March 12th – April 17th 2016
Exhibition curated by Karin Reisovà
“Look at me” was born from the desire to develop an exhibition centred on the theme of femininity.
Femininity can be defined as the set of physical, mental and behavioural characters judged by a particular culture to be ideally associated with the woman [source….].
Without leading into the the obvious, through works of painting, sculpture, photography and video art of Italian and foreign artists from different generations, it has created a path that winds through motherhood, childhood, youth, maturity to old age, filtered from the search of the identity in an attempt to overcome the problem of the contrived or “recited” femininity through a process of social construction.
The selected works have an aesthetic value and a heavily emotional and symbolic approach, and they respond to the need of the curator to leave the issue of bringing the audience to the exploration of the artwork and of the artist’s thought open.
The viewer can overcome the barrier of the image or the materiality and be free to find himself in front of a mirror of the present, past or future.
The video artwork by Stefanie Sixt opens the show and immediately leads us in the journey of life starting from birth. In painting and photography the strength of the looks and the the postures absorbs us and the subjects of the works bring us to recognize one’s self or others, causing reflections or memories as in the works of Thomas Tichy, going beyond appearances. Also in the material from which comes the representation, such as sculpture, it creates an immediate experiential bond, it’s the case of the sculpture of Barbora Mastrlova where you can find the innocent self-discovery and, at the same time, a strong sense of responsibility and seriousness.
The female figure par excellence which immediately brings us back to motherhood can be found in the fascinating work of Jessica Carroll: the bee with its graceful and yet vigorous dance conveys the sense of strength and universal commitment that characterises much of the female path: unstoppable, harmonious, sometimes lonely, yet extraordinary.
The exhibition includes paintings representing figures with a strong personality, independent, like those of the young Giacomo Modolo, but also erotic and mystifying as those represented by Sabrina Milazzo from Turin. The mother figure is also addressed by the artist Jian Zhou who represents her from the back, but with so much strength and love that it seems possible to touch her through the engraved wood.
Cristina Gori, photographer, deals with the theme of femininity starting from her body, through which it builds life and generates nature. In parallel, the female faces of an original and complicated sculptural research are represented by Alessandro Cardinale, who proposes in a modern key an ancient Chinese custom: Chinese women in the imperial age used fans and cotton decorated clothes to communicate with each other unbeknownst to men. They had their own language, their own strength which guaranteed them a way to be free.
Breaking away from traditional representation of intellectual and scholar man, Gilian Hyland, in her photographs, focuses on an emancipated author who, in a decadent but elegant frame, is dedicated to her job.
Collaborations
The exhibition is linked to the initiatives of the Bus Stop Association in program on March in Turin. In particular, the opening of a photo exhibition and a conference at Palazzo Barolo on the 8th of March.
