Motus naturalis, 2017-2018, olio su lino, 240 x 325 cm, courtesy l’artista e Guido Costa Projects, Torino

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART
99 WORDS WITH MANUELE CERUTTI

“Giovanni Giudici, La vita in versi”

Metti in versi la vita, trascrivi
fedelmente, senza tacere
particolare alcuno, l’evidenza dei vivi.

Ma non dimenticare che vedere non è
sapere, né potere, bensì ridicolo
un altro voler essere che te.

Nel sotto e nel soprammondo s’allacciano
complicità di visceri, saettano occhiate
d’accordi. E gli astanti s’affacciano

al limbo delle intermedie balaustre:
applaudono, compiangono entrambi i sensi
del sublime – l’infame, l’illustre.

Inoltre metti in versi che morire
è possibile a tutti più che nascere
e in ogni caso l’essere è più del dire.

Collezione Lo Specchio, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano 1965, p. 170-171

Giulia Cenci, studio view, halfweg 2018
photo credit Katherina Heil

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART
99 WORDS WITH GIULIA CENCI

There are pieces of this and pieces of that, but none of it fits together. And yet, very strangely, at the limit of all this chaos, everything begins to fuse again. A pulverized apple and a pulverized orange are finally the same thing, aren’t they? You can’t tell the difference between a good dress and a bad dress if they’re both turn to shreds, can you? At a certain point, things disintegrate into muck, or dust, or scraps, and what you have is something new, some particle or agglomeration of matter that cannot be identified. It is a clump, a mote, a fragment of the world that as no place: a cipher of it-ness.

Paul Auster, In the Country of Last Things.

The Blank TR – Transit Message Pavilion | 2 3 4 September 2018

THE BLANK TR PAVILION, Beyond Words, ArtSpace Tel Aviv | 2 3 4 September 2018
three days of talks, workshops, performances about art and the meaning of communication.
Curated by Olga Vanoncini, Claudia Santeroni

Driant Zeneli
And Then I Found some Meteorites in My Room
video installation, 22’00” min, live streaming of ISS and sound performance by DJ Sulejmani
Photo credit Andis Rado, Courtesy The Artist and Bazament Art Space Tirane – 2018

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART 
99 WORDS WITH DRIANT ZENELI 

“Why are you interested in the space?” Flora asked me.
“I am curious of those who observe it. I would like to know what there is in the space between your father Bujar, 158 height at Metallurgjik, and the maximum height of the International Space Station (ISS), located 400.00 km far from the terrestrial surface…”
“What is the ISS?”
“The International Space Station functions as a laboratory where experiments are made in condition of microgravity in the law terrestrial orbit. Dedicated to scientific research and managed as a joint project between five different space stations.”
And then Flora’s father, Bujar, asked me with a low voice:
“So what it the sense of all this?”
“The attempt is to create a space in which the work can share with the public a physical as well as a mental dimension. The interview about your perception of space that you gave to Fatmira Nikolli at Metallurgjik, will resonate with the transmission of the streamed images from the International Space Station (ISS), 400.00 km away from the earth surface. Everything will then be catalyzed by the sounds mixed by your daughter Flora (DJ Sulejmani) during the opening of the exhibition. In this way, the public will not only participate, but it will be an integral part of the artwork, as we are all part of the solar system”.

January – Mealurgjik Elbsan – 2018
And Then I Found Some Meteorites in my Room
from the diary of Driant Zeneli

Jonas Mekas, The Internet Saga curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, installation view, Venice, 2015
photo credit: Giulio Favotto

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART 
99 WORDS WITH JONAS MEKAS

The first word that comes to our mind when we think about Jonas Mekas is “inexhaustible”.
Inexhaustible as his work. Like the narrations of it that can be made.
Like the invention of Film Culture, the New American Cinema, the Anthology Film Archives, the film diaries.
Like shooting, editing and publishing online a movie a day every day in 2007. Like jonasmekas.com.
Like painting flowers on large white papers the night before an opening. Like telling us “It’s challenging enough to say yes” and to reaffirm it again and again.
Inexhaustible, even more than eternal.

Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, curatorial duo

On the occasion of the 36th edition of the Festival, The Blank and Bergamo Film Meeting dedicate the section “Incontri: Cinema e Arte Contemporanea” to Jonas Mekas (Lithuania, 1922), poet, artist and director, founder of the New American Cinema Group and creator of the Anthology Film Archive.
The artist will be the protagonist of “Jonas Mekas – Personale“, promoted by the City of Bergamo and organized by The Blank and Bergamo Film Meeting.
Sebastian Mekas, son of Jonas, will meet the audience of the Festival at Cinema San Marco on Saturday 10th March at 3.30 pm after the projection of “Outtakes” (2012) and the documentary film “The Internet Saga, Jonas Mekas” (2015) and will bring a special message from Jonas.

The exhibition “Jonas Mekas – Personale”, curated by Stefano Raimondi and Claudia Santeroni, sees the transformation of the exhibition environment into a place where, thanks to an engaging set-up, some of the artist’s most significant films coexist with images of a more cinematic nature.

“Jonas Mekas – Personale” is realized in the renovated venue of Palazzo della Ragione: the exhibition compares itself with the historical building and exploits its new exhibition possibilities, specially designed for this place.

The exhibition aims to present the complexity of the means of expression chosen by Jonas Mekas, a versatile artist with eclectic interests. The double screening of the video “Seasons” (2017) dominates the room: a video composed of fragments of his entire cinematographic production.
The frames taken from the artist’s video works, impressed on the glass plates, belong to the series “In an Instant It All Came Back to me”, while the photographs of “Birth of a Nation” are extracts from his famous 1997 film of the same name. The photographic section is completed by “To New York with Love”, the series of images dedicated to the city that has been the stage of Mekas’ work.

“Jonas Mekas – Personale” is permeated by a track composed by the artist, which acts as a background to the entire exhibition: the musical aspect has been maintained in relation to the artist’s history, that reminds how the singing has always been part of his life since his childhood. To conclude the exhibition, an island dedicated to the publications by Mekas, freely available to the public to offer a unique opportunity to enter the artist’s collection, including “My Night Life” where the artist, faithful to his biographical style, narrates his dreams made between 1978 and 1979, asking his friend Auguste to illustrate them.

“Jonas Mekas – Personale” is promoted by the City of Bergamo, Bergamo Film Meeting and The Blank and it is made possible thanks to the indispensable support of A Palazzo Gallery (Brescia), Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and Studio Luca Bombassei.

Premio Matteo Olivero
40th edition
Remembering memory
Competition notice www.theblank.it, www.fondazionebertoni.it

The Blank Contemporary Art has been assigned by Fondazione Amleto Bertoni, in collaboration with the project coordinators Paolo Infossi and Roberto Giordana, to organise the 40th edition of Premio Matteo Olivero.

The 40th edition of Premio Matteo Olivero, hosted by Comune di Saluzzo (CN), invites Italian and international artists through an open call, without any limits of age and expressive means, to present released or unreleased artworks in order to design a solo show on the main theme of memory. The winner will hold an exhibition at the prestigious Cavassa Chapel, a Renaissance hall in the cloister of St. Giovanni monastery, renowned for its great historical and artistic value.

The curator of the 40th edition of Premio Matteo Olivero is Stefano Raimondi, Director of The Blank and curator of GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, who succeed the previous curators Anna Daneri and Ettore Favini.

The jury committee is composed by internationally renowned curators, whose names will be announced after the deadline for the submission of applications, and by members of the Fondazione Amleto Bertoni and the city council of Saluzzo.

The jury committee will choose the best project at its own discretion and it will award a prize of Euro 5.000,00, for the realization the exhibition, to the artist or the artistic collective who presented it.

Guidelines:

20 March 2018 Application sending deadline
27 April 2018 Exhibition opening
Participation in the call is free of charge.
Interested parties can join the contest by sending their applications (artist CV, project, portfolio and application form) at premiomatteoolivero@gmail. com.

Please view the full announcement and all the attachments (historical description, planimetry and photos).

Info: Fondazione Amleto Bertoni, The Blank Contemporary Art
Phone: 017543527, 035 19903477
Email: eventi@fondazionebertoni.it, premiomatteoolivero@gmail.com
Web: www.fondazionebertoni.it, www.theblank.it

Performance, Mid-afternoon Slump, Coast Contemporary, Kunsthalle Stavanger Cabin, Hurtigruten, 2017 NO
photo credit Maya Økland

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART 
99 WORDS WITH HANNE LIPPARD

The more I speak the more I disperse of it. The more I disperse of it the more it becomes another story, a story not belonging to me. This way, it goes away, another way, any way. The more I speak the less I hear. The more I speak the less I am here. Nothing but a voice. Nothing but a pleasant feeling until you start feeling your knees again, remembering that they are also part of your body, a pair of functional limbs doing their best to act as a support for your voice, like a tripod supporting a speaker.

THE BLANK AT BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera
13th – 15th January 2018

From Saturday 13 to Monday 15 January, the fair centre hosts the 14th BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera edition.

The fair, promoted by Ente Fiera Promoberg, is consolidated as an important art event, under the artistic direction of Sergio Radici.

For three days BAF will bring in the orobic main town a selection of works of historical galleries linked to the modern art world and contemporary art galleries, with proposals related to new tendencies and emerging artists. The richness of themes, without any division in sectors, allows the public to explore the different souls of the Art of 20th century and the current production.

The Blank takes part in BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera in the Press section.

The stand will be dedicated to Jonas Mekas (Lithuania, 1922), poet, artist and director, founder of the New American Cinema Group and creator of the Anthology Film Archive. The artist will be the protagonist of “Jonas Mekas – Personale“, that will take place from 10 March to 15 April 2018 in the renovated venue of Palazzo della Ragione, Città Alta. The exhibition, promoted by the City of Bergamo, is organized by The Blank and Bergamo Film Meeting.

14th edition BAF – Bergamo Arte Fiera
Mostra mercato d’arte moderna e contemporanea

13th – 14th January: 10.00 am – 8.00 pm
15th January: 10.00 am – 12.30 pm

Fiera di Bergamo, via Lunga – Bergamo
Entrance: 10 euro – Parking: 3 euro
www.promoberg.it
www.bergamoartefiera.it