1 OCTOBER 2023 — 28 JANUARY 2024
THURSDAY-SUNDAY 2.00-6.00pm
Chiara Bettazzi
Reverse
The movement of an object, the change of the context or an accident on the path take shape as a gesture, a movement or a crack that affects the everyday and opens up a new perception of reality. At the same time, gathering, collecting or archiving are integrated as artistic practices attempting to systematize the everyday world, not so much to find order within the chaos, but to open new horizons of interpretation, new suggestions, new possibilities.
In this context, Chiara Bettazzi’s research, manifested in installations, photography and shared projects, is profoundly linked to a reflection on the object of everyday use, reworked and repurposed through a practice that is, on the one hand, oriented towards use and dispose, and on the other hand, devoted to the compulsive accumulation of objects of dubious utility. The object, in this sense, is understood as material with which to draw the space, depriving it of any symbolic value, to constantly transform and rebuild it. In this way we see how all her installations can be interpreted as a single long work in progress that is developed, adapted, customised or materialized according to a specific space, reusing the same objects several times until they become dust, while the photography, which until recently was used as a basic preparatory element for installations, has become not only an element in itself, but is often the predominant formalization.
The exhibition “Reverse”, designed specifically for the Tenuta Dello Scompiglio, takes shape from the idea of still life as a pictorial genre, linking it to its genesis and its evolution in the course of art history. The exhibition space, sectioned asymmetrically, generates two apparently opposing points of view, which become respectively the front and back of the work, referring in this case to the painter’s canvas and the tradition that sees the birth of still life painting on the back of the canvas. The work investigates the archaeology of still life through a process of installation construction that takes place on site, where the perceptive illusion determines and evokes two relationships; on the one hand, that between space and object and, on the other, between still life and the viewer. While the first highlights the relevance of the object itself through the classic ways of using elements such as a mirror, a niche, a trompe l’oeil and curtains, the other represents the historical artistic value of the modes of vision, between front, back and illusion.
In this way, we see how in her work there are no concepts, fashions or trends to follow or respect, nor readings or interpretations imposed or suggested. All that remains is the atavistic urgency to model, redesign, recontextualize or reconfigure a certain space through personal or borrowed objects. From this perspective, emerges the coherence of a research in which, regardless of a formal declination or chosen language, each gesture becomes an impulse, an instinct and a link with the objects, with the furnishing elements, with the interiors or with the spaces, to give, evoke or concretize a different vision than the one we are used to.
2023_Chiara Bettazzi
foto: Leonardo Morfini
Please be advised that that there is protruding and sharp glass inside the exhibition. Therefore, caution is recommended during the visit; touching anything or entering with backpacks and bags is not allowed. Only adults are allowed access, with a maximum of 5 people at the same time. Thank you for your cooperation.
Biografia
Chiara Bettazzi was born in Prato in 1977. As artist and founder of the ex – industrial space in Via Genova, she dedicates herself to her artistic research that investigates a double dimension, on the one hand space and places, and on the other the poetics of everyday objects, that develop between accumulation and waste. Interested in triggering processes of awareness and reappropriation of abandoned spaces, she constantly devotes herself to her artistic research, promoting contemporary art and creating numerous links with artists, musicians and independent spaces in the region. In 2015 she created the project TAI – Tuscan art industry, an observatory that examines industrial heritage through artistic languages, inviting historians and biologists to work in contact with the industries. Her works are presented in public and private collections including: National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, Casa Masaccio Centre for Contemporary Art, Farnesina Collection, Museum of Santa Maria della Scala, Castello di Ama and Villa Rospigliosi. She has exhibited in museums and private spaces. Among her recent exhibitions: - 2023 Standby installation view curated by Letizia Bocci and Valentina Gensini Murate art district and Galileo Museum Florence. - 2023 Soggiorno, curated by Mirco Marino, Villa Rospigliosi, Prato. - 2022, Surplace curated by Saretto Cincinelli, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome. - 2021, Rampa di Lancio curated by Sergio Risaliti and Antonella Nicola, Peccioli. - 2020, Andature, curated by Cangioli, Nicola and Cincinelli, Marino Marini Museum, Florence. - 2020, A tutti gli effetti, curated by Alessandro Sarri, Villa Romana, Florence. - 2020, Still Life, curated by Davide Sarchioni, BBS/H24, Prato; - 2019, Cabinet Castello di Ama, Siena; - 2018, Il mondo infine, curated by Ilaria Bussoni, National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome. - 2017, What about my object, Solo Show, curated by Alessandro Gallicchio, Localedue, Bologna.
Ticket price
Opening Reverse (1 October)
free admission
Exhibition and permanent installations
Thursday-Sunday 2.00-6.00PM, or by appointment: € 5,00
Contacts and reservations
SPE Ticket Office - Performance and Exhibition Space
tel. +39 0583 971125
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Associazione Culturale Dello Scompiglio
Via di Vorno, 67 – Vorno, Capannori (LU) Italy
tel. +39 0583 971475
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