From June 13 to September 13, 2014 the Morra Greco Foundation will be hosting new solo projects by Stano Filko and Jiří Kovanda. The exhibition, organized by the Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee in collaboration with the Fondazione Morra Greco, is part of the Progetto XXI exhibition project.
Stano Filko. ERUPEKCIA – ORGIAZMUS – ORGAZMUS – -YANG – JIN = SLNKOMESIAC – IN LIFE – -LOVE – ENTITA – EXIST – BEINGSF – -HERMAFRODIT
KAŽDÉMU PODL’A SVOJICH MOŽNOSTÍ A SCHOPNOSTÍ – V – IN – 5.4.3.D – PRE ŽIVOT
SINGULAR TRUTHS VŠETKÝCH L’UDÍ NA TEJTO ZEMEGULI – TRANZSCENDENCIE – V – IN – EXISTENCII – LEN V 3.D.
curated by Mira Keratova’
Stano Filko’s work is enormously broad and dynamic. It is based on the cumulative archiving of objects and documentations through installations, environments and his voluminous immaterial Project Art, Prospekt Art or Text Art. These last are diagrams based on texts in a variety of media, including diverse found or adjusted paper materials (often scale paper), perforated and colored plastic, aluminum, or sound in the case of his severe audio recordings on vinyl. The actual show is based on the artist’s selection of artworks presented before in the amt project gallery in Bratislava (2012). It is a chronological overview of Filko’s work with the focus on its postbigbang part. The show deals with the creation of Cosmos, the idea of incarnation, the phenomena of Clinical Death and the space of the EGO depicted in a number of installations and objects.
Stano Filko studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in 1959-1965. He has participated in numerous exhibitions including the Biennale de Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 1969; dOCUMENTA 7, Kassel 1982; FYLKO. Special Exhibit of Recent Work 1983-1985, P.S. 1 – The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City, New York 1986; Aspekte / Positionen. 50 Jahre Kunst aus Mitteleuropa 1949-1999, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien 1999; La Biennale di Venezia, 51. Esposizione Internazionale d´Arte, Venezia 2005; UP 300000 KM/S, tranzit workshops, Bratislava 2005; 11th Biennale de Lyon, Lyon 2011; Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module, New Museum, New York 2014, and many others.
Jiří Kovanda. ABOVE OUR HEADS
For the Fondazione Morra Greco, Jiří Kovanda has created a site-specific installation, a very delicate actiondevised for the basement level,which seeks to suggest an atmosphere and modulate an environment rather than establishing itself as a work of art. The arrangement of a series of lamps set on pillars is based on the position of the stars in the constellation of Corvus. The installation is titled Above Our Heads and the reflection of the sky above the viewer is presented against the backdrop of the Foundation building, like the water in a well that reflects the luminescence of the heavenly vault. The Crow is one of the most visible constellations in the skyover urban areas both because of its limited size and the fact that it is set in an area devoid of bright stars. In this way Kovanda succeeds in transposing the magnificence of the sky into an enclosed space, creating a subtle atmosphere through the evocative power of artificial light illuminating natural darkness, transcending the spatial limitsof the floors and roof of the building in the representation of a personal cosmology created by the repositioning of existing objects.
Jiří Kovanda (Prague, 1953) has exhibited his work at Documenta XII (2007) and created the performance Kiss Through Glass at the Tate Modern in London (2007). Recent exhibitions include a solo retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Breslavia (2013) and the Reina Sofia in Madrid (2012), and a group exhibition at the New Museum in New York (2014).
(Text by Anna Cuomo)