JOSH TONSFELDT | RAINDROPS, TAXI | DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPH, 2017
Courtesy the artist, Simon Preston Gallery and Raucci Santamaria

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART
99 WORDS WITH JOSH TONSFELDT

Hi The Blank,
I apologize for being so late after your deadline, and hope this still comes in time for the newsletter. I’m attaching a picture we can share – rain reflecting on the face of an iPad that’s resting in my son’s lap as he sleeps in a taxi.
As I try to think of what else to tell you, my attention drifts between considering the image, then back to this email window, occasionally checking for new messages and culling old ones. I’m left thinking of the other side of this message, where these words might briefly appear on other screens and windows, within a similar cycle of glances and momentary awareness.

OSCAR SANTILLÁN | HAIR OF SAINT CATERINA VOLPICELLI FOUND IN AN ENVELOPE, 2016
photo credit Vibeke Mascini

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART
99 WORDS WITH OSCAR SANTILLÁN

Crimes of passion are always a mistake and the reason is quite simple: they restore no power to the murderer.
While setting up the room in which she plans to kill her husband, a woman confesses to her accomplice, “my only regret is that he’ll never know that I killed him.” The film is Diabolique.
Sometimes, however, a victim does acknowledge his own death. This was the case with Bernardo Jaramillo, a communist militant who ran for President of Colombia. One morning in 1990, at the airport with his wife, Bernardo was shot several times by paramilitary hitmen. As the assassins escaped, he serenely sought for his partner’s gaze:
– Hold me, those motherfuckers have killed me.

Oscar Santillán

ENGLISH TEXT BELOW :

Traffic Gallery is proud to present large format artworks within On / Off exhibition. Eight internationally renowned artists who act since te beginning in the urban culture world. For each artist in alphabetical order we report some of the most important recent events; through wall painting, public installations, excellent collaborations, awards and museum exhibitions, the capacity of the urban world
introduce itself in all its possible artistic declinations.

Andreco (from Rome) : fresh about his recent great work of public art in Venice entitled CLIMATE 04 See Level Rise, and winner of the special Talent Prize award for which he will exhibit the next 12 December at Museo Macro in Rome.

Giorgio Bartocci (from Milano) : a tireless urban painter and spokesperson of liquid society theory he has recently collaborated with Nike global brand, a project of art custom for NIKE AF1 NBA.

Btoy (from Barcelona) : recently included in the Book Street Art & Cinema curated by Stéphanie Martin Petit & Christian Omodeo for the prestigious parisian publishing house Pyramyd.

Eron (from Rimini) : currently engaged in Milan for the mural art work W.A.L.L. (Walls Are Love’s Limits) inside CityLife district. A wall 118 meters long and 8 meters high near Milan City Fair. We also recall the beatiful mural made for the Musei Civici of Modena at Palazzo Santa Chiara during last September.

Lucamaleonte (from Rome) : a leading artist for the exhibition Cross the Streets at Macro Museum in Rome for the 40 years of the street and writing scene. He realized inside the Museum a spectacular wall painting entitled Mucchio di Fagiani.

M-city (from Poland) : his recent public art installation for the polish Festival Open City 2017 is aesthetically and conceptually very interesting. Pomnik Konny, an orange infatable equestrian statue which breathingair like a lung, rising and falling continually to remind us of the fate that most of the monuments suffer due to historical and political changes.

Nemo’s (from Nowhere) : his name is comparable to a contemporary Ulysses, he is irreverent and profane. He has no identity, he is no one, indeed he does not belong to anyone. He does not have a biography and we will not say anything about his recent works. But we know that most of you have clear in their mind his unpolitically-correct creations.

Orticanoodles (from Milano) : a special note goes to the project that sees them involved ORME – Ortica Memoria, the first district museum where the history of the ‘900 is painted on the walls. Between 2017 and 2019 twenty mural works will be planned and four of them are already realized, obviously wthin Ortica district in Milan.

In the context of The Blank Residency, on Saturday 18th November 2017 from h. 4.00 p.m., The Blank invites to the Open Studio, last appointment of the fifth edition of Project Proposal Residency, that has seen as protagonists the artists Irene Fenara and Yasen Vasilev.

On the occasion of the Open Studio, the artists will present the works and project proposals realized on the territory. This final phase brings together the proposals born at the same time as the permanence and the incentives related to the territory.

The Open Studio will be kindly hosted by Spazio Giacomo of Accademia di belle arti G. Carrara (Via G. Quarenghi, 33 – Bergamo).

Project Proposal Residency is a project of artist residence, for Italian and foreign artists with the aim to offer occasions to develop personal artistic researches, both practical and theoretical.

Thanks to Accademia di belle arti G. Carrara.

With the contribution of Regione Lombardia.

The project is realized in the context of AIR tour, a project born from the partnership between AIR – artinresidence / FARE and The Blank Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Cultural District of Valle Camonica, with the support of Fondazione Cariplo.

On the occasion of Project Proposal Residency V, the artists Irene Fenara and Yasen Vasilev will be the protagonist of the next The Blank Kitchen that will take place on Friday 10th November from h. 7.00 pm.

Guest artists will cook for a group of people an artist menu:
– Tarator (Bulgarian cold soup: yogurt, garlic, cucumber, oil)
– Some hot soup (spinach or lentils)
– Miss mash (eggs, cheese, onion, tomato, peppers)
– Bolognese Pasta with meat
– Guacamole and hummus (dips with bread and gluten-free snacks)
– Fruit salad
– Veggie salad (spinach, nuts, avocado, tomato, pepper, purple onion)
– Eggs with salmon paste

Project Proposal Residency is a project of artist residence, for Italian and foreign artists with the aim to offer occasions to develop personal artistic researches, both practical and theoretical.

With the contribution of Regione Lombardia.

The project is realized in the context of AIR tour, a project born from the partnership between AIR – artinresidence / FARE and The Blank Contemporary Art, in collaboration with the Cultural District of Valle Camonica, with the support of Fondazione Cariplo.

Reservation required (max 20 participants): associazione@theblank.it
Contribution: 15,00 euros

VINCENZO SIMONE – SENZA TITOLO | OIL ON LINEN | 25×35 CM | 2017
photo credit Vera Roveda

THE BLANK CONTEMPORARY ART
99 WORDS WITH VINCENZO SIMONE

Your words on Dutch sobriety sounded strange; oh delicious bunches,
peaches and
apples, vegetable and fish – although they are called naturalistic, aren’t they
metaphysics?
Well, of course they are – here it is the idea of bunch, the idea of apple, etc. Everything lights up by itself in
a the perfect style of Rembrandt…
I don’t deny the moment of self-illumination in these still lifes; but, in
contrast
with Rembrandt, these fruit and vegetable seem to have a right relationship with the
world:
there’s something of the icon painting in it, this is the work of the light.

Pavel Florenskij
Royal Doors