IMAGE AS LANGUAGE
The transformation of image into language through important works from the 70s to today
May 8, 2008 - June 15, 2008 | Osart Gallery
The anthology of art works in this show starts in the 70s when the need for a conceptual approach and a necessity to innovate begins. No longer do combinations of colours and dimensions alone suffice, but real and proper language is called for in order to put on a scene (“mettere in scena”) and share with others ideas and emotions. The works as “Images as a language” are not fulfilled with solely signs and words, but they use the power of images in order to involve the observer, being the logical recipient and interlocutor of language.
Claudio Parmiggiani invents a fascinating “Alfabeto” (“Alafabet”), 1973, using an incredible collection of abnormal and monstrous report. With the “Le Tavole di Dario tradotte in tutte le lingue del mondo” (“Dario’s table translated in all the languages of the world”), 1973, Vincenzo Agnetti invents a genial way of creating a universal translation of this famous text, thanks to numbers and to the use of vocal intonation. With “Sappiamo che sei li numero 5” (We know you are there number 5), 1971, Gianfranco Baruchello creates his own peculiar miniaturized language in antithesis to the showy exhibitionism of, and close to the sequential mobility of, film and video. Franco Vaccari with “Il cieco torna subito”, (The blind comes back immediately”, 1973, makes us reflect, with amused irony, on the ease with which habits makes us exchange real and TV vision. Performance, installations, audio, video, design and photography converge in the work “Air Time”, 1973, of Vito Acconci, in order to let him transform a private story like the end of a love into a public story. In the video “Appendice per una supplica”, (“Appendix for a beg”), 1972, Ketty La Rocca adopts the emotional and caring language of hands to witness her fear, pain and desire of being included in front of death.
With the “Lingua” (“Tongue”) and “Piano” (“Slow”) works of Angelo Bucarelli we learn to literally weigh words: abstract/conceptual signs of the language amuse sculptures that surround us; names are not only breathy voice, but things that really exist. To conclude we have a work by Steve (Stefano Mezzaroma), just 24. Approaching advertising and famous characters of present and past times he tells us in the languages he knows, his own personal experiences and the daily life that surrounds us by, using the most disparate techniques: stencil, billboards, cylinders and paintings.
The thread that connects all these artists is not the shape of language, but the creation of an exclusive language landscape. It tells us, and makes us think about, something inherently important and shares these revelations with US, the observers and partners of these works.
Thanks for the collaboration: Lucilla Saccà, professor of contemporary art history at the University of Florence, Davide Marescotti and the Maranzana winery.
Osart Gallery
Via A.Fogazzaro,11 20135 Milano
Telefono/Fax 02-54075553
Apertura dal Lunedi al Venerdi orario: 14.30-19.00
Sabato Domenica e le mattine su appuntamento.
