Graveyard of Memories

In a famous passage, Nietzsche wrote, "He wonders also about himself - that he cannot learn to forget, but hangs on the past: however far or fast he runs, that chain runs with him. It is a matter for wonder: the moment that is here and gone, that was nothing before and nothing after, returns like a spectre to trouble the quiet of a later moment. A leaf is continually dropping out of the volume of time and fluttering away - and suddenly it flutters back into the man's lap. Then he says, ‘I remember...'" (Friedrich Nietzsche 1873)

Assimilation, retention, stratification, acquisition, and codification of notions, absorption of stimulus, translation into stable recordable internal representations, categorisation, labelling according to pre-existing patterns and categories, storage or stabilisation of information learned through experience.
We barely know about the neurophysiological processes associated with memory and forgetting and we do not know yet how to pinpoint precisely their locations despite the purposes and concepts in defining memory. Can memory be considered a process or simply a collection of memories and mental images? An exact reproduction of the past or an approximate reconstruction? Can we consider ecmnesia the transformation of memories into actual experiences, a pathological weakness or a normal development of it? To what extent can we live in the present without being conditioned by or tied to the past?

Although already "Bergson spoke of memory as a real and true non-place, an elsewhere that constantly envelops the present, but which belongs to another dimension" (E. Castelli Gattinara, 2001), the continual overlapping and stratification of notions, interpretations and personal experiences must inform not only our knowledge but also our comprehension of the present.
Memory, nevertheless, cannot be interpreted simply as a collection of past experiences, but above all as a means by which these experiences are processed, manipulated or modified in the present. A "fusion of horizons" (H.G. Gadamer, 1996), in which man finds himself bound, but which must gradually be dissolved until it disappears.

Faced with this problem, eight artists were invited to put forward a perspective, an interpretation and a subjective reading of their own relationships to memory. The collection shows the paradox between the violent tension of their own past and the necessity for freedom in their own present.


In the work of Clara Conci a curtain fallen from the sky, settles, draped over and resting where it falls on the ground. Its weightlessness keeps the installation suspended, like memories, always fleeting, never finding a definitive physical grounding. In contrast, Davide Orlandi Dormino spreads out a crumpled piece of plain paper on the ground. The tabula rasa symbolises the lack of memory at the beginning and then the total potential acquisition of whatever knowledge, and must be filled by the footsteps marked on its surface. Silvia Giambrone prepares an ever-changing simulation of reality, something ontologically true and false at the same time. The leaves fallen from the trees lose their own characteristics, fusing with the images of the artist's hands. Pablo Rubio builds a library of memories, forgotten fragments in which the written word merges, blends until it is lost, burnt to the ground. Chiara Scarfò defines the boundaries of intimacy marking an outer casing as much impudent as unapproachable. Perimeter or vacant vectors , in which to find a private hiding space, in which to take refuge or to escape from a society saturated with ephemeral relationships. Gian Maria Tosatti constructs an installation borne from the (con)fusion, processing and manipulation which the images of the past generate in the present, as enigmas on a preconscious level. In the work of Enrico Vezzi the rite of passage, the division of space and his contemplation provoke the attraction of arbitrary memories in the conscience, opening doors which no one previously had ever dared to open. Finally, in the work of Claudia Zicari memory hangs in the balance, precariously, without stability, struggling always to escape from itself.


"To live in the present you have to free yourself of the past; memory is a personal game of things remembered and things forgotten, which battle relentlessly. Freeing yourself of the past means knowing how not to be its mirror, merely its storage, repeating or replicating it passively. If there were no forgetting, no change would ever be possible because the weight of the past would crush us and unconditionally determine every choice." (E. Castelli Gattinara, 2001)

Credits

Clara Conci
Title: Bianco (White)
Year: 2010
Technique: lace, wire, steel cable and rabbit glue
Dimensions: 600 x 600 cm

Clara Conci was born in Bolzano in 1984. She lives and works between Florence, Parma and Bolzano. Having obtained a Diploma in Decoration at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Florence, she is now enrolled on a degree course specialising in Planning and Curating Art Exhibitions at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Florence, based in Prato at the Luigi Pecci Centre for Contemporary Art. Since August 2008 she has been part of the Contemporary Art Movement "InFusione". Her latest installations include: "Anime" (Souls) for the "InFusione2008" Festival at Selva Grossa (Parma), "Ombra" (Shadow), "IlDivenire" (Becoming) at the cultural association "FORMAstudio", Florence, "Ricordi" (Memories), "LaCronica" (Chronic) at the "Piccola Galleria", Bolzano, and "è solo il mio modo di guardare il cielo" (It's just my Way of Looking at the Sky), for the "InFusione2009 Festival" at the Selva Grossa (Parma). Since September 2009 she has been involved in the artist workshop .LAB in Florence, an art studio open to all forms of contemporary art.


Silvia Giambrone
Title: Simulacra (Simulacrum)
Year: 2010
Technique: bronze
Environmental Dimensions

Silvia Giambrone was born in Agrigento in 1981, and lives and works in Rome. Since 2006 she has worked with video, installations, sculpture, and photography. Her research has focused primarily on subjectivity and on the relationship between the body, language and power. She is one of the founders of 26cc Artist Space in Rome. In 2008 she was invited to take part in "Eurasia. Dissolvenze geografiche dell'arte" (Eurasia. geographic dissolves of art) at MART in Rovereto. For this exhibition the artist created a site-specific work (NOENEMY), which continued the research on language as an important and ambiguous place for the circulation of political content. In 2009 she was selected for various prestigious video art festivals which included the Miden Festival of Kalamata and the Cross Talk Video Art Festival of Budapest. In the same year she was selected by the Ratti Foundation for the advanced course in visual arts taught by visiting professor Walid Raad. She won the Epson 2009 prize with the video "Translation". Also in 2009 she participated in the project "Pandora's Boxes" at the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona. In 2010 she obtained a residence at the Upload Art Project in Trento, where she put on a solo exhibition and created her first performance "VIola e un poco nervosamente" (Viola is a little bit nervous); also in 2010 she was selected for the Moscow BIennale of young artists.


Davide Orlandi Dormino
Title: Untitled
Year: 2010
Technique: reinforced concrete and epoxy resin
Dimensions: 600 x 400 cm

Davide Orlandi Dormino was born in Udine in 1973, and lives and works in Rome. Since 1991 he has worked as a sculptor, designer and performer. The central thread of his actions reach along his plastic research which allows him to express himself along the channels of various art forms. His sculpture moves in a research which results in the transformation of matter (from clay to plaster, from stone to metal, using multiple materials simultaneously) and of the space when the sculpture is installed, with particular attention to the theme of memory. Since 2003 he has been Professor of Sculpture and Drawing at the R.U.F.A. Free Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.


Pablo Rubio
Title: Ritratti in presente. Anatomia di un oblio (Portraits in the Present. Anatomy of Forgetting)
Year: 2010
Technique: plexiglas, resin and books
Dimensions: three pieces of 175 x 90 x 35 cm each.

Pablo Rubio was born in Córdoba, Spain in 1974. Taking as a starting point the absence of memory or its multiplicity and intensive research on latent memory, his work has developed through installations and graphic works. The desire, the place, the dream, love, transience, distance, urgency or emptiness develop as elements to achieve identity. In the series Self Portraits in the Present he plays at being the individual protagonist in his own reality, through mosaics in which the multitude of self portraits, ruined and painted, are mixed together with other elements such as padlocks, scissors, keys and black rope, reflecting on the inherent duality of his own being.


Chiara Scarfò
Title: Pieno di Vuoto (Full of Nothing)
Year: 2010
Technique: iron
Dimensions: 370 x 230 x 150 cm

Chiara Scarfò was born in Genova in 1977. Her research, which centred at first on the places of memory and on her own body, interpreted as imaginary limit or boundary, is currently directed towards a more hermetic intimacy, interpreted as an "external refuge". The artist defines the boundaries of intimacy by tracing a casing that is bold but inaccessible. Perimeter vectors or emptiness in which to find a private hiding place in which to take refuge or escape from a society saturated with ephemeral relationships. Her main exhibits include: "Table" in the Galleria Ingresso Pericoloso, "Paradiso Perduto" (Paradise Lost) in the Home-gallery of Germana Olivieri, Olbia, "arteopenduemilasette - itineraripossibili" (openart2007 - possibleitineraries) (a multimedia meeting of international contemporary art) at the exhibition and conference space of the Town Hall in Staranzano, Gorizia, "Self Shots" in the Galleria La Bertesca Masnata, Genova, "Tra dentro e fuori" (Between Inside and Outside) in the Museattivo "Claudio Costa" ex-manicomio Quarto, Genova and "TrisArte" (TriArt) with Leonardo Rosa and Claude Viallat at the "Manlio Trucco" Museum in Albisola (Savona).


Gian Maria Tosatti
Title: Le considerazioni sugli intenti della mia prima comunione restano lettera morta - spazio #03 (the dreamers) (Considerations on the Intent of my First Communion that are no longer relevant - Space #03 (The Dreamers))
Year: 2010
Technique: iron, wood and glass
Environmental Dimensions

Gian Maria Tosatti (born Rome, 1980) is a visual artist, and founder and director of the Hôtel de la Lune studio. After study and research in the field of performance at the Centre for Theatrical Experimentation and Research in Pontedera, Tosatti moved to Rome to pursue an artistic career in the field of the connection between architecture and visual arts producing mainly large site-specific installations. The fruits of this research are all his subsequent works, installations and photographs, in addition to two projects "Devozioni" (Devotions) and "Landscapes", in collaboration with the Volume! Foundation. The first is a series of ten large installations for particular architectural spaces, the second is a path of public art related to places of urban conflict. Currently the artist's research is linked to two new projects "Fondamenta" (Foundations), based on the identification of archetypes of the modern era, and "Le considerazioni sugli intenti della mia prima comunione restano lettera morta" (Considerations on the Intent of my First Communion, that are no longer relevant), a series dedicated to the enigmas which reside in personal memory and the traces that people leave behind. In 2008 he won the Premio Tema 01 with the work "I giorni del silenzio - devozioni IX - I" (Days of Silence - Devotions IX - I)


Enrico Vezzi
Title: Arbitrary Gates
Year: 2010
Technique: three gates, modified hinges, spring mechanism
Environmental Dimensions

Enrico Vezzi was born in San Miniato in 1979. He graduated in Psychology at the University of Florence in 2004. He has exhibited his work in numerous Italian public and private spaces, His works are always traces of an attempt at relationship and he also uses various methods such as painting, sculpture, video, photos or installations, the only definition would be, projects which attempt to witness the actual process with which the work manifests itself and which attempts to stimulate and form a dialogue. His recent exhibitions include: "Emerging Talents" at the Palazzo Strozzi, Strozzina Space in Florence, "Il Caos" (Chaos), a fringe event of the 53' Venice Biennal on the Island of San Servolo, "White Balance" at the Gallery Via Nuova in Florence, and "Usine de Reve" (Dream Factory) at 26cc space in Rome.



Claudia Zicari
Title: Pensatoio (The Place where one goes to Think)
Year: 2010
Technique: iron
Dimensions: 250 x 50 x 50 cm

Claudia Zicari was born in Bergamo in 1975. All her works are an atomisation of the time that has generated her, linked to her childhood, and her original perception was that of reality. Her work tries to leave as much as possible clean and bare, the perceived space being necessary in order to take the form of whoever benefits from it. Her main exhibitions include: "Esercizi di volo" (Exercises in Flight) in the Ex-Elettrofonica Gallery in Rome, "I giardini dell'arte" (Gardens of Art), at the Villa Bonifati, Castrovillari (Cs), "C'è nessuno? Stati stazionari metastabili" (Is anybody there? Stationary metastabile states" at Bazzini15 artecontemporanea, Milan, "Macra me" at the Galleria Spazio Davar in Rome, "Paso Doble", at Protoconvento Francescano, Castrovillari (Cs).