La galleria Il Gabbiano 1968 - 2018
Cinquant'anni di ricerca artistica

The exhibition Attraverso l’arte (Through Art) traces the exhibition activity of the gallery Il Gabbiano, a cultural reference point for La Spezia which created connections among various generations of artists and promoted the most representative movements of the international art scene from the ‘60s to the new millennium, such as Visual Poetry, Fluxus, Conceptual Art and Body Art.
Founded in 1968 as “Circolo Culturale Il Gabbiano”, the gallery had the special characteristic of being an artistic interaction point wholly managed by artists, artists wishing to update the cultural environment of the province and continue the inherited relationship with contemporary art which the town of La Spezia had cultivated in the early post-war years, thanks to the various editions of the Premio del Golfo (Gulf Award).
With the over 500 exhibitions which succeeded one another in the gallery from 1968 to 2018, Il Gabbiano demonstrated ever more clearly its singularly militant approach, fed by a visionary impulse which over the years became a concrete, lasting cultural mission.
The exhibition aims at illustrating this exhilarating story with a composite display, punctuated by special themed sections and points of focus on Italian and international artists who have had lasting collaborations with the La Spezia gallery: starting with the fitting homage to the founders and historic animators of the gallery, Mauro Manfredi (1933-2004), Fernando Andolcetti (1930-2021), and Cosimo Cimino (1939), who has created a special installation for the occasion. At the end of the ‘90s, Mario Commone (1964) joined the artistic management of Il Gabbiano.

PROJECT ROOM - FLAGS

A special feature of the of programmes of Il Gabbiano, which was consolidated above all in the last two decades of gallery’s activity, was active involvement; this was translated into the production of themed collective shows, for which the artists were invited to create special works according to specific indications (regarding theme, but also often format and medium).
Within this overall view, the single work became part of a whole, a kind of “series” which often also entered the publishing sphere, with publication of the show catalogue.
This way of working allowed the gallery to build up a solid network of relations with the artists over the years, with shared discussions and exchanges at the artistic but also the existential levels.  
And it is with the precise aim of revisiting the exhibition and relational dynamics of the gallery that for this exhibition, Attraverso l’arte (Through art), 50 artists who over the years have exhibited at Il Gabbiano have been invited to create a contribution/homage in the form of a flag, thus forming a large collective installation which becomes an integral part of  the historic exhibition itinerary. Each author has responded by interpreting the theme in their own language and with their own means of expression. In this way the flag becomes an exemplification of each participant’s creativity, a symbol of freedom, friendship and lightness, elements which have always been the hallmarks of Il Gabbiano.

CREDITS

Exhibition promoted by
Comune della Spezia
Sindaco e Assessore alla cultura, Pierluigi Peracchini
Dirigente Servizi culturali, Massimiliano Curletto

and produced by
CAMeC Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

in collaboration with
Galleria Il Gabbiano

with the contribution of
Coop Liguria
Enel

curated by
Mario Commone, in dialogue with Mara Borzone, Francesca Cattoi, Cosimo Cimino, Lara Conte, Marta Manini

project direction
Eleonora Acerbi and Cinzia Compalati

registrar
Cristiana Maucci

design project
Marta Manini

press office
Comune della Spezia
Luca Della Torre | ph. +39 0187 727324  ufficiostampa@comune.sp.it

CSArt Comunicazione per l'arte
Chiara Serri | ph. +39 348 7025100
chiara.serri@csart.it 

P.2 
May 27, 2022 / March 19, 2023

Giosetta Fioroni works from 1960s to 2000s

Just a few weeks away from her 90^th birthday, the exhibition pays homage to Giosetta Fioroni, one of the most important Italian artists of the second half of the 20^th century, by means of a project which retraces her substantial career: from the ‘60s experiences linked to the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo, up to the present day.
The title Il piccolo grande cuore di Giosetta (The Small Large Heart of Giosetta) is based on the autobiography written and illustrated by the artist in 2013 (La mia storia/My Story) and published by Corraini editore on the occasion of the celebratory exhibition at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Rome.
In over 50 years of research and experimentation Giosetta Fioroni with her distinctive and very personal language has narrated the relationships, feelings, intimacies and day-to-day experiences which accompany human beings. Giosetta grew up determined and non-conformist, nourished by the sensitivity of her parents who were both artists and choosing art as her natural direction in life. She was the only female in the pioneering Roman artistic experience shared by the members of the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo. This brief but intense group experience is considered to be the Italian contribution to Pop Art, but its protagonists have rejected this affiliation, emphasising the very particular nature of their environment, references and pronouncements.
The exhibition opens in fact with a documentation of Giosetta Fioroni’s production in those years, when she worked on Argenti, inventing a new language and exploring a universe of objects and humanity which were dear to her. This long-lasting cycle is characterised by the unusual complicity with photography, photos being projected onto a support; also by the use of industrial aluminium enamel: “slides of sentiments” is the appropriate, poetic definition coined by her partner, the man of letters Goffredo Parise. The exhibition continues with the following years, proceeding along the artist’s creative biography, which encountered new themes and continued to renew itself, enriching its narration and modifying its expressive means: fairytales were combined with real life, widening her imaginative range; formal practice was extended to collage, the addition of objects, the insertion of writing. Two constants are her familiarity with the theatre, the protagonist of her work, and her use of the literary reference, which was assiduous both before and after the death of Parise in 1986. In the ‘90s, Giosetta came into contact with pottery, which is amply represented in the exhibition. “The meeting with Davide Servadei of the Bottega Gatti of Faenza gave rise to a creative partnership that evolved into the pottery works which Fioroni defined as “hyperpictorial” […]: there are hints of the works of Leoncillo and the terracotta agglomerates of Fausto Melotti; there is an interplay of dream and reality in the modelling of a clay which is contorted and contaminated by materials like wood and metals and finally coloured with the themes which have always been dear to her in her inexhaustible artistic research” (Gemma Gulisano). A dreamlike, fairytale approach and literary references persisted, and were combined also in this last declaration. “Fioroni’s experimentation knows no limits. In 2002 in fact she decided to interact with the lens of the photographer Marco Delogu; […] The protagonists of the shots were Fioroni’s multiple disguises once again inspired by literature and fairytales, dreams, childhood memories, reality. With Senex the artist investigated the traces of time which had sedimented on her body, contrasting the whites and the greys, alluding to an inexorable process, with the bright hues of a child’s soul which age has not corrupted”.
“Today in her studio in Trastevere Giosetta Fioroni, almost ninety years old, continues to trace the typical symbols of her vision on paper, symbols which are echoes of a far-off time captured in the process of dissolving but never quite lost; symbols which continue to entwine with both the old and the new visions”. (Gemma Gulisano, curator of the Parise-Fioroni Foundation)

Giosetta Fioroni was born in Rome in 1932. Hers was a family of artists: her mother was a puppeteer and her father a sculptor, while her grandfather had connections with various poets, including Vincenzo Cardarelli. She was admitted to the Fine Arts Academy of Rome, where she studied under Toti Scaloja, and her first paintings were shown at the 1955 Quadriennale. In this period her works were created with industrial paints, aluminium and gold, and they featured signs, writing, symbols and common objects such as hearts, lamps and watches/clocks. The following year she began to work as costume designer for the TV and hung out at the Caffé Rosati, taking part in the Scuola di Piazza del Popolo with Tano Festa, Mario Schifano, Franco Angeli and other artists such as Cesare Tacchi, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Ceroli, Mimmo Rotella and Umberto Bignardi. From 1958 to 1962, Fioroni lived in Paris, and when she returned to Rome she began work on the cycle of the Argenti. Giosetta Fioroni’s Argenti are paintings created by projecting photos onto canvases, and then tracing their outlines with industrial colours, particularly silver, hence the name of the cycles. In these paintings Fioroni represents various subjects, including numerous women. In the ‘60s she frequented the artistic environment of the galleries La Salita and La Tartaruga of Rome. Here she got to know Willem De Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. In 1964, she met the Venetian writer Goffredo Parise, with whom she began a long relationship which particularly influenced her artistic style. Like Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni also reworks images from art history, particularly Botticelli, Carpaccio and Martini, extrapolating a detail from an image. An example of this is the work Liberty, of which she made several versions. In those years Fioroni’s paintings had a Pop Art style which reflected the dictates of American Pop Art, but she did not paint the typical themes of this movement. Her work in fact concentrated on the analysis of the feelings common to all human beings. In 1968 she created the performance La Spia Ottica (The Optical Peephole) and the following year the Teatrini (Puppet theatres), little wooden boxes which contained a series of miniature objects conceived as toys for adults. In this period she collaborated with writers and poets to create books and graphic works, and she also made films in 16mm and Super8. In the ‘70s Giosetta Fioroni moved to the Veneto region to live with her partner, Goffredo Parise. Here she created a large cycle of country wrecks, later mounted in collages and drawings, but above all she dedicated herself to the reading of Frazer’s Golden Bough and Propp’s The historical roots of the fairytale. These two books notably influenced her works. She began to paint elves, spirits and woods, which became the symbol of her reflection on human feelings. From this period come the cycles of the Spiriti Silvani, drawings in Indian ink, and Le Teche, wooden boxes in which the artist put found objects from the woods and countryside. In the same years she also created L’Atlante di medicina legale, a register of images of fatal accidents. For each photo the artist created a caption in which she recounted the causes of death (mainly autoeroticism, fetishism and murder). Between 1980 and 1986 Fioroni created a series of pastels inspired by the frescoes of Gian Domenico Tiepolo in Villa Valmarana in Vicenza. 1986 was the year of Parise’s death, a dramatic event which led Fioroni to rethink her style and devote more space to a personal artistic investigation. Thus she created richly colourful works with a textured effect; also cycles of watercolours, one of the most famous of which is the 2005 Movimenti Remoti, 16 drawings inspired by Parise’s book of the same name. In 1993 Giosetta Fioroni began to make pottery works which she exhibited in the cycles Case, Teatrini, Steli and Vestiti. The sculpture Giosetta con Giosetta a nove anni, a symbol of introspection and change, was made in 2002, and in the same year Fioroni collaborated with the photographer Marco Delogu on a project addressing the theme of old age, Senex. The two artists collaborated again in 2012 with a project dedicated to identity, L’Altra Ego. In 2009, Germano Celant dedicated a monograph to Giosetta Fioroni, and in 2013 homage was paid to her also by the Drawing Center of New York. The portrait of Marilyn Manson was done in 2008. It re-examines the theme of change originally interpreted in 2002. In 2014 Fioroni made a video for the Valentino brand, and in the same year she made the painting Ramo d’oro, exhibited in this solo show, inspired by Frazer’s book and which marks a return to the theme of fables.

CREDITS

Exhibition promoted by
Municipality of La Spezia
Mayor, Pierluigi Peracchini
Manager of cultural services, Rosanna Ghirri

and produced by
CAMeC Centro Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

in collaboration with
Fondazione Goffredo Parise e Giosetta Fioroni
Marcorossi artecontemporanea

with the contribution of
Coop Liguria
Enel

curated by
Eleonora Acerbi and Cinzia Compalati

critical text in the catalogue
Gemma Gulisano

technical and scientific coordinator
Cristina Ghisolfi

registrar
Cristiana Maucci

design project
Sarah Fontana

press office
Comune della Spezia
Luca Della Torre | ph. +39 0187 727324  ufficiostampa@comune.sp.it

CSArt Comunicazione per l'arte
Chiara Serri | ph. +39 348 7025100
chiara.serri@csart.it 

P. 1

October 8, 2022 / February 26, 2023

P. 0
February 9, 2022 / September 17, 2023

p.0
February 16, 2022 / September 17, 2023

The selection of works proposes a compendium of representations of the seascape of the Gulf of La Spezia and the Cinque Terre. It places side by side numerous visual texts of varying styles which are linked by the common theme of homage to and remembrance and experience of the La Spezia territory. The exhibition itinerary does not follow a chronological order but a thematic one, beginning with the town of La Spezia and the deep inlet it faces onto, which was christened “Gulf of the Poets” by the dramatist Sem Benelli In 1910. Over time, this evocative name has acquired added impact thanks to the numerous illustrious literary and other figures who have stayed here, including Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his wife Mary, David Herbert Lawrence, Arnold Böcklin, Richard Wagner, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Mario Soldati. These works are followed by several paintings dedicated to Lerici, Portovenere, Cinque Terre, accompanied by graphic works with differing styles and techniques.

The exhibition presents a considerable sample of what are considered “historical” works, i.e. coming from the original body of permanent contemporary art collections of La Spezia. This body of works began to be collected just after the Second World War in 1949, the year of the first of the 13 editions of the “Golfo della Spezia” National Painting Prize, an exhibition-cum-competition which up to 1965 attracted the most important Italian painters and has accumulated over 200 works thanks to the far-sighted prize/purchase formula. In the early years of the Gulf Prize, the regulations called for “sea-inspired” entries, and this has in fact gifted us with numerous paintings linked to the seascape of the La Spezia territory, even though in various cases the style is abstract. The aim of the exhibition is in fact to juxtapose and compare works which interact with one another regardless of the similarity or difference of their formal expressions, with the focus on their common reference to the special beauty of this portion of Liguria and its "vertical" sea, as the writer and journalist Marco Ferrari effectively defined it.