Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), Courtesy MAXXI Rome
MAXXI in Rome this weekend closed the exhibition of Galleria Vezzoli, a gallery cum timeline of Francesco Vezzoli’s artistic career, and a self-created tribute to the artist, beginning from his embroideries in the 1990s and continuing to his more recent video works and sculptures made of marble. The exhibition was part of a larger exhibition entitled The Trinity, Galleria Vezzoli and was the first in a three-part project, Vezzoli in three different locations: at MoMA PS1 in New York and MOCA in Los Angeles. The works in the exhibition at MAXXI mimiced a 19th century museum aesthetic, but were placed within the contemporary architectural context of the gallery space, designed by architect Zaha Hadid.
Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), Courtesy MAXXI Rome
Vezzoli’s work is a varied combination of references and quotations, inspired by art house cinema, Hollywood film and television productions, and the history of art, fashion, and politics. Holding this wide array of topics together is a theme of linguistic codes and popular culture references. The diversity and potentially confusing diversity of concepts finds its voice in the viewer’s recognition of mass-media techniques, bringing together a variety of images into one viewing space, overloading the experience with seemingly unconnected images, and leaving the viewer exhausted by the bombardment of different ideas. The works bring out concepts of irony, “high” and “low” culture and the popular imagination.
Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), Courtesy MAXXI Rome
Additionally part of the Trinity: Vezzoli is installating a deconsecrated XIX century church orinating in the south of Italy, deconstructed and re-located in the form of an installation entitled THE CHURCH OF VEZZOLI, installed on the grounds of MoMA PS1. At MOCA in Los Angeles, an exhibition called CINEMA VEZZOLI plays with the theme of fame-obsession and “the public exposure of private issues,” as relating to European cinema as well as contemporary Hollywood celebrity culture.
Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), Courtesy MAXXI Rome
Throughout the three shows, a constant sense of reality and manipulation make themselves felt, as the artist creates a striking study in the production of reality and history as cultural commodities.
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Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), via MAXXI
Francesco Vezzoli, Galleria Vezzoli (Installation View), via MAXXI
—E. Baker
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [MAXXI Rome]
