Bormida Progetto explores the relationship between international contemporary art and the public domain of the Bormida Valley, Cuneo province, Piemonte, Italy.
Bormida Progetto promotes art that holds time as a vase holds water: art that grows out of modes of perception and making whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn't merely sensational, that doesn't get its message across in ten seconds, that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures.
Bormida Progetto aims to both track ideas and highlight developments in the field of contemporary art.
On our walks through landscape
our attention has many viewpoints but we perceive mostly only one thing in
particular. We realize a focus but this content is connected to all sorts of
immediate information that hold the point of focus together. We see one tree in
a landscape that stands out. We see a cornfield that makes a perfect square,
surrounded on all sides by woods.
Each person has a different
vision of landscape. But we all isolate a particular viewpoint.
We do this with our
consciousness and the intellectual luggage that comes along. In this manner we
have a predominated look at landscape.
Furthermore “our” landscape is
largely configured by history. We tend to look at landscape through the eyes
that of those went before us. We like to perceive the landscape in an all ready
predestinated manner. Predestinated by hand of man in the ages behind us and
given form by the history of art, in this, landscape painting.
In our perception of landscape
we like to privatize our existence. An existence largely dependent on the well
being of the landscape. We do this by selecting landscapes that give peace to
mind. We create private gardens. We reorganize woods. We like to lay our hands
on everything that calls itself nature. Not one spot is not touched by man.
Even so we like to see “our”
nature as uncontrollable, as something beyond us, humans.
As if we, humans, are not part
of landscape.
The Bormida valley has a rich
history of how people tried to manage their existence in an ever changing
landscape. The countryside has experienced various stages of how the
inhabitants tried to make a living on the nearby hills and in the valley.
Each person had a different
viewpoint on how to survive in a never stopping competition with nature. For a
long time, and maybe still even today, many had no time to regard the valley in
her beauty. The surge to survive and eat from the land was more urgent.
Slowly society brings along
other meaning to the landscape of the Bormida Valley.
We begin to see the particular
trees, the beautiful old little houses that once served as hideouts for the
storm, and which also served as places to collect the harvest. The walls of
stones that once had rich plantations, and now have excellent points of view to
see the landscape of the Bormida valley.
I have choosen six artists for
the second Bormida Progetto to be held at the restaurant of Ca’d Tistu. This
restaurant carries the origin of the rich history of how the surrounding
landscape provides the food served. I am very happy that Tino, Teresa, Alfio, Antonia
and Fabio were immediately positive when I presented them with the idea to hold
a small and intimate exhibition of contemporary art on the walls of the
restaurant.
Per Arnesen, a photographer from Copenhagen, Denmark,
specializes in still photography.
He makes his living by
photographing the moments in a production of a film. This brings him all over
the world where he stills his hunger for the landscape by making beautiful
shots of landscapes seemingly untouched by man.
Davide Dutto, Fossano, Italy, energetically photographs
everything that gets his attention. From food to wine, from prisoners to
landscape. His personal touch is very stimulating to view the world in another
way. Never relentless he tries to convey his landscape to the public in all her
beauty. He confronts his public with so many images that one has to make a
choice. He changes our viewpoint continuously.
Wim Elzinga, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is probably one of
the best guitar players in the Netherlands. Being raised as an artist he only
recently rediscovered his love for painting. He now brings out his easel and
portrays his surroundings in a nearly possessed way. He makes his works seem
trivial. Simple landscapes, seascapes or cityscapes are painted directly on the
spot. This way of working, his impressions, give the paintings access to a rich
history of landscape painting.
Marnix Goossens, Amsterdam, the Netherlands is a photographer who
loves to set his public on the wrong foot. He dares his public with his
humorous photos where he portrays his himself as the fool. A fool that shows
the public domain where the essence lies of looking. He loves to bring a fine
irony to his works and manages at the same time to have various layers of
meaning. Also his photography of the landscape shows this particular viewpoint.
Marcos Lora Read, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a sculptor
and a fine draughtsman is very interested in how man copes with the ever
ongoing struggle to survive the burdens that fell upon mankind. His works tell
the tale of slavery, the dislocation of complete societies, the means of
travel, the power of the ruling classes.
He produces a landscape in his
works where the tale is told of how we live next to one another in the same world.
In the same landscape. And that we have to comply to a peaceful and respectful
understanding.
Lucio Maria Morra, Sant’Albano Stura, Italy, a painter of
remarkable landscapes. In his recent works he combines his love for colour with
the architectural studies of his fellow artist Dario Dutto, the father of
Davide Dutto. These paintings show cityscape in a futuristic landscape. They
predict a possible existence. They foresee a landscape that eventually will
have an outcome to how mankind deals with nature.
Willem Sanders, curator
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BP #2 opening / inaugurazione 6 July / Luglio at 17.00 / 19.00
Azienda Agrituristica
Via Pian Lea, 2
Niella Belbo
Italia
For more info:
sandersjwr@gmail.com