19.09 – 8.11.2008
Andrea Mastrovito – Nickelodeon
About one century ago the Hale’s Tours, fake train cars whose frontal walls were screens for the projection of an image of a locomotive in motion, were transformed into true movie theaters. This was the start of the first chain of modern cinemas: the Nickelodeons, a neologism formed by combining the word nickel, or the cost of a ticket, with Odeon, or “theater” in Greek.
For his second double solo show at 1000eventi and Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Andrea Mastrovito reinvents the spaces of the two galleries, transforming them into “nickel cinemas” where the material of cinema itself and the world of entertainment overturn the magic of the movie theater, activating a temporary suspension of disbelief in today’s viewer, who is overwhelmed by contemporary visual bombardment. The spectator is prompted to wonder about the effective genesis and reproducibility of the images presented.
Mastrovito has investigated the relationship between sign and image for some time now in the fields of painting, drawing, literature and the art system itself: examples of the results include his white-on-white collages, where the subject is legible only thanks to the shadows of the various layers of paper. Eine Symphonie des Grauens, shown in September at the Rome Quadriennale; Libraries are not made; they grow, where an entire library was photocopied and closed in a single large volume; the project at the gallery Analix Forever in Geneva, where the gallery was entirely photocopied and covered with photocopies; or Postmodem at the Galleria Civica of Monfalcone, where the works are inseparable from the paper structure specially created for the exhibition.
In these new works the artist concentrates on analysis of the relationships that exist among cinema, music and their means of reproduction and distribution: from magnetic tape to VHS or audio cassettes, posters to cover bands, to the particular-universal relationship that exists between each individual film frame and the shot as a whole, where fiction, shifted into the world of real things, becomes a tautological – and therefore real – copy of itself.
Andrea Mastrovito was born in Bergamo in 1978. He lives and works in Seriate (BG).
Solo shows: 2008 Black Bag – American Philosophy of Composition, Foley Gallery, New York; Project room, Pulse Fair, New York; Libraries are not made, they grow, Italian Academy of Columbia University, New York; L’Origine della specie, Galleria Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Florence; 2007 Millionnaire, Analix Forever, Geneva, Switzerland; Solo Show, for ArtBrussels, Palais des Exposition, Brussels; 2006 Post Modern, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Contemporanea di Monfalcone, Monfalcone (GO), curator A. Bruciati; In & Out of Life, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea and 1000eventi, Milan; 2005 Wild Beast Caged, Galleria Biagiotti Progetto Arte, Florence; Andrea Mastrovito – Stefano Arienti, Analix Forever, Geneva; 2003 Fear of the Dark, The Flat, Milan.
Main group shows: 2008 De rerum Natura, 1000 eventi gallery, Milan; -30: Pratiche pittoriche in Italia, Galleria d’arte moderna e contemporanea, San Marino; XV Quadriennale di Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Arrivi e partenze. Italia, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona; Bateau Ivre, Azienda Agricola Icario, Montepulciano (SI); 2007 Alberi d’artista, public project for GAMEC, Bergamo; Nessuna paura, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; Arcani Maggiori, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Apocalittici e integrati. Utopia nell’arte italiana di oggi, Maxxi, Rome; Volare, Galleria Corso Venezia Otto, Milan; La giovine Italia, Spazio d’Arte, Gambettola / Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna; 2006 Premio Cairo 2006, Palazzo della Permanente, Milan; Handsome, Analix Forever, Geneva; IM01, Galleria Comunale di Arte Contemporanea, Monfalcone (GO); ALLARMI 2, Caserma De Cristoforis, Como; Painting Codes.I codici della pittura, Galleria Comunale di Monfalcone (GO); 2005 Clip’ It, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin/British School at Rome, Rome / Gay Palace, Rotterdam; Teatro Pavone, Perugia; Prague Biennale 2, Karlin Hall, Prague; Con altri occhi, Palazzo della Regione, Milan; Beauty Not So Difficult, Palazzo delle Stelline, Milan; Senza dubbio! L’arte torna a scuola, for the 30th Art Biennial of Trissino, A. Fogazzaro middle school, Trissino (VI); Altri fantasmi, Ermanno Tedeschi Gallery, Gagliardi Art System, Galleria In Arco, Turin; Facce da ES, ES, Turin; Dodici pittori italiani. Dieci anni dopo, Galleria In Arco, Turin; 2004 Assab One, Ex Stabilimento Gea, Milan; The Black Album, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Fuori Uso- Storytelling, Ferrotel, Pescara; Play at Cirrus, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles; Questi fantasmi, 1000eventi, Milan; Senza freni, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
