un progetto DI

NICOLA EVANGELISTI

A CURA

DI

OLIVIA SPATOLAeli sassoli de’ bianchi

per

SPAZIO 9

N I C O L A E V A N G E L I S T I

B E W A R E

2 0 1 5

AREA35 ARTGALLERYMILANO

BEWARE

Nicola Evangelisti, after having examined the relation among real and virtual in the context of the econo-mic crisis, turns his gaze towards the international political outlook, focusing on the discomfort created by the current terrorist wave in which mass media communication have a significant role to play. It’s such a significant coincidence that the English term BEWARE contains the word WAR; as if there were an inherent warning of an armed threat to our security. Quoting the title of a famous album of a musician loved by the artist -Paul McCartney- we could define this project a TUG OF WAR, at least for the deployment of a quite interesting arsenal made by his installations. It is not really war and terrorism chic which is symbolized, but the communication process of informa-tion, the distance between objective facts and their perception: a dyscrasia that makes them subjective. Safety, both mental and physical, is under attack, actualized by the duality between tangible and intan-gible reality.There is, in these series of installations, a distance between the object of analysis and Evangelisti’s artwork, a kind of filter, a deforming lens represented by the artistic medium. The Information is - by definition – something unambiguous in relation to the fact it refers to. The correlation between “News” and “Event” corresponds to the relationship between “material” and immaterial”. The natural semantic shifting underlines the distance between the meaning of the word and its own signifier.BEWARE project’s artworks are just the uncertain empty space in between the incident and its relative information.A multitude of information on the same event, represents at the same time, press freedom, and a ma-licious or partisan distortion if manipulated by an ideological strategy.If the information is an exchange of consciousness among several people, it contributes unsurprisingly to the definition of public social consciousness. The invasion of territories proceeds in parallel to the control of consciousness and public opinion. Such control corresponds to an annihilation. A tendency to move the rational verticality of the spirit towards the ferocious dynamics of the horizontal. The violence killing victims of war and terrorism isn’t more powerful of the one we experience in the moment horror of death is broadcasted in real-time throughout the web: virtual reality in this way tends to match with another form of reality that manages and influences our emotional, behavioral aspects and, therefore, our life.Duality between tangible and intangible reality is translated by Evangelisti into artworks made by phy-sical parts, measurable, and by others only visible through optical effects. Objective and material ele-ments are grafting onto others that can be defined virtual, being both common parts of the same form of reality. In its ambivalent duality, white is symbol of candidness, life and loyalty, as well as darkness, death, grief especially in Asian culture. White and Black, darkness and light alternates in solidness and emptiness of the artworks, Life and Death exchange significances by proxemically shifting from one reality to the other.It is not by sheer coincidence that the origin of the definition “white weapon” refers to white reflected by the sunlight on the mirroring steel of swords, knives and lances. “White weapon” like black instrument of death. Holy Knife by Nicola Evangelisti and Mauro Melotti is a sculpture half composed by a military knife and half by its holographic reproduction. In reference to his exhibition, Useless Army – where Evangelisti took part with the installation DEMO-CRACY made of shotgun shell – the “useless army” of Art, fights an intellectual war with militarily blunt arms but sharper in terms of exposure and social protest.Rifle shells characterize the installations FREEDOM, WAR, DEMOCRACY AND PEACE, English words that stigmatize the American military strategy to continually move the war front beyond their borders. Evangelisti, paraphrasing the “pax romana” concept from the imperial period, defines the actual as “pax Americana” Where wars are being fought in the name of peace and democracy.

Holy Lance and the shell installations are symptomatic of those who decided to make peace with war. Fought war in the name of peace or religion, paradoxes which have gone along with human history from ancient times till today and that seems not to leave room to any fraternity and harmony. Holy Lance is a wall installation of ambient dimensions composed by mirroring metal silhouettes. The blades and the knifes used to kill the victims of the caliphate are set forming a gunsight image – visually overlapping a cross – underlining the paradoxical capacity of violence in the name of God. Mirroring steel blades, digital forms that have found, in this matter, the capability to reflect the light and the contextual images. We reflect ourselves in the arms and in death’s symbols, likewise in those of peace and faith, in a perceptive continuum whose boundaries are superimposable and interchangeable.Light that generates shadows like the black colors of flags that darkens the Lybian sun, the obscure side of good, “caligine luminosissima” that clouds minds.The gunsight symbol, at last, exemplified in different ways within the exhibition, appears also in form of a holographic light hanging before an impending bullet, ready to hit the unconscious visitor: strong is still the interconnection between the objective reality and the supposed one, a more than ever representational synthesis of the world we live in. Olivia Spatola

WORKS DEMOCRACY, 2012Gun shell Installation variable size, 31x600 cm

FREEDOM, 2015Gun shell Installation variable size, 31x500 cm

PEACE, 2015Gun shell Installation variable size, 31x450 cm

WAR, 2015Gun shell Installation variable size, 31x450 cm

Dollar, 2015Gun shell Installation 31x19x6,5 cm

Target, 2013Nicola Evangelisti and Mauro Melottihologram, steel, plexiglass, Laser150x48, 5x60 cm

Holy Knife, 2015holographic sculpture by Nicola Evangelisti and Mauro MelottiMixed technique30x60cm

Holy Lance, 2015installation aluminum240x240 cm

Peace Bullet Mandala 2015Nicola Evangelisti and Ronald Lewis Facchinettisculpture in bullets and aluminum38x38 cm

War sound collage, 10’00 ‘(loop), 2015Video edited by the artist. Edited on aftereffects Mastered on DVD.Edition: 5Bologna, Italy

Holy Lance, 2015

Holy Knife, 2015

Target, 2013

Target, 2013

Nicola Evangelisti - bio

Born in Bologna, Nicola Evangelisti has graduated in sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy of his city of origin. Since 1995, he is conducting his artistic mutimedia research around scientific themes and cha-racterized by the application of the artificial light. For almost twenty years, he has been working internationally, realizing various cycles of light sculptures from large installations to urban-scale projections. In 2009 the artist creates Light Blade, a light installation firstly set in the portico of Villa Reale in Milan and later become part of GAM (Modern Art Gallery) collection. His work has inspired disser-tations, thesis and numeorus publications among which the catalogue LIGHT ART edited in Italy by Skyra. Nicola Evangelisti has been taking part to fairs, festivals and expositions in international museums and galleries among which: Chelsea Art Museum (New York - USA), Centre for Contemporary Art “Ujazdowski Castle” (Warsaw - Poland), MAK (Wien - Austria), MUAR (Moscow - URSS), ISELP “Institut Supérieur pour l’Etude du Langage Plastique” (Bruxelles - Belgium), Archäologisches Mu-seum (Frankfurt - Germany), Museo e Biblioteca Internazionale della Musica (Bologna - Italy), GAM (Milano - Italy), MACRO (Roma - Italy), Galerie Artiscope (Bruxelles - Belgium), PaciArte Contem-porary (Brescia - Italy). From 2013, he produced a series of three multimedia urban events focused on the sacred theme, from Lux Inaccessibilis, in the cloister of San Domenico in Bologna, to Genus Lucis, inside the Basilica of San Luca in Bologna. He also took part to special projects of Brussels Biennial, la Biennale di Venezia and Manifesta9.

ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS

2015 - BEWARE - AREA35 ArtGallery - Milan Italy2014 - Genus Lucis - Basilica St. Luca, Bologna (Italy)2014 - Speculum Solis - Water Design Exhibition – Church of St. Procolo, Bologna (Italy)2013 - Lux Inaccessibilis (with Fabio Bozzetto) - Arte Fiera White night - Cloister of St. Dome-nico, Bologna, (Italy)2012 - Temporary Illusions - OltreDimore Gallery, Bologna (Italy)2012 - A.L.I.C.E.’S EYE - Public Video Art by ELASTIC Group of Artistic Research and Nicola Evangelisti – Arte Fiera OFF, Cloister of Palazzo Bevilacqua Ariosti, Bologna (Italy)2011 - Nicola Evangelisti - VII giornata del Contemporaneo, Palazzo Ducale, Genova (Italy)2011 - Nicola Evangelisti and Antonio Pio Saracino - Italian Pavilion in the World - Biennale di Venezia 2011, Italian Cultural Institute, Bruxelles (Belgium)2011 - YOU ARE NOT SAFE / Light Pulse - Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica di Bologna (Italy)2010 - Nicola Evangelisti / Marina Giannobi. La Chiarezza e il Labirinto - Mya Lurgo Gallery, Lugano (Swiss)2010 - Perì Photòs. Around the light - Paci Contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2009 - Behind the light - Dream Factory, Milan (Italy)2008 - CHROMOCOSMICA - Galerie Artiscope, Bruxelles (Belgium)2007 - ELETTRIKA - Gallery PaciArte contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2006 - Installazioni luminose - Espace d’Art Contemporain Villary, Nimes (France)2004 - Chimere di Luce - Serego Art Gallery, Verona (Italy)2002 - Luminis Ora - BGH Gallery, Santa Monica, California (USA)2000 - Nuovo Spazialismo - Centre Culturel Louis Ratel, Bievres (France)2000 - Ephemerides (with Ong Quy Cong) - No Code Galery, Bologna (Italy)2000 - International Award “Guglielmo Marconi” - Corte Isolani Bologna (Italy)1997 - Frammenti Cosmici - Schabes Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (USA)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2015 - Useless Army by Paratissima, Torino Esposizioni, Torino (Italy)2015 - NICOLA CIVIERO & NICOLA EVANGELISTI. La Teoria degli Opposti - Paci contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2015 - Small size collection + Ralph Gibson - Paci Contemporary Brescia (Italy)2014 - ArtVerona - OltreDimore Gallery, Bologna (Italy)2014 - Light Art Ensemble. Artists and curators of light art - Brera Academy, Milan (Italy)2014 - META-ILLUSIONI - ART1307 Gallery, Villa di Donato - Napoli (Italy)2014 - Nicola Evangelisti. Lux Aurea - Museum Collection Papa Paolo VI, Concesio, Brescia (Italy)2014 - Extra-ordinary day - MAAM_Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz_città meticcia, Roma (Italy)2014 - HOME THEATRE. Prima rassegna di videoarte domestica - MAAM_Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz_città meticcia, Roma (Italy)2013 - ON al quadrato (theONgroup) – open studio by Alessandro Brighetti Bologna (Italy)2012 - Luci sulle Mura - Porta degli Angeli, Ferrara, Italy2012 - HIGH VOLTAGE onder hoogspanning - Galerie De Mijlpaal, Event of Manifesta9 (Bel-gium)2012 - La Retina Lucente - Termoli Award (Italy)2012 - I have a dream - PaciArte contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2012 - Turnover: Nicola Evangelisti - PaciArte contemporary Brescia (Italy)2012 - RELATIVITY. Relative and Relations - Laboratorio PaRDeS, Mirano (Italy)2012 - XXV Edition “Guglielmo Marconi” Award - Corte Isolani, Bologna (Italy)2012 - Davide Rondoni reading Compianto, Vita - Santa Maria della Vita, Bologna (Italy)2012 - Futures - Galerie Artiscope, Bruxelles (Belgium)2012 - ARTOUR-O - Villa la Vedetta, Firenze (Italy)2011 - ARTERACTIVE - Torino (Italy)2011 - ADD Festival - Macro Testaccio Roma (Italy)2011 - ARTOUR-O - Villa la Vedetta, Firenze (Italy)2010 - Luces (Luminale Biennale Lighting Culture) - Archäologisches Museum Frankfurt (Ger-many)2010 - Here and now (ArteFiera Bologna) - Museo Medievale, Bologna (Italy)2009 - Futuro (Festival della Scienza) - Palazzo Ducale, Genova (Italy)2009 - CLICKING THE COSMOS - Auditorium di Santa Chiara, Vercelli (Italy)2009 - DOROTHEUM - Wien (Austria)2009 - BOX SHOCK. Evangelisti VS Di Giovanni - Dream Factory, Milan (Italy)2009 - Premio Internazionale “Guglielmo Marconi” - Palazzo d’Accursio, Bologna (Italy)2008 - Black and White - Gallery PaciArte Contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2008 - CLICKING THE TERRITORY - Museo A. Malandra, Vespolate (Italy)2008 - ASTRALIA. Tra astronomia e astrologia, PaRDeS laboratorio di ricerca d’arte, Mirano (Italy)2008 - De Narcisse a Alice, miroirs et refletes en question - ISELP (Institute supérieur pur l’étude du langage plastique), Bruxelles (Belgium)2007 - Orizzonte degli eventi - Galleria Artsinergy, Bologna (Italy)2007 - River’s Edge Film Festival - Maiden Alley Cinema, Market House Theatre and Yeiser Art Center Paducah, KY (USA)

2006 - LIGHTS ON - Galerie Artiscope, Bruxelles (Belgium)2006 - Viaggio nella Fotografia Contemporanea - PaciArte Contemporary, Brescia (Italy)2006 - Dead Line - Villa Vogel, Firenze (Italy)2006 - Video Island - Isola Tiberina, Roma (Italy)2006 - Targetti Light Art Collection - National Museum of Architecture Schusev (MUAR), Mo-scow (URSS)

2006 - Harlem Art Project at Saatchi & Saatchi - New York (USA)2006 - DAB - Galleria Civica, Modena (Italy)2006 - VIDEOFORMES. Video & New Media in contemporary art (supported by Ministère de la Culture/DRAC Auvergne) - Clermont-Ferrand (France)2005 - DIVA Bruxelles. One Night Video - Bruxelles (Belgium)2005 - Video Festival - Galerie Parisud, Paris (France)2005 - Lucio Fontana e la sua eredità - Borgo medioevale di Castelbasso, Teramo (Italy)2004 - Mehr licht. Targetti light art collection & James Turrel - Museo Mak, Wien (Austria)2004 - Love 3 T - Futurshow Fair, Milano (Italy)2004 - Luce vero sole dell’arte - Museo Bargellini, Cento - Ferrara (Italy)2004 - Targetti Light Art Award - Arte Fiera, Bologna (Italy)2004 - Premio Internazionale “Guglielmo Marconi” - Italian Cultural Institute, New York (USA)2003 - Focusemotionalliving - SAIEDUE Fair , Bologna (Italy)2003 - Targetti Art Light Collection - Chelsea Art Museum, New York (USA)2003 - Focusonthegeniuslocioperandi - Palazzo Stella, Crespellano - Bologna (Italy)2002 - Targetti Art Light Collection - Arte Fiera, Bologna (Italy)2002 - Premio Internazionale “Guglielmo Marconi” - University of Bologna (Italy)2002 - Targetti Art Light Collection - Centre for Contemporary Art “Ujazdowski Castle”, Varsavia (Poland) 2002 - L’oggetto inesistente – Futurshow Fair, Bologna (Italy)2002 - Quotidiana - Museo Civico Al Santo, Padova (Italy)2001 - Mito e Materia. Scultura, Altro ed Oltre (with Joe Tilson) - Borgo medievale di Castelbas-so, Teramo (Italy)2001 - International Award “Guglielmo Marconi” - University of Bologna (Italy)2000 - Galleria No Code -Bologna (Italy)2000 - Piccolo formato - Bertrand Kass Gallery, Innsbruck (Austria)2000 - International Award “Guglielmo Marconi” - University of Bologna (Italy)1998 - La Scultura Possibile - Progetti e Disegni della Nuova Arte Italiana - Circolo Artistico, Bologna (Italy)

AWARDS

- Guglielmo Marconi International Award 2000, Bologna (Italy)- Second Prize “Light Works” TARGETTI ART LIGHT AWARD 2002, Firenze (Italy)- 3° Prize Aletti, ArtVerona 2009, Verona (Italy)

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

- "Insieme" MAAM project, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (Italy)- Museo Collezione Paolo VI Concesio, Brescia (Italy)- MAAM Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove, Roma (Italy)- GAM (Modern Art Gallery), Milan (Italy)- La Sfacciata Lighting Academy, Florance (Italy)- Museum Bargellini, Cento - Ferrara (Italy)- Pinto / Xandev Foundation , London and Goa (GB and India)

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS SELECTED

- Arturo Schwarz, Milano (Italy)- Giuseppina Panza di Biumo, Varese/Milano (Italy)- Margot de Mazzeri, Milano (Italy)- Curzio Magri, Bergamo (Italy)

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