Reggio Emilia (RE), Italia

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Fluxus – African Contemporary Art

LASCIAlaSCIA

LASCIAlaSCIA looked after the art design and the production of the exhibition set up of William Kentridge art show, launched on the 19th of November 2011 at the Spazio Gerra in Reggio Emilia. This exhibition (that belongs to the Fluxus – African Contemporary Art cycle, organised by the Sindika Dokolo Foundation and Flag no Flags Association, curated by Daniela Palazzoli) presents a selection of animated short films, realised by the Southafrican artist with the charcoal drawing technique. This selection is based on the famous project “9 Drawings for Projection”, a collection of nine films directed between 1989 and 2003 about the crucial shift between Apartheid and democracy in the Southafrican history. Kentridge makes use of an original motion capture procedure, that joins together drawing art and “step one” animation techniques such as the “stop motion” one. In relation to the tough reality of Apartheid, the artist’s work uses multiple metaphors, which are powerful and poetical at the same breath. The exhibition set-up is able to enlighten the toughest implications of the daily Southafrican reality without mouthing rhetoric, and it rises from the willingness to create warm and comfy, cosy spaces. They allow the visitor to get in touch with the strong content discussed by the artist, without being overwhelmed and rather allow drawing enough calmness from the surroundings, in order to approach to the contents in a better way.

The theme of the project regards the possible ways of vision, proposed through different perspectives depending on the short movie and on the cardboard box created in order to contain its projection. The short movies “Johannesburg, 2nd greatest city after Paris” and “Monument”, shown at the first floor, are displayed in a “theatrical” cardboard frame – invocation of a sectioned cube; moreover, pallets presented on different levels create the stalls. The vision is classic and front positioned.

At the second level, “Mine” is projected in a cardboard cube where the visitor can take a seat to feel the even cosier atmosphere: the vision is from the inside. “Sobriety, obesity and growing old” is presented in another cube shaped box but the visitor is not allowed to enter: the short film must be watched from the outside through a big window – a smaller window is provided on the side to allow kids to watch the projection. In a smaller room at the third floor, “Felix in exile” is projected on a high and inclined screen offering a vision “from the bottom to the top”; visitors are welcomed by juta chaises longue chairs. The chosen materials, in line with the ideas and the style of LASCIAlaSCIA and with the artist’s personality, are cheap: cardboard, juta and wood. The purposely unrefined cardboard, used to realise the boxes, has a decorative purpose as well the aim to isolate and deliver the sound. Materials, whom aim is constantly changing, whom life cycle results opened once again.

Europaconcorsi Beta

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE