Totò nudo e la fusione della campana
The Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo continues to support Italian contemporary art at their exhibition space in Turin with a solo exhibition for the artist Diego Perrone. Curated by Francesco Bonami, the show is entitled Totò nudo e la Fusione della campana (Totò naked and the casting of the bell).“Supporting Italian artists is one of the Foundation’s main objectives, we have taken great interest in Diego Perrone’s work for years from his first show at the Foundation’s original gallery in Guarene in 2000 to the Premio Regione Piemonte then for our launch show ‘Exit’ for the new space in Turin in 2002”, confirms Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.The exhibition is about a journey through the imaginary universe of this young Italian artist, who was invited to show at the 50th Edition of the Biennale di Venezia in 2003 and Manifesta 3 in 2000. Perrone has also shown at international centres such as the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Fondazione Trussardi in Milan, the MART in Trento and PS1 in New York. Born in the northern Italian town of Asti in 1970, Perrone today lives and works between Asti and Berlin. His works and images do not tell a story but suggestively create and transmit the impending sense of history. His thoughts are translated into photographs, sculpture and virtual video animations in which the subtlety of irony and the weight of existential issue come together, like the passing of time and the precariousness of human life. His characters are never spectacular, as Perrone exposes the profound humanity of their personality, like with the digitally created and enhanced 3-D image of the legendary Italian actor and comedian Totò, which shows him weak, naked and fragile. Perrone confronts the elusiveness of space and time and undertakes mammoth tasks such as digging holes to capture the void or the construction of a bell. His work focuses on themes such as life, old age, death or the insignificance of man in the universe.A full colour, bilingual (Italian/English) catalogue has been produced and published by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo for the exhibition, featuring text by Francesco Bonami, Ilaria Bonacossa and Diego Perrone himself.Parallel to the show, Emanuela De Cecco also organised an event entitled Visioni in viaggio which includes an encounter with the artist as well as the projection of four films related to the main exhibition.
