Oki Izumi: Deconstructionism and "re-composition"

Some days ago I came upon an art gallery in Via Marsala, "Paraventi Giapponesi, Galleria Nobili". I suddenly stopped walking, to look at the window, because I saw little pieces of art that impressed me a lot. Even If the were just little compositions made of glass, they were so beautiful that I had to enter the art gallery and ask for some information. 

In this way, I discovered the work of Oki Izumi, a japanese lady working in Milan and producing glass sculptures (of different sizes) and jewels. She calls the jewels "sculptures to be worn" - smart and cool idea, perfectly suitable for the never-satisfied-with-the-simple-things Milan. 

I also asked for the brochure and visited here elegant website, where you can also find some videos about her. In the brochure I had by the gallery manager, I found a description of Izumi's work that put me in the right conditions to introduce her here, in this personal subjective selection of art and creativity. I hope you'll be enthusiastic about her as I am.

(all the following images are taken from Oki Izumi website - go there to see even more!)

Oki Izumi is "special for glass" and her technique is very clear and precise (two fundamental qualities for a good piece of art). She works with glass sheets, of different thickness, and creates sculptures of any dimension. They could be big or small, but always appealing and somehow magnetic (not a banal quality for the glass!!).

They are magnetic in the way they reflect the light and create a sort of inviolable space, made of air, surrounding the pieces. 

The glass so treated is no more only a material, but not even just an idea of transparency and pureness (as it was for the Western countries, when we started making building out of glass, looking for a sense of purity of the constructive field - see P. Behrens).

Matteo Galbiati wrote (Nov 2011) that her pieces aren't mere objects, but are pieces of art since she takes out, from the "cool" glass, a sort of vital energy. <The glass crystalize the invisible, and the artist has understood the power of this solidification of the immaterial>. It is the light that gives importance to this sculptures, without that the final effect would not be the same. No light, no magic.

The works that impressed me more were the small buildings made of glass, or just the ones recalling me an idea of construction or urban panoramas. I'll talk of this personal feeling, here.

This small creations made me think of the Deconstructionism and the current appreciation of "fluid architecture" as Zaha Hadid ones (just to give you an idea of what I'm talking of). 

I think that this general madness for plastic and new materials (better appreciated if specially invented for one-time use) is evidently silly, compared with the simplicity of the glass. In this reasoning, the glass can be assumed as a "champion" of the traditional materials. 

Why should we fill our house with melted tables or collapsed chairs, proportionally expensive to their decomposition level? It is always possible to create something new and interesting with sample shapes, if well used. Miss Izumi clearly represents this possibility. What's the use of blob furniture or buildings with identity crisis? 

Don't tell me it's just the need of something new, because I'm intelligent enough not to be satisfied with  this. No more! 

In Izumi's art, the decomposition of the glass into sheets goes on with the re-composition of the pieces. I think it's like the principle of the Yin and of the Yang: there is no pleasure without the pain, there is no happiness without the sadness. In her work, I would say that the deconstructionism is fundamental as the recomposition is. She does not obtain her pieces without putting them again together, according to the inspiration and her sensibility. This is another quality of her work.

I think that a certain kind of architecture, nowadays so diffused also thanks to the 3D technology, definitely lack of something. It lacks a sense. It lacks the recomposition of the pieces. It's just like a Lego house, when you open the pack and take out the pieces. It's THEN that you have to put them together!
Fluid architecture and melted shapes are just the updated idea of the Deconstructionism to the current era. They can be interesting for some time, usually the time to see them on a magazine. But then, to me, nothing remain.

Marina Abramovic: powerful in simplicity

I was very excited about the previews, months ago: Abramovic will come to Milan. <She's going to do something at the PAC! something new, something crazy… what is she going to do here? will she cut herself? will she stay in front of us for ages? will she perform with animals?? What???>

When an artist of her calibre is coming in our confused city, everybody goes even more confused. I think only the introduction of the traffic charge created the same level of panic.

Then, on the dot as spring does, here she is: March, 21st 2012, no Maya could forecast this, but it happened: Marina is really here.

And then? I started reading and watching the videos about the performance, I saw pictures about it and I started thinking <Well, maybe not, it doesn't worth a visit. I've already seen everything she's doing, why should I go now, after seeing all the presentation?>

Why? I've always been sceptic on performances of any kind, even if after the lecture of Denys Riout book, "The art of the XXth century", I thought I got the importance of them. Certain books must be read constantly, every 6 months, to remind you the core of the things (in this case, the core of the XXth century art).

Despite the lecture, anyway, I was still undecided. Why going there?

Then a friend called me and proposed to go there in the afternoon. It was the last day of presence of the artist, since after March 23rd you can only se Marina through the video of the performance "The artist is present" (this sounds ironic, I know).

I immediately said yes, and I did well.

I wanted to show you first the images of this exhibit, to put you in my same position. I recommend to go there anyway, even if Marina is no more there.

I don't want to tell you anything special on her, since you can find a lot of information about her work and the always-high-level of PAC press section can do it better than me. I'll just tell you that the power of Marina's work is all in the performance, with or without her. And there is no video, nor picture, that can summarize a live session of her work. As the curator Eugenio Viola said in his essays on the presentation <the performance is present>.

Don't think this is a kind of empty tautology or an easy win. Marina makes you aware of the simple things, that are usually the most important. Living our chaotic lives (me before anybody else) we constantly miss the importance of the time and of the space around us. Marina gives us back something we have but didn't want to remember we have.

The performance started with she and her the assistants (choreographers in NYC) with white gowns, making the performing public get relaxed. They checked their breathe, their muscles, their minds… it was a kind of yoga, striving for putting the participant in peace and armory with the environment and the installations.

The "sculptures" specifically made for this purpose are very attractive and appealing. Aesthetically perfect and balanced, few materials that gives you a sense of peace. Marina recreated the simplest elements of the world in form of common objects for humans (beds, chairs, tables, rooms).

Looking at the performers, you are obliged to stop and think of you, af the time passing, of the world around. You don't have to expect nothing special, but only something powerful in simplicity.

You'll feel strange, if you can get the right deep concentration. The public is divided into two groups: the performers and the visitors. Everybody is part of the performance.

The exhibition is completed with videos about Marina's work, with a special section dedicated to "The artist is present", with the original chairs and table she used at the Moma.

Nothing special, but strong, really strong.

(click to see an interview to Marina, in ENGLISH, on her work until now)

The prolific production of Marlene Dumas

Fondazione Stelline, Milan, March 21st.  I'm almost getting there late, despite my super moped.

My friend send me a message: <It's at the civic 61!>. I know, I know… but that's not a useless SMS, coz in Corso Magenta you can find so many Museums, Galleries and Monuments that you could easily get lost. We are exactly opposite the Cenacolo Vinciano, where Dan Brown could get inspired.

The n°61 of Corso Magenta is now hosting a personal exhibition of Marlene Dumas work, with 15 new paintings specially made for the Fondazione Stelline, out of 22 presented. The exposition will close on June, 17th 2012, so you have enough time to think about the possibility to come here and discover an artist (as I did) or refresh your memory (if you already know her).

Marlene Dumas was Born in Capetown, South Africa, in 1953. She went to Amsterdam where she studied psychology and dedicated her life to painting. 

I don't want to loose time talking about her life, since you can better get informed here and here.

I found her paintings, in Milan, elegantly inserted in the white spaces of the Fondazione. That space is extremely domestic, despite the white walls, because of an old style parquet. Made of clear wood, it "sounds" under your feet, but in a not threatening way. I think this is important, because Marlene's work could even let you annoyed or scared and this selection, in particular, talks about a lost domesticity.

A century ago the Fondazione Stelline didn't exist. The former building, restored around 1986, guested an orphanage and the "Stelline" ("Little stars") lived here. This place was a house of everybody, but at the same time nobody was really at home. This strange situation has been well described, by Antony Vidler, as "uncanny" and "unhomely" ("perturbante" in Italian).

Marlene Dumas tries to represent this sense of unhomeliness. She has always concentrated on the bodies and the suffering of the human condition, but here can find a new inspiration, not new for the conceptual aspect, but for the formal iconography.

She paints starting from pictures -as F. Bacon did- in her studio. She can be said Expressionist in her way to represent her thoughts, more frequently trying to let the awkwardness flow on the paper, than obtaining a plastic effect by the paint. A consistent part of her work is composed by water-paintings-like drawings: a liquid reproduction of the humanity.

The exhibit has also a special room where a long video (63') shows her life and work, a good decision to better understand Marlene. The presentation itself is not exactly astonishing, I loved few drawings of those made for the Stelline. But the mix of children and ghost effect is always a winning choice, very effective.

 

The numerous crucifixions, on the contrary, always leave me quite bored. There was only one (Gravity, 2012) that really made me stop to look at.

I loved the pink portrait of Amy Winehouse, but maybe because my personal appreciation of Amy's work, and pity for Amy's life.

Trying to summarize the exhibition: Marlene Dumas is one of the contemporary artists to know and see. Fondazione Stelline is the correct place, always.

The 22 paintings forming "Sorte" are not all deserving of a visit, but those to be seen are definitely valuable.

I think every visitor will find their personal proportion of Yes and No, but the Yes will surely compensate for the No.

First mobile ever

The first mobile phone ever was invented in Milan, and the proof is here, in this painting from 1894.
The author is Arturo Ferrari. You can see it @ Gallerie d'Italia, Milan.
As the detail shows, the man is clearly talking at the phone, from his boat on the Canal Naviglio di Viarenna.

Libreria Bocca

This place can easily cover at least three different categories my blog is divided into. A post on Libreria Bocca can figure under the labels: creative shop, reviews (for the shop guest exhibits) and Milan.

If I had to write the "shop review" I would say that the libreria is a very little one, but furnished with a lot of art books and not only. They also have auctions catalogues and essays concerning art, design and architecture.
The shop walls are entirely covered by books and random artistic pieces, smartly inserted in every empty space, over the books and under the tables. The floor is made of a glazed surface, showing squared paintings little but dense of...art.
Here you'll find a crazy enough space. Today, when I entered, I found the owners/shop assistants definitely mad and quite "sopra le righe". I cannot complain them, working there makes you... a bit special.They not payed much attention to me, seeming quite fed up with the rest of the world. They treated me in a quite nasty way, I must say this, but maybe today  was a bad day.

   

If I had to write the plane "review" of the artist they are currently guesting,  I would have a lot of difficulties. I went there just because the newspaper was sponsoring this exhibitions. I didn't learnt anything about Alberto Andreis, except for what I could peep from that incredible artistic magma. 

Visiting his personal website, I think he was a bit penalized by this; he seems to be more interesting that how he appeared in the Libreria. 

It is complicate to present an exhibition there, because you cannot understand where the exhibit starts or end, so many appealing strange things are all around you. I saw some drawings about fantastic architectures, someway Escher's style, but I couldn't collect sufficient information to talk seriously about the guy (providing I could ever say something serious on someone).

(This is the only image I saw before going there. Andreis website is really deserving some moments of good net-surfing! Image taken from here)

If I had to write a review for the category "Milano" I would write with no hesitation that Milano is special also for places like this. 

We are talking about few squared meters of shop, in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele 12. this litle space exactly represents what Milan is: a chaotic place, congestioned, a bit foggy and dark, full of treasures. I would also suggest not to waste time with the pigeons in Piazza Duomo, but go straight to the Galleria, avoiding the crowds of Japanese tourists heading to the pigeons. Spent few minutes inside this bookshop,
and maybe buy a book or two. Today I bought the umpteenth essay on art and design: "Il rifiuto degli dei" by Maurizio Vitta, Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi editions (17 €).
I hope I could write something on this soon!

    

 

ARTLANTIS STUDIO 4 + PHOTOSHOP

The Bagel Factory

I think I've found the perfect place, near home, to spend my last bohemian month in Italy, before leaving. I found the perfect place to play the role of the creative writer, assuming the correct "aura" and "charisma" one should show to be respected and consequently well payed.

Forgive me for this, but today I'll definitely give publicity to a shop in Corso XXII Marzo, American Style, called "The Bagel Factory".
I had no clear idea of what a Bagel is, until this shop opened near my gym. I saw the restyling procedure lasting enough to be sure they totally reconverted the old "pizza da asporto" into a valuable location.
Today I found the courage to enter and I had a very good impression. It was because I found a place quite common abroad, but not so diffused in Italy (I don't know what about Rome, but in Milan this formula is quite unusual).

The Bagel Factory is a place where you can have the traditional American Bagel (maybe you can confirm me they are traditional, I cannot check). They also serve hot teas, american coffees, ice creams and yoghurts, salads… everything is healthy and organic. They focus all on the quality of the "raw materials", and I think this is a winning choice in moments of economical crisis.

The shop is structured on two levels. The lower is the selling area. The upper is a mezzanine where counters follows the limits of the floor, with chairs all along them. You can see the street in front of you.
Of course it's a simple scheme, nothing special, but maybe I was attracted by the fact it was quite empty (it's new and I went there in an unusual time - not for breakfast or lunch or dinner) clear and clean.

The style wants to recall something old and traditional, maybe even more European than American, but it doesn't matter: you can breath tradition and cleanliness. The walls are covered with ceramic tiles and the floors have a texture of little tesserae, white and black. The black ones should form something with a hole, like the bagel is. Pretty smart, I would say.

I'm perfectly conscious all the rest of the world is full of places like this, but for the Milanese standards is something new. It's not our classic "bar", nor a restaurant. It's a place, with free wi-fi, where you can go there and spent time in a creative way, maybe drinking a great black tea (vanilla flavored) 100% organic, as I did writing on my I-pad.

TodayI felt citizen of the world for almost 30 minutes…
Maybe we Milan is not that old as I could fear!


(the Architect's choice: metallic grid to better see the street and to bet your heels - as I did)



[please notice and remember:]

*Italy has no Starbucks at all.

*We have a lot of Mc Donald's - recently converted in Mc Cafè - and some Burger Kings.

*The 2012 is the 10° anniversary from MY last "Mc Lunch" and it was a salad. If you need a review on Mc Donald's, ask someone else!]

In lust we trust

Walking along Corso Garibaldi and Corso Como in Milan is starting to be very challenging if you are not interested in lust. Even the ironmongery -one of the few of the city- seems to be so stylish, with the charming old-style windows (but perfectly updated prices).

I was there to visit Galleria Carla Sozzani, but I took the occasion to study the environment; it's quite a long time since I last went there looking up in the air; at the moment everybody is building around here and a bright new future is forecasted here. Corso Como is already a must-go place for those interested in expensive shops and the most popular fashion. You'll find something different from the best known Italian brands (Gucci, Versace, Dolce&Gabbana…) but if your wallet is ready, you'll have a myriad of alternatives to spend your money.

While walking there, I was looking at the new buildings raising in Garibaldi area, around the station. They will be all luxurious apartments and offices, in prestigious condos, inserted in an area that has been empty for decades. Arriving from Corso Como, you see the old city -just restored a bit, considering the high profile inhabitants- in comparison with the new coming. Here weird short-circuits between "Old and New Urbanization" are ready to be noticed by me.

Before talking of my strolling about culture, just few pics about the area, to give you an idea of what I'm chatting of.

First of all, I suppose the joy of the male dwellers living in the house opposite to the biggest Belèn Rodriguez I've ever seen. I can imagine the happiness of them, opening their window in the early morning. A good reason to wake up early, I would say.

Notices boasting the new construction of Eco-Efficient houses, just above the most sadly eco-friendly residence.



New opening for an ice cream shop. The suggestion here is to lick quickly your dessert, before that dangerous vase dangling from the balcony ends on your head or in your ice cream…




Now let's talk about Photography, since Galleria Carla Sozzani is special for free exhibits of famous photographers.
This time it's Alice Springs time, until 22nd April 2012.

The address is Corso Como 10, where you'll find also a gorgeous clothes shop, an excellent bookshop (for art, design and photography) and a sufficiently expensive café. You won't lack anything here, just polish your American Express!

Alice Springs was Mr Helmut Newton wife and He taught her what to do, but without exaggerating with technical secrets. He said, about her portraits, that <she doesn't use any tricks, simply because she does not know them>.
This read, I understood that the portraits displayed in the white spaces are special because she used only natural light, no flash or advanced techniques. The magic of the moment was caught as it was in that exactly instant.
It's a spontaneous mix of intimacy and familiarity with the portrayed people. And what a people! We are talking about the best elements of '70s and '80s fashion and cinema panorama. 
The Galleria temporarily hosts 130 prints. Someone wrote, on the guest book, that the prints were not graphically good. I'm not an expert of this but I felt there was something.. strange in the final rendition. The pictures seemed a bit foggy, but the exhibition anyway shows Alice's work (or June Newton's - her real name) with the best bored jet-set stars and the best creative artists of the time. Everybody is shot in their "natural environment" or, if in a undefined place, with a detail that freeze the personality of the stars. Most of them looked fed up with that golden world, other scared or astonished. But everybody should have been very happy to be represented by Alice.

Some shots are deeply Helmut Newton style, in particular the first with the female naked models; pics even more malicious than Helmut's ones!
The portraits are, I think, the best way SHE could find to express a society and an era, with no regret for the past, but with a certain surprise for the situation, indeed.
As the Press Papers says: she captured their charisma, their aura.

Well, exiting the fashionable building and crossing the stylish courtyard, I looked around me, noticing all the controversies of an early afternoon in Corso Como. The street was waiting for the nocturne "movida" and all the consequent trendy society filling the clubs and cocktail-bars.
Considering that a lot of contemporary supposed celebrities come here to spend their nights, I would like to know how many of them could be ever portrayed in the same way Alice did, 30 or 40 years ago.

For the moment, we only have a 4 floors Belèn Rodriguez, hanging on a building!

REVIT FIRST ATTEMPT

Two houses in Milan

Spring is almost here even in Milan... Perfect season to enjoy the city!

Today I give you two good addresses to spent time in very elegant Milanese houses.
Almost all the European cities have an "époque house" to visit, containing old furniture following a precise style. Most of them were the native homes of great writers or scientists, so you can find even their personal objects.
In Milan you can see something different but I think definitely more interesting: the houses I'm going to present you were private until few years ago and when the dwellers died, they donated both to the Italian cultural heritage.

* First address, Via Mozart 14, Milan.
In a very central position, very close to our famous golden quadrilateral, you can find Villa Necchi Campiglio. They have a precise timetable so please check the website.
Here you'll see a big rationalist Villa, with garden, made by the Architect Piero Portaluppi between 1932 and 1935. Angelo Campiglio and Gigina Necchi lived there with Gigina's sister Nedda. It was a rich family interested in industry and the Villa reflects the wise choices of Portaluppi (elegant furniture designed by himself, simple decorations, rich materials) but also the classical ones by the other involved Architect Tomaso Buzzi. 

 

(Villa Necchi Campiglio - The pool in the flowered garden)

The Villa is filled with original furniture and object of the family (Nedda lived there and died in 2001) and the rooms left empty were furnished again with suitable furniture. The restoration of the house lasted from the 2001 until the 2008, thanks to the effort of FAI Fondo Ambientale Italiano.

Visiting this Villa is a big opportunity to see the best Italian design before the "Vespa era", when the Dolcevita was still something of culturally deep.
You'll have to follow the guided tour, very well done, that explains you also the Claudia Gian Ferrari Collections that gives even more value to the spaces.


* The other address is Via Jan 15, near Corso Buenos Aires, Casa Boschi-Di Stefano.

If you are tired of shopping in the chaotic street, take a break visiting (free entrance!) the flat where Mr Boschi and Mrs De Stefano lived collecting hundreds of paintings from the best master of the XXth century. Rumors say the furniture was almost nothing, since they had to keep in their house so many paintings that some had to lay on the floor! You'll visited 10 rooms, with very kind volunteers by the Touring Club, that will be very happy to explain you everything about the paintings and the owners. The house guests around 300 paintings, out of more than 2000 owned by this couple.

The architect was again Piero Portaluppi and you'll be able to appreciate his work starting from outside, from the street.
The furniture in the house is not original, but reasonable and original of the '30s.
Special mention to the bathroom, with black marble, containing paintings even there.


As usual, I can just say please visit, visit and visit again!

 

(Casa Boschi - Di Stefano; detail of a decorated window)

 

(Casa Boschi - Di Stefano)

 

(Casa Boschi - Di Stefano; dining room, with music)

Lorenzo Petrantoni

Timestory 
by Lorenzo Petrantoni
Galleria Credito Valtellinese
Corso Magenta, 69
Milano

Hurry up! There is time(story) until April, 1st  2012  to see something interesting and free in Milan. I know this could sound quite strange after what I wrote in the last post, but there is an explanation.

Lorenzo Petrantoni was born in Genova in 1970, got his training in Milan and worked in France as an art director. Now he's back in Milan as an illustrator and his work is quite famous all over the world - in particular the graphics.

He has found a cool way to express contemporary needs and trends, making treasure of the past. Using little details of old books and reviews (very old!) and creating his own paper, he prints ads or magazines covers "pixelating" our present with our gran-gran-gran-granparents symbols.

The final effect is peculiar, sort of baroque gears dramatically vibrant but graphically steady. If you don't believe me, take these!

 

 

(Coca-cola ad)

(please click to enlarge, and feel the vibe...)

  

(this is one of my favourites)

 

You'll find even more stuff in the special room (long 60 m and high 5 m / 196 feet x 16) he had to personally set up with a crazy paper installation.

For the lazy ones (or just too abroad to reach us) visit the website and look at the video too!

http://www.lorenzopetrantoni.com/