ANGELO FILOMENO AND HELIDON GJERGJI:
TWO EXHIBITIONS FOR PINO PASCALI’S SUMMER
Across the Mediterranean Sea, Africa and the Adriatic Sea, curated by Antonio Frugis and Santa Nastro
From the 2nd of July at 6,30 pm
On the 2nd of July at 6,30 pm the Pino Pascali Foundation will open its doors to two important exhibitions by two leading international artists from New York. The exhibition “Angelo Filomeno, a homage to Pino Pascali, the ‘African’ artist”, curated by Antonio Frugis, presents works realised by using the old embroidery technique on precious silks and ethnic fabrics to portray images of primitivism and other shamanic rituals, symbols of life and death in the Southern Italian and African traditions. This passion for African culture has then translated into a collection of antique and precious sculptures that will be exhibited besides Filomeno’s works and Pino Pascali’s pieces dedicated to Africa. This will be a further example of the Museum’s commitment to demonstrate the influence of Pascali’s legacy on contemporary artists.
Angelo Filomeno was born in Ostuni in 1963 and currently lives and works in New York. He has held exhibitions at numerous prestigious international galleries. Paolo Vagheggi writes about him:
“His works are built with extraordinary, precious and complicated embroideries realised with the help of a Singer sewing machine, with silk threads on shantung, while the finishing touches are handmade. The artist is an expert as he learnt the technique as a child from his seamstress mother“.
At the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 curated by Robert Storr, Angelo Filomeno conquered the international audience with his images of skeletons embroidered with gold threats on night blue shantung panels, frightening death knights on a background of never ending metropolises.
The second personal exhibition is dedicated to the New York based Albanian artist Helidon Gjergj and it is part of a project run by Santa Nastro. Born in Tirana,the artist lives and works in New York. He has taken part in many exhibitions around the world, from the 52nd Venice Biennale, to the 8th edition of Manifesta in Murcia, Spain, to the first Tirana Biennale. In addition, and just to mention a few more appearances, he has also shown his works at the 12th Venice Biennale of Architecture and other exhibitions held at important international museums such as the New Museum in New York, the Museo Madre in Naples, the Chelsea Art Museum.
The exhibition Screenings, claims to be a sort of diagnosis of the ills of today’s society and is a further prof of the Pino Pascali Foundation’s interest on social issues regarding the Adriatic and Balkan area. Among the different typologies of suggested screenings, we find the installation ‘e-mages’, which transforms the family album created by Ketevan Geladze, Joseph Stalin’s mother,into a slide show presentation. This offers an unprecedented portrait of the dictator in the intimacy of his home, an image that seems extremely far from the bloody ruler he then became. We thus discover the happiest moments of his life: hugs, smiles, instants that reflect and deconstruct as a hyperreal matryoshka doll on the broken and relentless mirror of History. Moreover, during the exhibition, the artist will also make a heartbreaking site specific installation entitled Damascus Silk, a homage to the many people who died at sea while trying to reach our coasts.
To conclude, Helidon Gjergj will show a video of the famous project Facades, created in the year 2000 by the then mayor of Tirana and now Prime Minister Edi Rama. This project marked the beginning of a period of renaissance for Albanian art and, on a more international level, is also a clear example of how art can become an emblematic symbol for the development and quality of life of a country.
The project has seen many artists work on the facades of Tirana’s grey buildings. Gjergji has decided to work on a block of council flats. The project has brought together artists such as Tomma Abts, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Tala Madani, Anri Sala, Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Info:
Angelo Filomeno, a homage to Pino Pascali, the “African” artist, curated by Antonio Frugis
Helidon Gjergji, Screenings curated by Santa Nastro
Art Director: Rosalba Branà
Opening: 2nd July at 6,30 pm
Free entrance
The exhibition will run until the 4th of September 2016
Opening hours: from Tuesday to Sunday 11 am-1 pm / 5 pm-9 pm. Closed on Mondays.
Guided Tours available on request, tel. 080.424.9534 -333.2091920
(the ticket office closes 30 minutes before the museum – tickets are 2 euros plus reductions if applicable)
FONDAZIONE MUSEO PINO PASCALI
VIA PARCO DEL LAURO 119 – 70044 POLIGNANO A MARE (BA) – PH/fax: +39 080 4249534
www.museopinopascali.it
press: Santa Nastro +39 3928928522
snastro@gmail.com
Helidon Gjergji, e-mages, Tirana, 2014
