Marianne Grønnow: Passage
and Anne Siirtola: video preview
September 21–November 10, 2012
Opening: Thursday, September 20, 6pm
Effearte
via Ausonio, 1 A / via E. De Amicis 47, Milan
Hours: Mon–Fri, 11–7pm
Sat by appointment
Effearte is proud to present the first solo exhibit in Italy by the Danish artist Marianne Grønnow titled Passage.
The artist renews our concept of ornamental painting. The exhibition shows a recent series of works in which abstract floral motifs emerge through geometries and lines, carves, and reliefs.
Flowers unfold in the paintings, lithographs, and paperworks. A flower speaks of beauty, desire, death, and transience. The title of the exhibition, Passage, reminds us the impermanence of beauty and perception and also the different techniques used by the artist to express the concept of Beauty in all of her research.
Marianne Grønnow does not represent real flowers and their true colours, but she seeks a modern spiritual idealism, which is neither romantic nor systemic, but intensely present and poetic.
Choosing a flower as main motif of her works is also a declaration of feminism by the artist. She renews and updates the flower’s symbol, which was the icon of freedom for the first female painters compelled and conditioned to choose this theme.
The show is curated by Lorella Scacco and supported by the Danish Arts Council and with the patronage of the Danish Embassy.
Simultaneously with the solo show, Effearte will open a series of video previews that will be shown in a dedicated project room for the entire exhibit period 2012/13.
The first selected video is Song of the Hungry Land and New Verses (2012) by Anne Siirtola, produced by the Art Museum of Kajaani in occasion of Ars 11, the international event promoted by KIASMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki, since 1961 and dedicated to Africa this year.
The artist has involved the immigrants of Kajaani to sing new versions of the hymn of the Finnish province Kainuu, where immigrants from Congo, Sudan, and Somalia live with their families.
The artist says: “The song belongs to Finnish national heritage and still evokes strong emotions in listeners (…) Can we share what is precious to us with those that also have a need for it? As for myself, I regard immigrants as pioneers in the wilds of Kainuu creating a new culture and broadening the milieu and perspectives of Northern people”.
The video preview is curated by Pirjo Immonen and supported by FRAME – Finnish Fund for Art Exchange and with the patronage of the Finnish Embassy.
Artists
Marianne Grønnow lives and works in Copenhagen. Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Visual Arts Department. Before attending the Royal academy she worked with dance, theatre, and performance. She won many awards for her artistic research in Denmark. Her works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Denmark, the Malmö Museum of Art, the Danish and Swedish Endowment for the Arts, and the Ny Carlsberg Foundation.
Anne Siirtola lives and works in Karkkila, Finland. She creates videos and installations. Over the years she has been involved in “community art,” thanks to her movies about her people and strangers’ lives documenting their opinion about what is important in human’s lives.
Curators
Lorella Scacco is an art critic, journalist, and curator. She curated exhibitions and catalogues relating to contemporary art exhibitions in both public and private exhibition spaces in Italy and abroad. She collaborates with some specialised art magazines. She is the author of Media Aesthetic. From Jean Baudrillard to Derrick de Kerckhove, published by Guerini Editore, 2004, and Northwave. A Survey of Video Art in Nordic Countries, published by Silvana Editoriale, 2009.
Member of SIE, the Italian Aesthetics Society.
Pirjo Immonen is a Finnish art historian. Intendant of Kajaani Art Museum, works also as art critic, curator, and teacher. She writes on Italian contemporary art collaborating as journalist with the art magazine Taide and some Finnish newspapers. She edits and writes exhibition catalogues, especially on Finnish contemporary art.
Member of AICA, the International Association of Art Critics.
Press office
Cecilia Collini, Ufficio Stampa e comunicazione: M +39 349644400 / cecilia.collini [at] gmail.com
