Guido Casaretto: Isolitudine

Fondazione Merz presents, as part of the ZACentrale project and for the third edition of BAM—Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo entitled Insaturo, the exhibition project Isolitudine.

Guido Casaretto’s works will be presented at the show curated by Agata Polizzi who got her inspiration from the book based on the Sicilian family’s story by Federico De Roberto titled Vicere. Polizzi carves out the framework of this exhibition from specifically one sentence: “The day that I decided to change my life, I lived only to prepare myself for the new one.” By bringing together six works from Casaretto’s artistic practice over the years, including a new commissioned sculpture, Isolitudine aims to offer a new way of reading into the artist’s oeuvre. 

In this present time marked by the re-emergence of historic, cultural, and political issues—clearly never fully resolved—Fondazione Merz’s third edition of BAM Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo will tackle themes of insularity, contact and borders, dialogue and possibility.

Four shows by four artists, curated by as many female curators, are conceived as parts of a whole with distinctive traits, where the distinctions between a solo show and a group show will be openly debated. The exhibition project will be hosted in the large space of the ZAC pavilion and will consist of four completely different open habitats. Through a subtle dialogue on the theme of belonging, they will weave an ideal thread that will intersect art with politics, nature, and geography.

The Fondazione is a private institution. Its activities are self-financed with the support of a network of donors, and funding from Regione Piemonte and the Compagnia di San Paolo. Some projects are made possible also thanks to the support of Fondazione CRT. The Fondazione alternates exhibitions dedicated to Mario and Marisa Merz, offering so many opportunities for reflection and study of their work, with other major site-specific projects by national and international artists, who are invited to interact with the Fondazione’s space and its contents in via Limone. It also cultivates research, exploring the new generations of artists with regular temporary shows.

In his works, Casaretto conveys the connection of humans to culture and geography through his own personal history, myths, science, and technology. The narrative he adopts does not follow any temporal and spatial linearity. The artist tries to distinguish between data and information; by revealing the differences between those who are intervened and those who are not, those who come from nature and those who copycat it; questioning the core function of art making which imitates nature. From the most ancient technique to the most complex technology ever used, he dissects and decomposes the act of art making, and examines and applies the dexterity-mastership required when re-arranging materials  to create a newformation. In this direction, he leaves the result to the material itself, staying loyal to the limits, rules, and cultural histories of given tools and techniques. Therefore his use of materials is very diverse. As he puts art-making processes at the center of his productions both technically and intellectually, the phases he goes through comes forefront rather than the final output. Adopting the technique and acknowledging it as a guide which as has been applied by someone else in the past as a manual, he repeats and imitates a series of irregular bodily movements as required by the technique.

The part of the exhibition which includes Guido Casaretto’s works is supported by SAHA and Zilberman.