Artist Statement
My recent work focuses on the creation of alternative identities through the use of fictionalised characters. The shaping of these characters has so far taken various forms: live performance, site - specific installations, internet - based art, graphic novels and videos.
While dealing on a personal level with the need to question my own identity, I have used fiction to analyse on a general level the way identity can change accordingly to one’s own cultural surroundings and references.
More specifically, I have been interested in dealing with identity in terms of gender and age. Starting from this, I have been looking into the way icons and archetypes are used within youth culture to express one’s identity, and the way the play of a child or teenager resonates universal rituals in the use of “masks” and the re - enactment of mysteries (such as death).
Much of my work is based on performative acts which can be seen as scenes of potentially longer narratives, the beginnings and ends of which are not revealed (they could in fact be cycles), as it is not something finished that I want to show, but something that longs to be finished.
CV
Born: Alessandria, Italy, 1984
Represented by Oblong Gallery, London
Education
2008 – 2009 MA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
2008 - Postgraduate Diploma Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
2004- 2007 BA( Hons ) Painting, Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna, Italy
2004 - Certificate in English as a Foreign Language, London Metropolitan University, London
Selected Solo shows
2011 Changelings - part of Rencontres Photographiques - Centre International de Récollets, Paris, France
White Moon - Oblong Gallery - London
2010 Il Mistero del Doppio Dubbio - Casa Orioles Arte Contemporanea - Palermo, Italy
2009 Full-time Daydreamer – Galleria d’ Arte 18 – Bologna, Italy
2007 Evil Eve – Art Space Arteria, Bologna, Italy
2006 I Volti di Nessuno - La Cittadella art gallery, Alessandria, Italy
Selected group shows
2011 I Am Not Here To Entertain You - Bunhouse, London
Profilo Infermiere - Mostra Itinerante Corso Laurea Infermieristica Tortona, Alessandria, Italy
The Weaklings (curated by Dennis Cooper) - Five Years, London
2010 Distress: Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo - Merida, Venezuela
Glasgow International Book Fair - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland
ASKEW: Wild, Wicked and Wanton - Arthouse, Deptford, UK
Second Coming - Oblong Gallery, London
Oblong Represents - Oblong Gallery, London
ASKEW: The Garden of Desire - The Castle, London
Scapegoat Society (curated by Mark McGowan) - Guest Projects Space, London
2009 ASKEW - do - voodoo! - Stag’s Head, London
MAFA Final Show - Chelsea College of Art & Design, London
Police and Violence - Sassoon Gallery, London
Condensation 2009 - Bodhi Gallery, London
Galleria 18 a San Pietroburgo - Arka Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia
2008 Qui la parola è Arte : IED Rome project - Quarticciolo Public Library, Rome
Distorted Space - Waterloo Gallery, London
Thirst - Oblong Gallery, London
Chelsea Motel, Pg Dip Final Show – Chelsea College of Art& Design, London
Second Prize of the Arts L. Giraldi– Galleria d’ Arte 18, Bologna, Italy
Galleria 18 in Paris – Galerie Etiènne des Causans, Paris
2007 Shaping Air – Neon< Campobase art gallery, Bologna, Italy
Radio Papesse - Call For Soundworks : Gender Bender – Delta Bo Art Gallery, Bologna
AZA Short Film Festival – Thessaloniki cinema museum, Thessaloniki, Greece
2006 DAMS Prize 2006 – Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, Italy
VI Biennale Firpo Project – Palazzo Guasco, Alessandria, Italy
2005 Il valore del Tempo – Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2004 V Biennale Firpo Project – Pellizza warehouse, Alessandria
2002 IV Biennale Firpo Project – Baratta warehouse, Alessandria, Italy
Collaborations, residencies and workshops
Centre International d’Accueil et D’Echanges Des Récollets, Paris from November 2009
Independence! - a 5 - day residency at 1:1 Projects - Rome, 2008
Shaping Air - workshop by John Duncan - Neon> Campobase art gallery, Bologna, Italy, 2007
Calpestabile – performance by Zaubereien Magische Project– Orfeo Hotel art gallery, Bologna, Italy, 2006
Interviews/Reviews / Articles
A Real Boy at Last - interview with Jesse Hudson for The Fanzine online art and culture magazine, 2010
Second Prize of the Arts “Lallo Giraldi” – article by Professor E. Falsetti, March 2008.
Aliens like Us – article by Maria Grazia Villa, Gazzetta di Parma, Parma, Italy, July 2006.
Nobody’s Faces – article by Maria Luisa Caffarelli, edizione n. 7, Il Piccolo, Alessandria, Italy, January, 2006
Published Work (visual, literary)
Theme of Sadness - zine published by Kiddiepunk Press, France, 2011
Yuck’ n’ Yum Spring Issue 2011 - zine published by Yuck’ n’ Yum, Scotland
Estar Enfermo - (cover) book by Luna Miguel, published by La Bella Varsovia, Spain, 2010
Yuck’ n’ Yum Winter Issue 2010 - zine published by Yuck’ n’ Yum, Scotland
Flesh World 5 - zine edited and published by Kier Cooke Sandvik, Norway, 2010
Coop for Words 2008 - online publication, part of Coop for Words web archive (www.coopforwords.it), Italy
Coop for Words 2007 - online publication part of Coop for Words web archive (www.coopforwords.it), Italy
Monza Literary Prize 2006 - publication on prize’s anthology, Italy
Conferences and seminars
For Today I am a Boy - Birkbeck University, London, February 16th 2009