Click or Clash?
Strategies of Collaboration First Stage.
Via Lewandowsky, Cesare Pietroiusti,
Luigi Presicce
Curated by Julia Draganovic
20 October 2011–7 January 2012
Opening:
20 October 2011, 6–9 pm
Galleria Bianconi
via Lecco 20
Milan, Italy
Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration, is a long-term project curated by Julia Draganovic and LaRete Art Project, promoted by Galleria Bianconi (Via Lecco 20, Milan).
Collaborative practices are at the heart not only of reflections on post 9/11 society, but also, consequently, of a great number of artistic researches. Meanwhile in the beginning the goal of these strategies seemed to be the creation of a consensus, nowadays voices like Markus Miessen’s that stress the “violence” and even the “nightmare” of participation have become louder and louder. “Collaboration” as the answer to situations of conflict has revealed itself a highly controversial proposal: collaboration could be understood as crossing or even opening the borders to let the enemy in and betray your peers by neglecting their rights. As an alternative, Chantal Mouffe conceived the term of agonism for a friendly confrontation between adversaries, demanding an arena that allows for conflicts to emerge and that gives an opportunity for a constructive expression of disagreement. Do we click or do we clash? is not a simple question. But both results of the comparison between different positions, whether disputable or harmonious, should create a surplus of knowledge and should permit new prospective.
With “Click or Clash. Strategies of Collaboration” Julia Draganovic and LaRete Art Projects in collaboration with Galleria Bianconi want to take up these reflections inviting artists to confront their artistic position regarding certain issues with fellow artists from another country, cultural background or working field. Starting in October 2011 Galleria Bianconi will invite three artists for every exhibition, to show their works in the exhibition space on the ground floor and the basement of Galleria Bianconi, in Milan. Every show will open a debate around a different field of arguments—in a visual and a verbal way, as each show will be accompanied by a panel discussion about the themes the invited artists display.
The first show will open on October 20th at 6pm with the contribution of Via Lewandowsky, Cesare Pietroiusti and Luigi Presicce.
The first example of collaboration engages Pietroiusti and Presicce. Their installation, which will be for the first time exhibited at Galleria Bianconi, is the result of a larger collaboration involving an artists’ group formed by Cesare Pietroiusti, Emilio Fantin, Luigi Negro and Giancarlo Norese with Luigi Presicce as a special guest. The five artists organized a performance with the title “La festa dei vivi (che riflettono sulla morte)” (The Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death) ) in San Cesario di Lecce on November 2nd 2010, as part of the platform “ANDANDAND”, curated by artists Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, for dOCUMENTA(13). For the upcoming recurrence of the Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death) a new performance in form of pilgrimage from Venice to Lecce is planned.
Beside this, the exhibition will present the site specific “clicks or clashs” that involve Via Lewandowsky, the third actor of this first episode of Click or Clash. German born Lewandowsky, who is currently artist in residence at Villa Massimo in Rome, often works on the fine line dividing public and private, using a variety of media like sculpture, installation and language.
With this first exhibition, Galleria Bianconi is launching a long-term artistic and cultural project. The first series of Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration consists in a series of three shows of three artists, each accompanied by a publication and a panel discussion.
This project demonstrates Galleria Bianconi’s belief in the importance of investing in contemporary art and culture as a fundamental surplus for the creation of new visions and positive energy, which are essential for the development of today’s society. Through the support and analysis of artistic experimentation, Galleria Bianconi is emphasizing this mission, which is going hand in hand with its decade-long engagement to revaluate important Italian artists of the last century, such as Carlo Zauli.