Transformer #1 | Devis Venturelli - Primitive Paradise

About

TRANSFORMER is an observatory where it’s possible to watch beyond the expositive limits in order of space and time. RIBOT inaugurates non conventional experiences in the Gallery’s programme. Day and night, due to possibility to see 24/24 hours the space by gallery windows,  become a scenario for changeable exhibitions that disclose an across-the-board vision by the alternation light / dark. TRANSFORMER activates new perspectives to exhibit not as dogmatic act but as phenomenon manifold and generative. The exhibitions, part of TRANSFORMER, and included extempore in the gallery programme, can be seen day and night according to the events. 

RIBOT is pleased to present, as first in a series of TRANSFORMER projects, Primitive Paradise curated by Fabio Carnaghi, solo show by the artist Devis Venturelli (Faenza, 1974; he lives and works in Milan) that presents a selection of recent works, conceived for this occasion. The exhibition, characterized by a multidisciplinary approach, includes textile sculptures and a video-installation.

In his artistic practice, Devis Venturelli refers to a specific interest for architexture, or rather, for the connections between definitive architecture and pliable form, focusing his research on the interstitial space in the middle of lasting and ephemeral, rigid and flexible, regulated and unpredictable. 

Primitive Paradise is based on the suggestion of a cave, mythic and primitive, where the archaic instinct of pareidolìa - that is a subconscious perception of familiar pattern where none exists - stimulates spontaneous images reminded by the motion. The kinematic imagination of the artist assimilates both of languages, filmic and sculptural, because they are made of the same textile material. 

In the gallery two series of works with objects, covered with tensile surfaces of Spandex multi-coloured, are present. The Graffiti series recalls the ancestral nature of form in the guise of parietal wall paintings. The Rainbow Pieces series experiments the contact of objects as a construction’s practice, particularly in reference to the architectural element of arch, suggested by the rainbow shape.

In the video Unframed the city, leitmotiv in the artist research, is object of observation from inside a nebula black, floating, cavernous, mysterious. As in the depths of a primordial cave, the urban overview is fragmented in a collage-city in form of video.

The surface is a skin, a membrane, a patina, a textile, a screen, a projection to reiterate the couture that Venturelli chooses in the sculptural act just as in the video process employing only one expanded language.

Devis Venturelli (Faenza, 1974; he lives and works in Milan). He studied Architecture at Università degli Studi, Ferrara and at École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage, Bordeaux. He has taken part in solo and group shows  in museums, institutions, art galleries such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York (2018); PAC, Milano, 2016; Medialab-Prado, Madrid, 2016; Museo de Arte, Lima, 2015; Xinjiang Biennale, 2014; MACRO, Roma, 2013; Kulturhuset Museum, Stockholm, 2012; MMOMA - Moscow Museum of Modern Art , Moscow, 2012;  la Biennale di Venezia, 2011; Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, 2011; Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York, 2011; Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Amsterdam, 2011; Spazio Oberdan, Milano, 2011; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino, 2011; Kunsthalle, Wien, 2010;  Stadtgalerie, Kiel, 2010; Centre d’Art Santa Monica, Barcelona, 2010; Fondazione Merz, Torino, 2010; Kunstverein, Augsburg, 2010; Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, 2010; National Museum, Wrocław, 2009; Mart - Galleria Civica, Trento, 2008; Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma, 2005; In 2013 he presented the film project Devis Venturelli/ Luciano Berio. In My End is My Music, in collaboration with Tempo Reale and produced by Fondazione Romaeuropa. His videos and experimental films have been shown in International Film Festival including Videoformes, 25FPS Experimental Film Festival, FIVA  - Festival Internacional de Video Arte, Romaeuropa Festival, Tehran International Short Film Festival, Regensburg International Short Film Week. He has, furthermore, been awarded the following prizes: Premio Aletti – Banca Aletti, 2008; Premio Video.it – Fondazione Merz, 2010; Hong Kong Arthouse Prize – Best Experimental Film, 2017.