Lorenza Lucchi Basili
Structuresurface
21 September-15 October, 2006
Arka Gallery,
Ausros Vartu 7, 01130
Vilnius, Lithuania
Meno Parkas gallery,
Rotuses sq. 27, 3000
Kaunas, Lithuania
www.menoparkas.lt
The structure is form,
the surface becomes form
and in the form it finds its own structure.
L.L.B.
The photographic series chosen by Lorenza Lucchi Basili for the parallel exhibitions in Arka Gallery, Vilnius, and Meno Parkas, Kaunas, originate from shootings in Montreal, Vancouver, Berlin, Los Angeles, Chicago and Vilnius. The series show parts of iconic architectures, where the architectures themselves disappear: edges, colours, shapes, shadows, lines, curves. The point of departure of Lucchi Basili’s work is the architecture around, in particular that of the post-modern metropolis. In her instant shots Lucchi Basili fixes parts and angles, unusual perspectives, shadows and reflections, which in the prints become evocative and mysterious shapes taken from no longer recognizable architectures. Be the subject of the photographs a building by Frank Gehry or Daniel Libeskind, or a section from a late-gothic church like the St. Bernardine in Vilnius as in the works on display in the current exhibitions in Lucchi Basili’s images what matters is that each portion of photographed reality contains other realities, and that the artificial, constructed world mirrors something that already exists in nature. The images reveal therefore a cosmos. It this sense, one could say Lucchi Basili is interested in the heuristic dimension of art, in art as “a non-rational, un-scientific way to get to some knowledge” (L.L.B).
Lorenza Lucchi Basili works with photography but does not consider herself a photographer. To her, trained as an architect with a peculiar interest into fractal geometry as mathematic model to understand complexity, photography is the mechanical device to filter and to investigate reality, to show its genetic code and, ultimately, the beauty in it. The way Lucchi Basili uses photography is not documentary, nor is it in any way constructed or digitally manipulated photography. Her images reveal things otherwise overlooked by the eye, back to a kind of ‘magical’ use of the medium.
Why is it architecture the main subject of Lucchi Basili’s artistic production? Architecture is the constructed space we live in, it contains the shapes we inhabit and forms our environment. It is the most tangible product of our thought, of what we use to represent ourselves. Travelling in a context which is not familiar, which is full of suggestions not easy to decipher, is another important part of her artistic proceedings and adds other dimensions to her research: contingency, suggestion, coincidence. Contingency meaning here for example the particular light condition of a particular moment of the day, the weather, the clouds in the sky; suggestion and coincidence the fascination felt for a given architecture, encountered by chance during one of her urban explorations.
The two exhibitions in Vilnius and Kaunas investigate the intertwined architectural and geometric themes of structure and surface. The series selected for the shows are skilfully mounted throughout the exhibition spaces, thereby going beyond the bi-dimensionality of photography and of the frontal presentation. Installed all over the exhibition space, the photographs acquire a sculptural character and dialogue with the immediate surroundings, generating new perspectives and multiple points of view. Following Lucchi Basili’s logic, the exhibition could be read as an excursus in post Euclidean geometry, where there is no straight line which is not curved, and no surface which is not a grid and therefore structure. And so on. But you do not need to be a mathematician to wonder at the beauty and the evocative power of the series, showing the world that surrounds us in a way we have never seen. (M.Sorbello)
Curator of the exhibitions: Marina Sorbello
Organiser: Meno Parkas Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania ( www.menoparkas.lt )
Partner: Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
Supported by: Fondazione PescarAbruzzo, Pescara City Council, goodwill, Bologna, Italy
Lorenza Lucchi Basili lives and works in Padova, Italy. Among her recent exhibitions are group shows at the Contemporary Art Center at Genazzano Castle, Genazzano; Raid Projects, Los Angeles; Hallwalls at SoundLab, Buffalo NY; Studio G7, Bologna; Ozone/Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Gallery of Modern Art, Bologna; Fuori Uso, Pescara; New Media Scotland, Edinburgh. In 2007 she will have solo shows at Oredaria, Rome, and at the Art Gallery of Radford University, Radford VA.
