PLIEGUE

About

We felt the need, tired of the recent viewing rooms like exhibition-catalogue, to propose to the public a new experience, human and personal, of direct confrontation with the artist to better know his work without intermediaries. A privilege usually enjoyed by curators and few collectors.

For this reason we decided to show the whole creative process, not only the result of the work of art: the gallery will be transformed, for the whole month of July, into the studio of artist Jaime Poblete and will host a site-speci c installation.

Jaime will be present in the gallery-studio every Thursday of the week, on which day it will be possible to visit him by appointment. This is a unique opportunity that we want to o er to collectors and artlovers: to visit the installation with the privilege of directly questioning the artist and to see the creative process with which he, as an ‘alchemist’, dyes/cuce/creates his works made of fabrics, kindly donated to us by Seterie Argenti of Como.

The exhibition is conceived as a total work of art, a performance prolonged in time in which the artist is the performer who interacts with the variables of Space and Time, modifying the installation with his Action and giving meaning to the objects.
This project comes at a moment of artistic maturity by Jaime Poblete, who identi es three themes to conceptualize his research: Object, Subject and Symbol.

OBJECT. A floor installation composed of 7 modules for a total length of 7 meters. Modules made of fabrics folded like boxes that represent the object dimension of the work of art, and therefore interchangeable in space and time by the artist. The act of folding (Pliegue in Spanish) becomes the artist’s instrument, the essential gesture by which he creates, the equivalent of the brushstroke for a painter. For this object installation Jaime chooses a simple structural cross-shaped folding, functional for the purpose.

SUBJECT. Three wall installations for which he uses a more dramatic folding, as a symbolic reference to the signs of life on the skin. Each work explores an aspect that characterizes human subjectivity, focusing on the themes of Measure as a factor of identity and Form as a representation of the dualism inherent in the human being.

SYMBOL. Three banners hanging from the ceiling. Monochrome fabrics that acquire the symbolic meaning of Flag thanks to the performative action of the artist who raises them in space. It is the artist’s action that creates the meaning. A symbol, the Flag, which has become particularly important in recent times, rediscovering the value of collective identity and belonging.

Due to the performative nature of the exhibition, we invited a second artist, Jacopo Valentini, to document the event with his artistic photographs. The aim is not a reportage but to create an archive of images to see how an artist - Jacopo - visually interprets the installation of another artist - Jaime - and his research. The visual archive will be part of the exhibition.

This exhibition represents the strength of being able to react creatively to hostile situations: do they prevent us from assembling? and so we propose a personal visit with the artist by appointment! can’t we do a vernissage? and so we propose a non-vernissage: an opening performance in which the artist takes possession of the gallery space and settles down with his tools and materials, while the public can observe him from outside, through the windows.

This is the power of art: creating with a vision what has never existed before, turning limits into new opportunities!

Jaime Poblete (b.1981) was born in Santiago de Chile. His academic training initially developed between Scenography and Art Theory, attending the Facultad de Artes of the Universidad de Chile. From 2000 to 2002 he worked as a set designer for various theatre companies and later collaborated as a restorer at the MAC Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile. The origins of his artistic career date back to his collaboration with the Chilean artist Francisco González. In 2017 he began his collaboration with the gallery IK-projects based in Lima, Peru; in 2018 he participated in the artist’s residency Fugaz / IK-projects, with the project Elipsis.
Since 2019 his work is represented by the gallery Suburbia Contemporary Art (Granada / Florence), with which he realized the exhibition projects Nigredo 2019, Arte era Bologna 2020 (show only), Satellites 2019 and Surroundings 2020 (group exhibition). Since 2011 he lives in Italy, a place where he consolidates his language, deepening his research on colour and its relationship with space, alternating with his interest in semiotics and philosophy.

Jacopo Valentini (b.1990) lives and works between Modena and Milan. After graduating in Architecture at the Academy of Mendrisio (CH) and an internship at the Chilean art and architecture workshop Pezo Von Ellrichshausen, in 2017 he also obtained a Master in Photography at the IUAV in Venice, graduating with the Italian artist Stefano Graziani with whom he still collaborates. In the same year he won the 101st Young Artists’ Collective at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation. In 2019 he was selected for Young Italian Photography #07, within Fotogra a Europea in Reggio Emilia. He produces together with Chippendale his rst publication Volcano’s Ubiquity.

Jacopo Valentini has exhibited in institutions and private spaces both in Italy and abroad: Chiostri di San Domenico-Reggio Emilia, La Triennale di Milano, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea L.Pecci- Prato, Museo Fattori-Livorno, RIBA-Londra, Fondazione Fabbri-Treviso, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa-Venezia, Politecnico di Milano, Museo Navile-Bologna, Fondazione Ragghianti-Lucca, Palazzo Martinengo-Brescia, Una Vetrina-Roma, Palazzo Rasponi II - Ravenna.