A Solo Exhibition “No flowers without contradiction” by Arcangelo Sassolino at Repetto Gallery

In his second solo exhibition in collaboration with the gallery, Arcangelo Sassolino presents eight new works, created specifically for the spaces in Lugano with which he is confronted for the first time. Each architectural constraint has enhanced the character of the environment, representing an added value to the artist’s creative process. The distance between the columns or the concrete wall, for instance, were configured as integral parts of the sculptures present and the exhibition project. The gallery and the curator invited the artist to develop a research path in which his dynamic sculpture would break free from its merely monumental function and become a subject for contemporary reflection. For the occasion of the exhibition will be edited a catalogue with texts by Andrea Cortellessa, Paolo Repetto and a conversation between the artist and the curator.

The approach that characterises Sassolino’s work is therefore the protagonist in this exhibition, where surfaces and materials such as glass, steel, tyre, granite, industrial oil, wood, paper and marble coexist. These elements assume a central role in an almost obsessive search in which the individual components assume a new form. By employing air and mechanical movements to manipulate the physical forces of pressure and loosening, the artist effectuates a genuine transformation of matter, representing the pinnacle of his artistic expression. As the title also indicates, Sassolino underscores the poetic suggestion inherent in his works, juxtaposing the elements that typify industrial production with the materials characteristic of sculptural tradition. This inherent contradiction is a necessary and inevitable aspect of the creative process.

The works will be exhibited in the gallery spaces, but it is the exterior that will first capture the attention of visitors. A ‘living’ installation will be in place throughout the duration of the exhibition, welcoming visitors with a sensory experience that engages not only the sense of sight, but also the senses of hearing and smell. This exhibition, which was intended to be museum-like in scope, presents the artist for the first time in Lugano, a city that is a geographical and cultural crossroads between northern and southern Europe.

About Arcangelo Sassolino

He was born in 1967 in Vicenza, where he currently lives and works. His oeuvre, encompassing both works and installations, delves into the mechanical behaviour, materials and the physical properties of forces. The works require meticulous planning and comprehensive research, as they concentrate on the exertion of physical force and the application of force to or by an object. Sassolino himself refers to his works as “inorganic performances,” a term that, even at the semantic level, plays with the contradiction implied by the very concept. Arcangelo Sassolino has held solo exhibitions at a number of distinguished institutions, including: La Residencia, Mallorca (2023); 4th Biennale of Industrial Art (IAB 04) in Labin, Croatia (2023); 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice (Malta Pavilion, 2022); the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (2021); the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis (2016); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2016); Art and the City, Zurich (2012); MACRO, Rome (2011); Z33 Center for Contemporary Art, Hasselt (2010); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2008).

About Luca Massimo Barbero

Scholar and art critic, Director of the Giorgio Cini Foundation Institute of Art History, Associate Curator of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Collections of Modern and Contemporary Art, former Associate Curator of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Additionally, he has been a curator at national and international modern and contemporary art institutions, including the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Venice Biennale. His specialisation is post-World War II Italian and American art, and he is the author of numerous publications on contemporary art.

About Repetto Gallery

Founded in 2007, based first in London and from 2022 in Lugano, it is a modern and contemporary art gallery, actively engaged in the promotion and in-depth study of Italian artists, including Burri, Ghirri, Fontana, some of the protagonists of Arte Povera and conceptual art, including Boetti, Calzolari, Paolini, Pistoletto and some of the most important international artists, Christo, Long, Matsutani, Motonaga and Neshat. The gallery’s historic artist is Melotti, whose support led Repetto Gallery to a major exhibition in 2014 at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice. The current programme includes the promotion and rediscovery of the Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari, and focuses on opening a dialogue between historical and contemporary artists.

Information

No flowers without contradiction

Arcangelo Sassolino

Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero

20 September 2024 – 18 January 2025

Catalogue by Magonza Editore

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 9 AM – 5 PM

Via Clemente Maraini 24, Lugano, Svizzera

For more information, please visit https://www.repettogallery.ch.