Memories of My Mother: Grace and Kindness

My mother and I in Piazzale degli Eroi, Rome

Today is mother's day, another celebration so exploited by this consumerist culture. Yet for me, transplanted from the other side of the Atlantic, this day brings so many sour-sweet memories.

I remember my mother for her great teachings of grace, kindness and compassion. In this day I have memories of my childhood in a place in times long gone: Roma of the 1960s. The world, so different now, is often associated it with the narratives of Italian movies from that time, in the city which was beautifully portrayed by Fellini and Antonioni. Going through photos of my mother, makes me so nostalgic, sad but peaceful.

Au revoir, mamma.

camminando | Walking Through Geometry, Stars and Moon

I walk to Chelsea. My main destination is Frank Stella's exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery. His sculptural work explores star polyhedra. Uncannily the word "Stella" in Italian means star.

Polyhedra and other geometry inspired sculptural forms at "Frank Stella"

 Another geometric encounter is the exhibition "Modulated Space" at Luhring Augustine of the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark (1920-1988). Lygia Clark was a founding member of the Neo-Concrete movement, whose work revolved about geometric abstraction, non-representational and mathematical art. Uncannily Lygia Clark's ouvre shares commonality with another Brazilian artist with the same first name, Lygia Pape, whose work is currently shown at a remarkable retrospective at the Met Breuer.

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional geometries at Lygia Clark "Modulated Space"

My visual memories of the day end with the full moon framed by buildings of 14th Street

Total walk length: 4 miles

workshop, performance, exhibition | Eiko "A Body in Places: Queens Edition "at Topaz Arts

Eiko's perfomance at Topaz Arts

On Saturday, May 6, Eiko performed at (and outside) the multidisciplinary arts organization Topaz Arts. The performance was accompanied the exhibition A Body in Places: Queens Edition displaying work by Eiko Otake and photographer William Johnston – on view May 6 to 28, 2017. The images were from the 2016 collaborative work (performance + photography) at Indian Point Energy Center, in  Buchanan, New York. The photographs from Indian Point were displayed with selected images from A Body in Fukushima (2014-16) the collaborative work in irradiated areas in Fukushima, after the 2011 nuclear meltdowns, following the earthquake and tsunami. The live performance by Eiko was "a poetic response to disaster and proximity".

Eiko's performance in front of  video and photo recording of her performance in Fukushima

The performance is taken to the streets, which uncannily border a power plant:
the signage recalls the potential of a disaster

The performance and exhibition opening from preceded by the workshop Delicious Movement also taught by Eiko. I was familiar with Eiko's work as a spectator but being immersed to become a participant provided a very different level of perception and interpretation. My work also revolves about making of movement from a different yet complementary perspective: I use geometry as internal proprioceptive as well as external physical framework as a means of awareness. Eiko's workshop inspired me to explore movement in a more fluid, personal and emotional expression.

Art Fairs | Snapshots from Frieze: Objects Over Process?

My first impressions, from strolling in the  225,000 sf prefabricated tent structure of the Frieze Art Fair, can be summarized in the great presence of objects, overcoming conceptual and process-based art.  In the past two decades a reflective process has been part of artmaking, in the effort of bringing meaning to expressions often borrowed from the daily life.
At Frieze objects comes in many shapes, materials and sizes: from paintings and other traditioal media to industrial object, furniture pieces and designed environment.

A recurrent thought comes to my mind: art as commodity and/or commodity as art?

Galeria Marilia Razuk, São Paulo: Julio Plaza

Paul Ramirez Jonas "Public Trust"

Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York

Parra & Romero, Madrid

Jaume Plensa's sculpture for Maison Ruinart

Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York & Rome

Instituto De Vision, Bogotá

Anish Kapoor, Lisson Gallery

 

Special Project: Fabio Mauri "Luna" (1968) presented by galleria La Tartaruga, Rome "Teatro delle Mostre"

camminando & performance | Midtown Manhattan, May 3

A walk from the Upper West to Midtown leads me to the Lever House, the 1952 curtain-wall skyscraper designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, located across the street from the iconic Seagram Building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The Lever House host "FlucT" curated by Performa. The title  is "shorthand for fluctuation" and  the eighteen dancers performance is created to "offer an embodied response to our online diets of incessant information."
"FlucT" is performed on three levels of the Lever House which also host artwork courtesy of Salon 94,  Maccarone, and Rodarte.

Dancers immersed in the artwork

"FlucT" performance

Another iconic building in the Manhattan skyline: The Sony Building, former ATT

Walk length: 11 km