Teresa Cos
Enten-Eller
February 15–March 22, 2013
Opening: Thursday, February 14, 6pm
Galleria Massimodeluca
Via Torino 105/q
30170 Venezia Mestre
Hours: Monday–Friday 10–5pm
Saturday by appointment
T +39 041 531 44 24
M + 39 366 687 56 19
info [at] massimodeluca.it
Curated by Andrea Bruciati
After the success of the exhibition NI DIEU NI MAÎTRE, the Galleria Massimodeluca in Mestre presents the first solo exhibition of Teresa Cos, the Italian artist who won first prize at the 95th Collective of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. She will present over 40 photographs.
On February 14 at 6pm the Galleria Massimodeluca, the only contemporary art exhibition space on the Venetian mainland, launches its 2013 schedule with the exhibition Enten-Eller by Teresa Cos. The exhibition, curated by Andrea Bruciati, is the first solo show by the young artist from Latisana (Udine) who resides in London, and the first solo exhibition presented by the Galleria Massimodeluca in its gallery on Via Torino. The show will remain open through March 22, and features more than 40 photographic works.
Teresa Cos, the winner of first prize in the 2011 95th Young Artists’ Collective at the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, and a participant in NI DIEU NI MAÎTRE, the double group show with which the Galleria Massimodeluca initiated its exhibition activities, is now back in Mestre with an exhibition curated by Andrea Bruciati, the first solo show of her career. On display will be 40 photographic works she created in the course of a year, which make up a unique non-linear narrative exemplifying the existential and expressive anxiety at the base of her artistic output. This is made even more obvious by the means used, photography, and the strength and originality with which she bends it to her vision of the world.
“Enten-Eller (Either/Or) is the title of the famous work in which the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard analyzes and compares the two basic approaches to human life: the ethical and the aesthetic—a path of knowledge which inevitably leads the philosopher to deal with the limits of aesthetic life,” explains the curator Andrea Bruciati. “The despair that follows however is positive, because it becomes the necessary stimulus to embrace the ethical life. The anguish of the philosopher, like that of Cos, is in some ways an analogous precursor of existential anxiety and the decadence of a society that dwells on itself. In the throes of this anxiety it is not enough to accept the reality of those who use photography to document their expressive needs; these images almost obsessively record elements of reality, textures, and details made even more evident and ‘macabre’ through the overwhelming use of flash. It is as if the images were bathed in a light that serves to increase our sensory perception, causing us to see things so well it instills doubt about their authenticity. They become surfaces that you almost want to touch to stimulate a different understanding of reality.” The exhibition of Teresa Cos—Bruciati concludes—is thus conceived as a film that takes place within a single night (although the images were shot in the course of an entire year), a non-linear narrative made up of flashbacks, moments belonging to another time and a suspended and indefinite place, following the line of vision, leading us finally to confront ourselves, our masks, and the death of ourselves and society.”
“After the excellent response we received with the two group exhibitions, we want to try three solo shows,” explain the gallery directors Massimo De Luca and Marina Bastianello. “With Andrea Bruciati, whom we will also work with in 2013, we chose Teresa Cos from the strength of her artistic research and the originality of her photographs, whose power transforms them into something more than a simple snapshot. The group exhibitions have been and continue to be an excellent opportunity for all participants—gallery directors, curator, artists, and collectors—to enter fully into the spirit of the space, using it advantageously as a place that combines experimental vision with a high level of research. But only a solo exhibition allows us to understand and appreciate the value of an artist, the deeper meaning and motivation for her work, the expressive techniques she chooses, and to know her work as a whole and not as a mere piece of a larger fascinating composition.”
