory, on the figure of the nineteenth-century artist Carlo Bonatto Minella, to whom the prize was dedicated and on the possibility of creating a network from the Canavese area and looking across the border.
The artists selected for Art Prize CBM \ OFF are Giovanni Boscarato, Valentina Ceci, Valeria Ferrero, Elisa Filomena, Valentina Grilli, Roberta Logiudice, Giacomo Menconi, Giacomo Modolo, Michele Pierpaoli, Lorenzo Pingitore, Moreno Pisapia, Erika Riehle, Leardo Sciacoviello.
OltreCollage, curated by Giorgio Bena e Andrea Fenu
To separate, to fragment and to divide and then reunite, unite, compose: through these actions the artistic collage creates new worlds, unexpected semantic connections between images.
Thanks to this means of expression, the collective Oltre Collage offers bewildering visions, which generate short circuits and paradoxical sets: single elements, belonging to a common imaginary are explanted from their original context and juxtaposed to create a new unity of meaning.
To shape his visions, Emidio Bernardone uses up to the last piece of paper, creating complex images; Cranico, rather than an idea, is driven by his passion for music and uses printing errors, creating collages also on vinyl covers; Franz Murtas meticulously chooses every fragment of the universe he is creating, leaving nothing to chance, looking for the solution in the past to tell the present; Zeno Peduzzi brings his interest towards composition and formal rigor, drawing on a retro imagination; Franz Samsa acts on his works with pictorial interventions, with inks, acrylics and charcoals.
Andrea Fenu
The strength of the practice of collage is inherent in its ability to produce beauty in inconsistency. Dissonances that create harmonies, images that shatter like waves and then reunite and create new balances. As waves are the moment of sublimation of the incessant motion of marine flows, the continuous contamination of which prevents telling the story of every single drop, collages can embody the constant fluctuations of visual culture and the becoming the meanings of images. So not infrequently icons of the past and obsolete aesthetic paradigms find in the collage a new vital energy thanks to the dialogue between them and the images that belong to completely different linguistic universes.
In a society that, like ours where there is a constant bombardment of inconsistent images, collage imposes itself as one of the languages able to better interpret the spirit of the times.
Giorgio Bena
Ephemera, curated by Giorgio Bena e Andrea Fenu
Ethereal and suspended, Daniela Bozzetto’s work is on the borderline between reality and vision.
A measure, a perceptible but nonetheless latent balance, which does not manifest itself directly, but it’s expressed through the use of heterogeneous and ambiguous materials, which transform the works into self-sufficient entities: the intellect and emotions are called into question to resolve their recondite meaning.
Andrea Fenu
/ əˈfem(ə)rəl/: everything is transient of short duration, labile, transient.
Even more than the paper it is made of, Daniela Bozzetto’s installation, as its title reminds us, is made of time – or rather of its impermanence.
A philosophy that goes perfectly with the nature of the paper and with the site-specific installation concept. In fact, the work is not an object in itself alone, but a set of moments in which the relationship between matter and space is concretised in a constant flow of energy: the way in which light passes through the subtle epidermis of paper and each imperceptible movement that the air imposes on the installation compose a plot of instant that are the sign of the artist, perhaps unconscious.
Ephemera is a constant vibration of moments that exist only to cease to exist, like a faint breath of time. His apparent inertia and our inability to grasp this vital flow is a memorial to all the moments of beauty that we have lost without even realizing that we have had.
Giorgio Bena
Wunderpapier, curated by Vincenzo Gatti
The charm of the wonderful has always seduced the collector’s imagination: in particular, between mannerism and baroque, it was a boast for amateurs to allocate a room to the quirks and oddities that nature or the artifices of human intelligence could generate. Even today it can be said that in each of us, as long as still endowed with a propensity for curiosity, there is a secret mental room, where we can gather the objects of fantasized desire.
Paper, by its nature fragile and subject to the action of time and elements, but at the same time flexible and easy to handle, has been the ideal vehicle for the diffusion of ideas and images, an indispensable support for writing, printing, artistic expression. “Wonderful cards” (if by this we mean the enchantment and the surprise for the forms of ingenuity, without limits of categories and value, as happened in the heterogeneous collections of the historical “wunderkammers”) can be just the card games , the “devout” papers, the ex libris, the Japanese papers.
Initially linked to the book and bibliophilia, the ex libris have become a true art form: today it is not limited to defining a belonging, but encloses in the small format imposed by the peculiar characteristics of the genre, as creativity and imagination dictate to the executor, in relation to the recipient.
Paper and cardboard are the sheets of the Game of the Goose which, while maintaining the numbering and the typical spiral pattern of the “path” games, has undergone infinite variations, historical, political and custom over the years and cultures. Born, according to some, at the end of the 16th century in Florence, and introduced to the court of Philip II of Spain, the game has maintained in its tables a distinctly popular taste, cheerful, ironic, with bright coloring, generally lithographic in the ‘800 and’ 900, linked to the world of popular prints and the sheets of the “Imagerie d’Epinal”.
Moving for the naive, fresh devotion that expresses manual dedication, the devotional images of cut cards are the humble, but often enchanting contrast to the analogous sumptuous sacred representations of the ‘800 and ‘900 centuries: here the coral is replaced by the colored ribbon, the watermarks golden foil, mother of pearl tissue paper, wax decal. It is the world of the simplicity, of the silence of poor convents, of whispered prayer.
The world that originated the works on paper in Japan in the Edo period (1603-1867) is another world, another cultural and social environment. Typical product of the “bourgeois” aesthetic born from the social transformations that began in the seventeenth century, it was the concept of ukiyo or “floating world” that indicates how ephemeral, new and fascinating existence can offer, in every form and expression. Ukiyo-e are the printed images that represent this lifestyle, typical of the middle classes of that period: increasingly refined woodcuts and accentuated chromaticism, which reach the highest artistic levels between 1700 and 1800 (Utamaro, Hokusai and Hiroshige most prestigious authors). The female beauties are represented with a sensuality highlighted by the sinuous lines that shape the clothes, on the other hand the actors are portrayed with the extremely popular kabuki theater, and nature and landscape are depicted translating deep adhesion and ecstatic contemplation into graphic terms. Then there are the shunga (spring images), prints in which the most direct and exhibited eroticism does not renounce to the extreme formal decoration, with the attention to environmental detail, often wrapping the figures of lovers in the precious whirlwind of finely and extraordinarily decorated garments .
The printed sheet in Japan was the result of rigorous execution practice: the painter, the creator, the engraver, the printer and the publisher contributed to the final product. The drawing provided by the painter was glued on the reverse side of a cherry tablet, which was carved by the engraver, leaving the parts useful for printing in relief; the printer finished printing the various ink matrices (one for each color) rigorously in the register. Finally, the publisher was in charge of marketing.
Line and tone, taking advantage of the virtuosity of the performers, always dialogue to compose a fluent, sweet and vigorous language at the same time. When Japan has to open up to the world, the extraordinary formal peculiarities of its art, thanks to the prints, will be quickly known, and will strongly influence Western art, but the freshness of the inspiration will quickly touch almost as in the “sakura”, the ritual of cherry trees in bloom which are consumed every year.
The melancholy and contemplative awareness of the transience of things is deeply rooted in the Japanese tradition, and the ukiyo-e represents it well: it is found in modern literature (Mishima, Tanizaki …), in the films of the brilliant, multiform and picaresque Takeshi Kitano.
Ex Libris, curated by Vincenzo Gatti
In Panzini’s Modern Dictionary we read, under the heading Ex libris: “… lett. from the books, the Latin motto with which the tag that is glued to the books is used and was used to indicate the property: firstly in pen, then printed with beautiful friezes, drawings, mottos. ” It was 1905, and precisely in those years, thanks also to the interest of Art Nouveau and Art Dèco for decoration and the so-called minor arts, the small graphic work was starting to become a work of art, freeing itself from the mere signal membership reserved for bibliophiles.
“Today the ex libris are exchanged and collected following some particular preference that the artist, profession, engraving technique or the dominant motif of the image, commonly defined as a theme, may have as its object.” (Bragaglia).
While remaining the subject of refined collecting linked to the tastes and passions of the holder, more and more often it now happens that the ex libris is dedicated to anniversaries, events, manifestations, events. Born shortly after the invention of Gutemberg (the first known ex libris dates back to the last decades of the fifteenth century, in the Germanic context), it goes through the events of engraving, following the evolution of techniques, from the initial woodcut, to the burin, all etching, lithography up to digital printing in recent times, thus witnessing the artistic vitality of the invention and the very current coexistence of “traditional” and experimental methods.
To define itself as such, the ex libris still has to maintain its peculiar characteristics that is to report the diction that characterizes it and the dedicatee, be it a natural or institutional person, remaining faithful to the small format, cross and delight of the performers and amateurs.
It is indeed a challenge for the artist to try his hand at the small size and at the lettering, harmonizing writing and figuration and concentrating an entire imaginative world in just a few centimeters. It is the observer’s responsibility to reserve the right attention to this product of ingenuity, often reduced to a mere object of collectors’ desire, knowing how to distinguish originality and conscious adhesion from a simple, banal occasional relationship.
Today’s ex libris has gone beyond spiritual and temporal limits and boundaries: it is no longer just a selfish seal of ownership but a powerful artistic means of communication between individuals and cultures.
Parade, curated by Elena Toffanin _ 4/5 May
The Parade exhibition offers the opportunity to discover three young artists who grew up in the Canavese area, coming into contact with the artistic reality that was born and formed a few steps away from us.
Following the common thread of the entire exhibition, also on this occasion, the paper is the support through which Luca Astone, Federica Polla and Francesca Rossignoli express themselves, offering interesting reflections on the contemporary and demonstrating different technical skills, which from more traditional practices arrive at new digital tools.
The environment hosting the exhibition communicates with it, that’s a space full of history and meaning for the city of Rivarolo: seat of the Society of Patronage and Mutual Aid for Young Workers, founded in 1901, it promoted the intellectual and professional training of the members, through cultural workshops and literacy courses.
Parade is the first exhibition of CHARTA to inhabit this space, resuming a dialogue between young people and the culture that has lived in this room for more than a century.
Bestie fantastiche, curated by Giulia Cordò _ 18/19 maggio
Within the Charta exhibition are the works of Gabriele Pino, illustrations of Fantastic Beasts that the artist had the opportunity to discover by traveling around the Italian peninsula during the summer of 2017.
The Creatures represented make travel through time and space, taking the observer from the Piedmont countryside where the Masche, spiteful Canavese witches, hide, to the Adriatic coast of Puglia, where particular Sirens nestle with bird wings and legs.
Each illustration tells a different story, but all of them tell the life of the Fantastic Beasts nowadays: creatures that survive the fact that no one tells more about them or to whom little is believed; therefore they hide in the countryside and in the province, away from strong lights and noises, where people still manage to marvel.
The illustrations are the result of the union of oral traditions and the artist’s personal invention, who through a demo-ethno-anthropological research investigates those intangible assets that are stories and gives them a face.
The drawings thus allow to visualize a fundamental part of the Italian folklore hitherto passed down orally from generation to generation, merging society, culture and art.
From field research was born, in March 2018, “The Bestiary of Italy”: a text written and illustrated by the artist, open to all generations and whose purpose is to rediscover popular stories, push to carefully observe the country in which we live and above all to stimulate cultural exchange and dialogue with other countries in the world, where as many creatures born from stories are ready to be discovered and shared.
Silhouettes, curated by Miriam Bruno _ 25/26 maggio
Placed at the end of the CHARTA exhibition, Silhouettes investigates the theme of the female body, linking it to the history of the place that hosts it: the O.N.C.A. patronage, which for more than a hundred years has been sensitive to the need for protection and assistance of working women. In the exhibition, the female imagination is probed by two different artistic visions. Elisa Talentino specializes in art printing: her serigraphs show the protagonists in the center, light but well-perceptible figures, playing with the void. Plants and natural elements often accompany them: not components that are ends in themselves, but careful choices that accompany the narration with their symbolic meaning. His is a vision of light concreteness, a story of the everyday that, when worn, borders on the wonderful.
Chiara Lombardi is a photographer: hers are images of female bodies caught in hinted gestures, which gently explore hidden intimacies and fleeting emotions. They are simulations, depictions aimed at capturing the underlying energy of human beings, which unites them all and distinguishes them, making it perceptible, palpable through its shots. His vision is poetic and brutal: candid, lyrical, true portraits.
