Category: Works

Miltos Manetas: 7th Internet Pavilion, Assange in Prison

Miltos Manetas  presents the 7th Internet Pavilion
“AIIA – Assange is Internet Internet is Assange” titled“Assange in Prison”, curated by Mara Sartore and produced by Lightbox.

The seventh edition of the Internet Pavilion “AIIA – Assange is Internet and Internet is Assange” revealed its first instalment at the Venice Meeting Point during the Biennale Arte
2022 opening week. Miltos Manetas donated 11 oil paintings on canvas of Julian Assange to visitors during those inaugural days. For the second instalment of this edition, the artist presents the exhibition “Assange in Prison” curated by Mara Sartore at the Gervasuti Foundation, Venice.

According to Miltos Manetas, Julian Assange is a mythological figure, a being out of time and space, who embodies the contradictions of liberal democracies, a punished Prometheus. If the internet was created as a free space for the exchange of information and global communication, Assange’s story demonstrates the limits of this system and highlights the dark areas of the web. The artist somehow identifies with Assange, as he places himself at the limits of the art system: in 2009, the first Internet Pavilion attended as an official collateral event of the Biennale, but was then excluded because it introduced the pirates of THEPIRATEBAY.ORG to Venice. Today, thirteen years later, he gives his paintings away, contradicting the primary rule of the market.

Assange’s prison represents a state of mind and a human condition to Miltos Manetas, even before reproducing it to create an immersive experience at the Gervasuti Foundation. Counting the days of imprisonment of a political prisoner may be compared to counting the days of a war, of social injustice, and in this way Julian Assange’s name becomes a symbol of freedom of speech, against censorship and against those who hold a monopoly on our data and information.

Miltos Manetas and Mara Sartore have known each other since the first edition of the Internet Pavilion. They collaborated for the first two editions, and then again in 2019 when Miltos Manetas was a guest at the Venice Meeting Point.

Location: Gervasuti Foundation London-Venice | Cannaregio 4998, Venice
Dates: June 12 – November 27, 2022

The 7th Internet Pavilion is realised in collaboration with Lightbox, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, HYPERURANIUM.io and with the support of DiEM25.

For further information
padiglioneinternet.com
instagram.com/internetpavilion
instagram.com/miltosmanetas

De Rerum Natura

“De Rerum Natura”
Curator: Mara Sartore
Participating artists: Marie Denis, Elham M. Aghili, Ignazio Mortellaro, Giovanni Ozzola, Matilde Sambo, Francesco Simeti, Oxana Tregubova, Lucia Veronesi, Lorenzo Vitturi.
Venue: Venice Meeting Point, Navy Officer’s Club
Location: Arsenale, Venice
Dates: 19 – 24 April, 2022
Opening: 19th of April, 18.30 – by invitation only

On the occasion of the opening of the 59th Art Biennale, Venice Meeting Point, a project conceived by Mara Sartore and produced by Lightbox, returned to the Navy Officer’s Club.

“De Rerum Natura” curated by Mara Sartore takes its title from the work of the Latin poet Lucretius (1st century BC). Lucretius’s poem is divided into six books that explore the ideas of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, whose atomistic doctrine  strives to explain not only all life in the cosmos, but also human destiny, psychology and the unique human freedom to think and act. Epicurean themes are at the centre of the critical investigation that the exhibition proposes, presenting nine international artists who interpret these ideas in different ways: Marie Denis, Elham M. Aghili, Ignazio Mortellaro, Giovanni Ozzola, Matilde Sambo, Francesco Simeti, Oxana Tregubova, Lucia Veronesi, Lorenzo Vitturi.

The exhibition is built in dialogue with a loaded space: it is not a neutral exhibition space but, on the contrary, extremely charged, its role as the Officers’ Club, in which the furnishings and the presence of people can’t be removed from experiencing the exhibition project, creating a process of estrangement that attracts the visitors attention, inviting them to ask themselves questions about where they are and what they are experiencing.

The opening of “De Rerum Natura” have featured a special live set by Fabio Tallo, a multidisciplinary artist, musician and sound designer. His audio creation process involves the acquisition of sounds both from urban and natural environment which he mixes re-modeling, deriving loops, synthesizers and rhythm sections.

The De Rerum Natura exhibition curated by Mara Sartore is organised in collaboration with the following galleries: aA29 Project Room, Milan / Caserta; Alberta Pane, Paris / Venice; Francesca Minini, Milan; Francesco Pantaleone, Palermo / Milan; Galleria Continua, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin / La Havana / Rome / Paris; T293, Rome.

Lupo Borgonovo: Alix

ALIX
LUPO BORGONOVO
AT THE VOLVO STUDIO MILAN

On the occasion of the installation of a selection of works of art and drawings by Lupo Borgonovo at the Volvo Studio Milano offices, on 1 April the Milanese artist will be in conversation with Monica De Cardenas, director of the gallery of the same name that collaborates with the artist, and Mara Sartore, director of Lightbox and curator of the contemporary art programme at Volvo Studio Milano.

Borgonovo is an artist whose work develops through the transformation of forms and materials in sculpture and drawing. A process that is nurtured through iconographic research, archival material and movement in urban space.
 Combining and associating natural forms, historical artefacts and everyday objects, her practice mixes solids and liquids, existing and imaginary objects, refined and raw materials. The work emerges from a dialogue between traditional processes and more recent production techniques; through a metaphorical approach it explores the relationship between organic and synthetic forms.
The works exhibited at the Volvo Studio Milan offices are a series of oil pastel paintings, “Eis“, which rework two objects belonging to the Inuit tradition. The objects have been redrawn by engraving with a metal point on a previously painted pastel surface. The grooves left by the incision of the point outline the images of these two objects that emerge from the paper as if they were archaeological finds. Three papers from the “Alix” series will be exhibited; works that have been developed by working on concepts of symmetry, lightness, colour and material transformation. Their form recalls the wings of a butterfly or the simplicity of a cloak.

Borgonovo‘s artistic research is based on the use of different materials and languages, with a constant interest in archaic aesthetic models. This particular attention leads him towards a work of re-elaboration of archetypes often transfigured in their form through the use of a variety of creative languages.
The evolution of man and materials is at the basis of Lupo Borgonovo‘s research and is expressed through drawing and sculpture.

Venice Meeting Point 2022

Venice Meeting Point
Navy Officer’s Private Club
19 – 24 April, 2022

Established in 2015, Venice Meeting Point is a platform created by Lightbox for international dialogue in contemporary art, with the aim to foster collaboration opportunities between visual artists, art organisations and the international arts community, as well as cultivate deeper public engagement with the arts.

Venice Meeting Point, just around the corner from the Arsenale entrance, is a private club, the Navy Officer’s Private Club, which opens exclusively for the Art Biennale opening week to also welcome My Art Guides friends and partners.

This year the Venice Meeting Point at the Navy Officer’s Club hosts a series of art encounters on art and technology presented by Unfinished Camp – a global platform that links the ethical technology and visual arts communities closer together, brainchild of internationally acclaimed curator and artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist and author and cultural strategist András Szántó – and the collective art exhibition curated by My Art Guides publisher Mara Sartore and titled “De Rerum Natura / The Nature of Things”.

The programme of the Venice Meeting Point is enriched by the collaboration with Aorist and two guest artists Miltos Manetas and Jonas Lund connected to the theme of art and technology.

The Greek artist Miltos Manetas will present the seventh edition of the Internet Pavilion dedicated to the controversial figure of Julian Assange. For each day of the Biennale openings, he will be giving away free of charge 11 oil on canvas paintings and NFT of Julian Assange.

In the Annex Space to the Navy Officer’s Club, Aorist – a next-generation cultural institution supporting artists creating at the edge of art and technology – will present an immersive installation by pioneering artist Rafaël Rozendaal, Observation.

Aorist will also present  inside the tavern of the Venice Meeting Point a work by Jonas Lund, MVP (Most Valuable Painting), an online participatory project (MVP.ART) in which 512 individual digital paintings transform and evolve, optimizing themselves to become more desirable based on audience engagement data and sales.
Aorist was founded by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, a patron, innovator in the NFT ecosystem, cultural place-maker Ximena Caminos, and artist Andrea Bonaceto.

De Rerum Natura

Venice Meeting Point will host a group art exhibition titled “De Rerum Natura“ curated by Mara Sartore (My Art Guides founder and director).

The title De Rerum Natura “Nature of Things” is taken from a book by the Latin poet Lucrezio (1st century BC). Lucrezio’s poem is divided into six books exposing the ideas of human life by the Greek philosopher Epicure, whose atomistic doctrine not only served to explain all life in the cosmos, but also human destiny, human psychology and the freedom to think and to act.

The exhibition will occupy most of the spaces at the Navy Officer’s Club, and will trace an ideal path through the central themes of the Latin poem: the origin of the cosmos, the meaning of life, the relationship between human beings, the planet, and the stars, the motion of the soul, death, love, dreams, and passions.

The nine international artists invited to present their works and meet the Biennale audience in this unconventional space are: Marie Denis, Elham M. Aghili, Ignazio Mortellaro, Giovanni Ozzola, Matilde Sambo, Francesco Simeti, Oxana Trebugova, Lucia Veronesi, Lorenzo Vitturi.

Unfinished Camp

Unfinished Camp was launched in 2021 as a global community that links the technology and visual arts worlds closer together. Spanning six continents, Unfinished Camp collaborates with a growing network of artists and nine innovative art institutions to provide a global platform for emerging artists to explore the intersection of art and technology, while collectively imagining a thriving and equitable civil society for the digital age.

Unfinished Camp’s inaugural in-person convening will take place during the Venice Biennale Opening Week, at Venice Meeting Point, hosting multidisciplinary artists, technologists, game designers, thought leaders, and museum directors and curators for five days of educational sessions and interactive workshops on the future of art and ethical technology, with a focus on Web3.
This community will learn, imagine, and collaborate to rethink the future of art and ethical technology.

Spearheaded by civic entrepreneur Frank McCourt and conceived by curator and artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist and author and cultural strategy advisor András Szántó, Unfinished Camp’s network includes organisations at the forefront of visual art, digital innovation, and technology across the globe: House of Electronic Arts in Basel, Switzerland; The Shed in New York; LUMA Arles in Southern France; Pivô in São Paulo; Serpentine in London; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing; The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MoCAA) in Cape Town; The Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, Australia; and The High Line in New York.

X MUSE

X MUSE, pronounced ‘tenth muse’, is not only the first blended barley vodka inspired by the spirit-making traditions of Scotland, but also one of Venice Meeting Point’s Cultural Partners. In its space, located in the Tavern of the Navy Officer’s Club, there will be a free Vodka bar open from 6 pm to 9 pm. The space will host the following events and art encounters: Forma Fantasma, Entra Nous Curatorial Collective, Jupiter Art Land.

Vino Vero

Vino Vero is a natural wine bar that opened in Venice in 2014 and in Lisbon in 2019.
Vino Vero has very rapidly obtained international recognition for its wine selection. The Venice shop has over 600 labels from all over the world and produces famous cicchetti with top-quality ingredients. This year, Vino Vero will be taking over the restaurant and the inside bar at Venice Meeting Point.

Art Encounters 2022 | Electric Body @ Volvo Studio Milano

Volvo Studio Milan once again becomes the stage for the second edition of
Art Encounters, a format of events dedicated to the contemporary art promoted by Volvo Car Italy and curated by Mara Sartore which will take place from March to June 2022.

The close link between the conversion to electric power and the human body as a subject to be known, protected and safeguarded is a central theme in Volvo’s research and the pivotal point that has inspired the programming of this new cycle of events Art Encounters, which will feature performances and a talk on NFT.

The title of this new series of performances, Electric Body, is inspired by “The Body Electric”, a famous book by Robert Otto Becker, a pioneer in the field of regeneration, which tells the fascinating story of our bio-electric selves, relating the regeneration of vital organs to the electrical currents present in living beings, thus trusting the relationship between the body and the environment.

Body and electricity are therefore the two cornerstones on which the construction of the programming of the new cycle of events Art Encounters is based, featuring two performers: Elena Rivoltini and Michelangelo Miccolis; and two collectives: SPIME.IM. and Masque.
Beyond science and medicine, art becomes the spokesperson for this fusion between physicality and electrical energy, creating moments of research and communication with the public capable of highlighting the beneficial and spectacular effects of this coexistence.
As an appendix to the programme there will be a meeting entitled “NFT and art, bubble or revolution? ” to summarise and explain what the NFT phenomenon consists of and how it will affect the art world.
Through the Art Encounters Volvo tells about itself projecting the mobility scenarios of tomorrow: a journey towards the future supported by meaningful artistic practices.

Volvo Cars Italia places respect for the individual, the value of sustainability and research through innovation at the centre of its actions as a means of guaranteeing protection and care for individuals and the environment. Volvo’s values are also embodied in terms of active participation in society, and the Volvo Studio Milano programme is part of this.
Volvo Studio Milano: a lounge bar, a meeting place dedicated to customers, but also a location for events centred on the brand’s strong values: Safety, Sustainability and the Centrality of the Person. Everything is classified into four themes: Arts, Design, Music and Taste.

The programme:

Thursday 3 March
Barocco Elettronico
Artist: Elena Rivoltini
Elena Rivoltini proposes an unconventional vocal and musical performance project that combines baroque exuberance and electronic minimalism, creating a sublime fusion of seemingly irreconcilable worlds. of apparently irreconcilable worlds.

Thursday 31 March
Zero
Artists: SPIME.IM
The SPIME.IM collective synthesizes contemporary reality by combining human expression with technological technological potential in an ever-changing virtual world.

Wednesday 4 May
“NTF and art, bubble or revolution?”
Guests: Andrea Bonaceto, Bruno Pitzalis, Domenico Quaranta, Serena Tabacchi
Moderator: Mara Sartore

Thursday 19th May
Light
Artist: Masque
Project: The collective focuses its artistic research on the nature of movement. In this In this performance the dancer – placed on a high metal pedestal – duets with two Tesla Coil. In the contortion all participants give in to the will of an enigmatic movement, without beginning, nor fi end.

Thursday, 9 June
The Desire to Make Sense
Artist: Michelangelo Miccolis
Miccolis reinterprets dance by embodying a polyrhythm that comes from the memory of his own gestures. his own and others’ gestures that have been deposited in the body over time, following a repeated choreographic execution. a repeated choreographic execution. fi choreographed execution composed of disorderly steps and everyday gestures.

Ruben Brulat at Volvo Studio Milano

HAND TO HAND WITH NATURE – RUBEN BRULAT
AT VOLVO STUDIO MILAN

12 January 2022, 7.00 pm
to participate you must register
press@lightboxgroup.net

On the occasion of the setting up of a selection of photographic works and sculptures by Ruben Brulat at the offices of the Volvo Studio Milan, on January 12 the French photographer will present a special screening of “La terre et la tempête”, HD video made during a series of performances in volcanic areas between Dankalia and Indonesia. For the occasion, the artist will be in conversation with Emanuele Norsa, director of the Ncontemporary gallery which has represented the artist for several years, and Mara Sartore, director of Lightbox who oversees the contemporary art program of the Volvo Studio Milano.

Brulat defines himself as a performer, in search of the fusion between nature and man. His photographic shots are famous, almost pictorial, which immortalize some moments of the performances carried out in complete solitude. In the images, the naked body of the artist is immortalized with the use of an optical bench, immersed in the most inaccessible nature, reached after extreme journeys to the edge of the world.

The photos exhibited at the offices of Volvo Studio Milano are part of the cycle of works entitled “Commencements”, created in the extraordinary landscapes of Dankalia (2014-2015). The images are flanked by three-dimensional sculptures where photography blends completely with matter and nature (Enfouir, 2020).
Brulat’s artistic research questions the meaning of life and the universe, passing through physical and mental tests dictated by the unpredictable and often difficult conditions of the places visited. The concept of time becomes central in the artist’s research through the interest in physically unrepeatable performances and non-replicable artistic results.

French photographer Ruben Brulat was born in 1988 in the city of Laudun-L’Ardoise in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. In 2014 the artist was the winner of the Autofocus award for photography and in 2015 his “Commencements” project was premiered by the NY Times. Brulat is represented by the Ncontemporary gallery, which hosted his last solo show in Milan in 2020. The artist has then participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Royal Geographical Society, London (2019), Lamb Arts, London (2017) , Palazzo Ferrero, Biella (2017), Dakar Biennale (2014), Theatre National de Toulouse (2014).

Elham M. Aghili: Hybrids at Vino Vero Venice

Vino Vero continues its collaboration with Lightbox, a new series of events related to contemporary art curated by Mara Sartore. On a quarterly basis, international artists who work with nature are invited to present site-specific works in the window of the wine club adjacent to the bar.

Elham M. Aghili (Sassuolo, 1989) is an Italian-born artist with Persian roots who is finishing her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Her artwork “Hybrids” recalls an ideal garden inspired by the botanical garden “Orto dei Semplici” by Ulisse Aldrovandi in the sixteenth century at the University of Bologna. In the artist’s research, the garden constitutes an oasis and a refuge full of mystical meanings: a safe and intimate space that achieve a delicate balance between wild and controlled natural elements, whilst also being a space of social interaction. The garden, therefore, becomes a metaphor for our inner world, a microcosm of nature and humanity.

Elham has commented on her practice: “As an artist, I study the relationship between human beings, nature, and space. I am obsessed with nature, and I have transformed my obsession into an insane re-creation of my personal world, parallel to the real one. A world as wild, invasive, and almost primitive in its appearance, as surreal and calculated in every little detail as it can be. My Iranian origins and the profession in my family have always led me to live in close contact with Persian rugs. I have chosen the combination of yarn and nature to give voice to my artistic language: yarn, as a fluid and nebulous element that in my work becomes a solid and rooted form, able to creep into any ravine, and nature because Persian carpets are historically where the first figurative representation of the garden was produced in textiles. The garden has a pervasive image in the Persian mindset and has been for centuries considered representative of an interior vision”.

The VETRINA project began on 25th September with the French artist Marie Denis, represented by the Galleria Alberta Pane Venezia – Paris, who created “Spathes” for Vetrina # 1, an aluminum sculpture that takes inspiration from research on botany, made in collaboration with the Giovanardi textile company.

The next editions will see new installations from the following creatives: Matilde Sambo, Ignazio Mortellaro, and Lilla Tabasso.

With the series of exhibitions Vetrina, artists are invited to reflect on the theme of nature, a key element in the philosophy of Vino Vero, and to create a site-specific installation capable of communicating with a context distinctive far from the usual exhibition spaces in the city of Venice.

Marie Denis: Spathes

Vino Vero, in collaboration with Lightbox, launches a new series of contemporary art events.

Every three months, international artists who celebrate nature through their work, will be invited to present site-specific works in the window of the wine club adjacent to the bar.

The first instalment (from September 25th – November 21st), presents the French artist Marie Denis, represented by Alberta Pane Gallery, Venice/Paris.

The work of Marie Denis (France, 1972) focuses mainly on the object and the ways it can be reinvented. Her installations and sculptures are inspired by botany, which the artist reinterprets through different media, creating pieces where elements of the universal and the everyday harmoniously converge. The nature Marie Denis presents is sensitive and ever-changing, susceptible to both interpretation and new meanings. Marie Denis’s works are manifested in her ability to study matter, which generates an alienating, taxidermic, transmuted, manipulated and changeable nature that leads to the distance between the real and the artificial. The artist focuses on processes of reinvention of the object, drawing inspiration from botany to blend everyday and universal elements, emulating a Wunderkammer (chamber of wonders). Her meticulous collection arouses attention and reflection around the plant world and a biological herbarium that highlights her scientific knowledge and collaborations. Perceptive delicacy and radicality of the forms in work. In her work “Spathes”, created in collaboration with the Giovanardi textile company and presented last December at the Alberta Pane Gallery, the artist states: “A meditation on forms and materials. Simplicity to the bone: in the darkroom of steel and aluminium. Coconut blades, engraved aluminium and matt black. The “Spathes” become Blades of Belfagor. The complex and the pure, the black and white of a two-tone nature: the obscure, explicit forms nourished by Eros and Thanatos”.

4EST Suite at Volvo Studio Milano

“4EST Suite” is a musical composition by Alessandro Baldessari with the collettivo_21 commissioned by Volvo Car Italia.

On Tuesday 21 September at 7 pm, Volvo Studio Milano will host a screening of the short film “4EST Suite”, an original composition about the terrible environmental disaster caused by the storm “Vaia”. The documentary will be introduced by the authors and moderated by Federico Capitoni, journalist and lecturer in History and Musical Aesthetics.

At the end of 2018, a terrible storm called “Vaia” hit the Dolomites, destroying millions of trees of ancient forests, natural and cultural heritage of the area. In response to this tragic event, Volvo Car Italia has devised a new Art Commission for the collective musical ensemble_21. They put forward “4EST Suite”, an original piece by the composer Alessandro Baldessari.

The piece performed live behind closed doors at the Volvo Studio Milan, and filmed under the direction of Vittorio Bongiorno, explores, through the use of piano, violin, and electronics, the man-nature relationship, the storm and rebirth after the tragedy.

4EST Suite

A project by Alessandro Baldessari and collective_21

Written and conceived by Alessandro Baldessari and performed by the collettivo_21 and Baldessari.

An LDB Advertising production, Bologna

Directed by Vittorio Bongiorno

Music and Concept by Alessandro Baldessari

A project commissioned by Volvo Car Italia.

collective_21:

Piano – Daniele Nava

Violin – Eleonora Liuzzi

Avant Young 2021 | #safety

Students from four Italian Fine Arts Academy exhibit their works at Volvo Studio Milano

Starting from Septmber 2021, Volvo Car Italia presents a new cultural programme dedicated to young contemporary artists. Twelve students from different Italian art academies have been selected by a committee of professors, in collaboration with Lightbox and Volvo, to exhibit their works at Volvo Studio Milano.

The programme unravels through four appointments, from September until November 2021. On each occasion, three artists from a specific Fine Art school will present their artworks and one will be awarded a scholarship by Volvo Car Italia. On each occasion, the pieces will remain on view in the space for three days.

The students have all been invited to propose a project focused on the topic of safety, fundamental in Volvo Car’s everyday work and research always revolving around people.

Avant Young 2021 | #safety
Complete programme: 

September 9 – 11 – Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia
Artists: Lucrezia Negrini, Sitong Pan, Beatrice Pescarolo

September 16 – 18 – Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna
Artisti: Camilla Callarelli, Elham Mossllem Aghili, Gioele Villani

November 11 – 13 – Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera
Artists: Chiara Melluso, Han Tao, Manuel Walter

November 25 – 27 – Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
Artists: Mahmoud Barati, Elena Shaposhnikova, Oxana Tregubova