Objets Futiles Mais Indispensables

About

OBJETS FUTILES MAIS INDISPENSABLES [futile yet indispensable objects] is a modest poetic compilation focussing onto an existential principle, often neglected but implicitly assumed: the intimate bond an artist develops with trivial belongings, being necessary to her/his own very survival.

The artist recurs to the French language in the title of the show, in an emblematic inspiration. French has been the necessary idiom to the artist herself for many years, as presently unpractised in her everyday life, the command of the language has become a futile endowment, still equally a former instrument of studies in Francophone literature and culture, having a fundamental influence upon her formative process.

In the awareness of such dualism, Boisi gathers the figural compendium of objects and cultural references that establish themselves both as phenomenon, the tangible manifestation and noumenon, its intellectual utterance. Thus, the iconic Chinese parasol pushes the viewer towards the exotic decorative implement, through the quintessence of an endeared universe.

Either reified by painting or concretized in the exercise of firing (painting and ceramics are two practices that make desires and imaginary fully tangible) these futile objects/symbols/narrations, assume a transversal demi-gnostic value. They, as enunciated via memory and never mimicry, maintain the patronymic lineage of their sources, be them artistic, literary or pertinent to a specific time and context in popular culture.

The violinist portrayed in the large painting Wooden Figurine (2022), the oneiric red fishes in Dreaming of Matisse (2018) or moreover the entwined lovers, sheltered into a shell in Souvenir (2022), telling a few, are all subjects prone to be read and investigated through their layering: They are both what they represent and identically an homage to Gabriele Muenter’s folk art collection, to the “source of all sources”, rather than hints to vintage illustration of Fifties pop-sentimental postcards. They are references to some triviality that proves intimately founding.

Completion to the show is Boisi’s special project: a series of ceramic engraved silhouettes, ceramic drawings that come as complement to the artist’s painting and drawing practice. Second firings, emphasized by antinaturalistic underglaze colours, betraying their siding with a European pictorial tradition, issued by historical vanguards, whose pertinence is renewed times and times again.

Lorenza Boisi (Milan, 1972) lives and works on Lake Maggiore. She studied both in Italy and abroad, at the Royal Dutch Academy, the Hague, Villa Arson, Nice, and CERCCO, Geneva. The artist has held solo and group shows at international galleries and museums, among which: International Ceramic Art Biennale Jingdezhen, China; Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Tokyo, Tokyo, 2021; Casa Testori, Novate Milanese, 2019; Reggia di Caserta, Caserta, 2018; Palazzo Podestarile, Montelupo Fiorentino, 2017; MIDeC, Laveno Mombello, 2017, 2016; MIC, Faenza, 2017; Villa Vertua Masolo - Museo della Arti del Fuoco, Nova Milanese, 2017; CACT/MACT – Bellinzona, 2017; Museo Tornielli, Ameno, 2017; Museo del Territorio Biellese, Biella, 2017; Musée Ariana, Geneva, 2015; Musei di Villa Torlonia, Rome, 2015; Museo del Paesaggio, Verbania Pallanza, 2014; Espace Sicli, Geneva 2014; Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, 2014; Villa Necchi Campiglio, Milan, 2013; Museo del Novecento, Milan, 2013; Triangle Arts Association, New York, 2012; MARCA, Catanzaro, 2011; Italian Embassy, New York, 2011; CIAC, Genazzano, Rome, 2010; Ca’ Pesaro, Venice, 2009; Biennale di Praga, Prague, 2009; Museo di Storia Naturale di Rovereto, Rovereto, 2008; National Museum of Fine Arts, Hanoi, 2007; MUSEION, Bolzano, 2007. She has also taken part in residencies at: Fuping Pottery Art Village, Fuping, China, 2019; Shanyu Ceramics Centre, China, 2019; Progetto Logistica Cantieri, Montelupo Fiorentino, 2017; Civitella Ranieri, Umbertide, 2016; Triangle Arts Association, New York, 2012; M4Gastatelier, Amsterdam, 2008.