portfolio - Giorgio Guidi

GIORGIO GUIDI
Giorgio Guidi
Statement
How are interpersonal relationships shaped? Who determines the paths that spontaneously
emerge around an individual, and how do they influence the immediate surroundings? What does
it mean to adapt to a human environment?
By combining a meticulous scientific approach with a poetic filter, in a process of metabolic acquisition, I set to examine the adaptive evolution in such human environments: it’s an analysis of
everything, dead or alive, animate or inanimate, spiritual, abstract or concrete; and of those fragments of relationships that remain somehow glued to my personal history. I develop work following
a process of memory loss.
My practice goes beyond objective and measurable data, it stresses the importance of the process
of careful contamination. Like a stratigraphic excavation, I gather and document the information of
a certain place, also in relation to the human activities occurring in that environment, evaluate and
interpret the different reading levels that constitute society, critically deconstructing the only apparently irrational logic behind communication. Through a complex, delicate operation of merging
elements of folklore and symbolic imagery belonging to cultural and emotional histories, I aim to
stimulate a certain criticism on the image-centered culture we are immersed in, and also to build a
filter towards some aesthetic and, consequently, social change
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Giorgio Guidi
SELECTED WORKS
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Giorgio Guidi
The Rotten Calf, 2015
Ceramic, wood, steel. - cm 125x140x150
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Giorgio Guidi
The Rotten Calf, 2015 (detail)
Ceramic, wood, steel. - cm 125x140x150
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Giorgio Guidi
The Rotten Calf, 2015 (detail)
Ceramic, wood, steel. - cm 125x140x150
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Giorgio Guidi
The Rotten Calf
The weight of an image is a constant that functions as a vehicle used to transmit ideology.
The deconstruction of an image is a process of interrogating the underlying
meaning of it.
This work is a virtual reconnaissance of everything that surrounded me during
the time I spent in Las Vegas. I meditated on the failure of modernism, the
surpassing of post-modernism and how to relate them to a situation of constant
present, where the gaudiness of the touristic part of the city clashes with the
suburban land that seems to live in an imposed dream of geographical identity.
Through the de-idolization of a symbol I try to stimulate criticism in the viewers’
mind. I also aim to conceptualize preconditioned roles and relationships to fill
emotionally ambiguous gaps.
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Giorgio Guidi
Memories Of A Cut-Off Hand, 2013
plaster lace wood, spray colors - cm 125 x 125 x 5 (each panel)
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Giorgio Guidi
Memories Of A Cut-Off Hand, 2013 -#11 and #12
plaster lace wood, spray colors - cm 125 x 125 x 5 (each)
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Giorgio Guidi
Memories Of A Cut-Off Hand, 2013 -#02 and #08
plaster lace wood, spray colors - cm 125 x 125 x 5 (each)
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Giorgio Guidi
Memories Of A Cut-Off Hand, 2013 -#13 And #09
plaster lace wood, spray colors - cm 125 x 125 x 5 (each)
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Giorgio Guidi
Memories Of A Cut-Off Hand, 2013
What is time? Which memories remain and which ones get erased from the
constant overwriting of informations that hit the human brain second by second?
How many things happen simultaneously?
This work is about an introspective and self biographical path, where different
elements that belong to my research are turned into plaster and lace overlays.
It could be seen as an intimate performing act that occurs only between the
viewer and the work itself. The exchange happens following a glass hour
shaped interaction.
My hand is the last physical element that touched the surface of each detail as
much as the viewer’s eye, is going to be the first sense that will approach the
work.
My invitation is to take the time to experience a travel through symbols and images in complete freedom.
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggi (Messages) 2012 - 2013 (group of six scultures)
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax.
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #1: “I bei tempi non ci sono mai stati”, 2012 (Good times have never existed)
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax, cm 100x40x30
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #1: “I Bei Tempi Non Ci Sono Mai Stati” (Detail)
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #2: “Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt”, 2013
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax, cm 100x40x30
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #3: “Il Pianeta Sta Bene, È La Gente Che È Fottuta”, 2013 (The Planet Is Fine, People Are Fucked)
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax, cm 100x40x30
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #4: “La Coscienza È Una Variabile Culturale.”, 2013 (Social Responsibility Is Directly Linked To Culture)
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax, cm 100x40x30
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggio #5: “Qualsiasi Ritorno All’ordine È Illusorio”, 2013 (The Biggest Illusion Is The Return Of An Order)
Plaster, fabrics, silver, laces, brass, clay, wood, foam, hemp, spray paint, patina, wax, cm 100x40x30
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Giorgio Guidi
Messaggi (Messages)
2012 - 2013
Esiste una sconfitta
pari al essere corroso,
che non ho scelto io
ma è dell’epoca in cui vivo
-There is a defeat
that equals to be corroded.
I didn’t chose it,
but it belongs to the era I live in.
Morire, To die. CCCP - 1985.
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Giorgio Guidi
Don’t Do It, 2013 - Stage for a Performance.
wood, lace, marble, marker, disco ball. cm 160x300x120 (approx)
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Giorgio Guidi
Don’t Do It, 2013 - Live performance at Fama Gallery, Verona IT.
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Giorgio Guidi
Don’t Do It, 2013 - Live performance at Fama Gallery, Verona IT.
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Giorgio Guidi
Don’t Do It.
Live performance at Fama Gallery, Verona IT 2013
While Memories of a cut-off hand talks about the procrastination of time based on
a path built on images more or less recognizable, this work and the performance
directly related to it, speak about how many things can happen simultaneously
and get obviously lost when trying to put them together.
The shape of the piece used as a stage is inspired by the shape of a basilica.
The basilica, born under the Roman empire, used to be a public building located
in the main square of a town – the center of the community life. During the centu-
ries, this kind of building, has been used for different purposes assuming different
meanings, but it has always maintained its precise conceptual structure: the subdivision of the spaces inside it, recalls the importance of the roles that people play
inside it.
In few words, the way it is structured, represents hierarchy and power in a very
clear way. The interesting fact is that during the growth of “human civilization”, the
word basilica and therefore the building itself, has lost its neutral function, and it
has become only applied (in common language) to the religious world.
The velocity of a thought stimulated by the view of something recognizable, makes
us skip the process of thinking itself.
Indeed an “image” - that communicates something - eases the development of
quick and arbitrary solutions, in contrast with a critical and analytical mind set. This
is what this work is about.
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Giorgio Guidi
Is It Just A Matter Of Opinion? 2011
graphite on wood, wood, iron, fabrics cm 250x200x120
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Giorgio Guidi
Is It Just A Matter Of Opinion? 2011 (detail)
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Giorgio Guidi
Is It Just A Matter Of Opinion? 2011 (detail)
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Giorgio Guidi
Is It Just A Matter Of Opinion?
The process of completely setting free human spirit is inher-
ently a problematic one, as it causes an unmanageable leakage
of both positive and negative elements constituting human nature
itself.
This piece was created at Fondazione Spinola Banna during a
workshop held by Liliana Moro.
Its starting point is a stratigraphic observation of the space/place:
the work developed from reflections on its architecture, but also
on those sets of relationships developed within the estate. It also
resonates Herzog’s film Auch Zwerge haben klein angefangen
(1970), screened during the workshop.
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Giorgio Guidi
Skull , 2011
musical instruments, plaster, laces, wood, foam, fur. Approx cm 400x400x280
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Giorgio Guidi
Skull , 2011 (detail)
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Giorgio Guidi
Skull , 2011 (details)
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Giorgio Guidi
The Tiger And The Bone, live performance c/o VIR, Viafarini-In-Residence, Milano 2011
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Giorgio Guidi
Skull
Is it possible to get rid of prejudice?
In this work I used a highly fashionable and easy to recognize image to make the
point about how easy it is to get to a conclusion without thinking.
When I designed this work, I was reading about one of the oldest types of surgeries in human history, common to a number of populations across the world: cranial
trepanation. Historically, the surgical tools associated with this procedure were
disguised, in order not to frighten the patient.
The installation is composed of a raised monumental sculpture of a skull, constructed in lace and plaster, and a series of disguised – but still working – musical
instruments reminiscent of bones.
The installation was used as a stage for a musical performance
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Giorgio Guidi
The Only Person Left On The Island Was Me, 2011
paint, wood, plaster, laces, fabrics, loudspeakers. cm 320 x 320 x 430
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Giorgio Guidi
The Only Person Left On The Island Was Me, 2011
paint, wood, plaster, laces, fabrics, loudspeakers. cm 320 x 320 x 430
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Giorgio Guidi
The Only Person Left On The Island Was Me - Live performance @ UGM Maribor , Slovenia 2012
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Giorgio Guidi
The Only Person Left On The Island Was Me - Live performance @ UGM Maribor , Slovenia 2012
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Giorgio Guidi
The only person left on the island was me.
Installation and performance, UGM - Maribor, 2011-2012.
Text by Paola Gallio
This is how I write:
I read the texts that come with the projects, I watch the images and waste some time thinking on symbols that
are turned into elements of communication; I drink coffee and listen to the music.
Giorgio’s work is always close to my idea of music.
It’s only when I lose myself in someone else, that I find myself, I find myself.
The first words of this cult song from the 90s, synthetize the discussion on the relationship between object and
human being, deeply discussed in contemporary philosophy; as usual, nothing more left to say.
So, Giorgio’s work basically goes through this path.
Have you ever tried to imagine a world made just by objects? Well, this is what exactly represents the human illusion of perfection, rationalism and structuralism; it somehow returns to the deep divine presence mixed with the
gift of creativity, but without strong and barely controllable emotions: the reality of the object itself is the projection of its unuseful attachment.
It’s known that art produces objects, but in this case it goes far away from Morris’ utopia, because it’s tainted
again with humanity.
On the way of return, the object plays a short-circuit game, turning back into the emotional sphere, falling to its
bare perfection and working as a memory remain, based on artist’s memory layers. So, even if Giorgio’s works
are based on recognizable shapes, they’re moved into a new context to magnify his memory and drive everything
into abstraction.
In this way objects and human beings totally lose themselves into each other.
It’s only when I lose myself in someone else, that I find myself, I find myself.
(Paola Gallio is an independent curator, based in Brooklyn, NY. She is cofounder of the project short-show and short-visit. Info
at www.shortvisit.it)
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Giorgio Guidi
South of Heaven , 2012 (realized c/o LMCC center for the arts on governors island, during LMCC Swing Space, New York, NY)
plaster, laces, wood, foam, clay, wax, pigments. whole installation cm 500x500x330
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Giorgio Guidi
South of Heaven , 2012 (details)
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Giorgio Guidi
South of Heaven, 2012
Project realized @ LMCC SWING SPACE,(NY) March - July 2012, with Marta Pierobon
as part of a collaborative project called DRAOK.
This project is based on a parallel that came out by relating Governors Island –
where the residency program took place – located south of Manhattan, with the
concept of the kingdom of the dead (Hades) according to classical mythology.
Hades was seen as a physical place surrounded by a huge river; the only access
was through the ferry of Charon, a mythological figure whose task was to carry the
souls of the dead on the other side of the river.
Similarly, Governors Island is a mysterious island, with restricted access, and accessible only by a small ferry. Therefore the daily journey, the time needed to get
on the island, Manhattan itself seen from a place that embodies its historical roots,
but gives back only “out-of-focus memories”, are some of the elements that from
both a narrative and emotional point of view allowed us to work in this direction.
Once the viewer enters the space finds himself immersed in a scene, a real stage
where the actors and the props are embodied in the sculptures that we produced:
it’s a mysterious place, a still frame of a redundant story.
A sound track composed for the occasion plays in loop.
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Giorgio Guidi
Tamburo, 2009
wood, iron, leather, lace, plastic. cm 170 x 400 x 150
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Giorgio Guidi
Tamburo, 2009 (details)
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Giorgio Guidi
Tamburo, 2009 - Live performance @ CareOf/Viafarini, Docva.
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Giorgio Guidi
Tamburo
The Ideal City
This work was triggered by the news of a demolition order affecting a couple of large building blocks in the outskirts of Brescia, the city where I grew
up. The location described through the work is a building complex realized
in the sixties that was supposed to be an ideal city where everything was
designed in favor of facilitating the life of the attendants. Useless to say
that the tentative failed.
Long conversations with people who were still living there at the time when
the news came out, made me ponder on their life expectations in a moment that was tragic for them, but was supposed to be positive for the wider community, and was seen as a necessary step for the redevelopment of
a poor area. A question that quickly came to my mind was if it is possible to
design people’s life to better fit the desire of a community.
Every object was reminiscent of a relationship between people in the block,
and the moment of mass-move to another place transformed the furniture of those houses in some kind of caravan procession, accompanied by
drumbeats pounding like that dynamite that was to tear down the buildings.
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Giorgio Guidi
The dessert, 2009
ceramics, handmade lace, wood, leather, iron; cm 60 x 60 x 65
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Giorgio Guidi
The dessert, 2009
(detail)
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Giorgio Guidi
The Dessert
In this work, I considered, the mutation of the idea of violence within the Italian context of the last century. People used to mix the
blood of an animal for the preparing of a dessert. The result of an
action full of violence was seen as a moment of familiar joy.
So I tried to put together both cultural memory and relationships
connected with the making of this cake.
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Giorgio Guidi
DRAWINGS
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Giorgio Guidi
Primal Morphing (The failure of communication and the extinction of unsustainable creatures) #1, 2015
marker on hand engraved paper, 21,6 x 27,9 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Primal Morphing (The failure of communication and the extinction of unsustainable creatures) #2, 2015
marker on hand engraved paper, 21,6 x 27,9 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Primal Morphing (The failure of communication and the extinction of unsustainable creatures) #3, 2015
marker on hand engraved paper, 21,6 x 27,9 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Primal Morphing (The failure of communication and the extinction of unsustainable creatures) #4, 2015
marker on hand engraved paper, 21,6 x 27,9 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Primal Morphing
(The failure of communication and the extinction of unsustainable creatures)
In my practice, making new drawings is like writing a new manifesto. Is the
poetic version of an insurrectional writing piece. Big changes in the market,
decision taken by corporations, lobbies, the food industry, petrol war, inter-
est rates, the growing wealth gap, are just few of the massive information that
we receive every day through the media as part of the daily debate on what’s
wrong with our society. But what do we know for real? What do I know? Is my
opinion necessary? Are the amount of filters through which a news go able to
maintain it clear and let it be delivered as it is? Who takes decisions and how
does it affect our personal life? In all of this, what I like to do is to think about
dinosaurs. Huge beasts that, for what I know, could have been neon purple.
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Giorgio Guidi
Invenzioni Umane #09, 2013
inks on paper, 20 x 30 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Invenzioni Umane #12, 2013
inks on paper, 20 x 30 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
invenzioni umane #14, 2013
inks on paper, 20 x 30 cm
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Giorgio Guidi
Invenzioni Umane (Human inventions)
Sometimes I need to stop myself for a moment just to recollect all the elements
that compose my work.
Invenzioni Umane is my way to underline the presence of constant overlays, falling structures that I perceive by observing our contemporary society, or just the
way I like to describe it.
Every element takes into consideration parts of my personal story, and the ambient I belong to.
This series of drawings, must be seen as my personal sketch book, something
looks more interesting, something more detailed and something is not immediately comprehensible.
Well, what I think is that every one of this drawings, could be the starting point for
a new project.
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#2 Flowers Monsters, 2011
marker pen and gouache on plaster and wood. cm 60 x 40
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#7, Jellyfish, 2011
marker pen, gouache and plaster on plasterboard. cm 210 x 140
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#1, Vegetable Monsters, 2011
marker pen, gouache and plaster on plasterboard. cm 30 x 40
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#3, Phoenix, 2011
marker pen, gouache and plaster on plasterboard. cm 60 x 90
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#0, 2010
marker pen, gouache and plaster on fabrics. cm 160 x 160
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Giorgio Guidi
I Tre Punti#4, Owl, 2011
marker pen, gouache and plaster on carpet and wood. cm 140 x 180
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Giorgio Guidi
I tre Punti (the three dots)
This work was possible after an accurate study of the drawings by
Ulisse Aldrovandi, a 16th century Italian naturalist who drew every form of life
on the planet, whether it was an animal, a vegetal, or a human. As he could
not directly see all the species on earth, many of his drawings are based on
suppositions or myths, at a time where drawing was one the most accessible
medium of communication and an authoritative portrayal of reality.
I think that it’s very interesting how sometimes this non scientific attitude has
remained the same in our contemporary media.
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Giorgio Guidi
Curriculum vitae
Giorgio Guidi, born in 1982.
_Studies
2006
BA degree, Fine Arts Academy of Carrara, Italy
_Solo shows
2013
Grit, Fama Gallery, Verona, curated by Matteo Pollini (IT)
2012
Draok - Krypta, Soloway, New York City (NY)
2010
Short-Visit, Milano, curated by Paola Gallio and Davide Tomaiuolo (IT)
_Selected group shows
2014
Beautiful Life, PAUL NACHE Gallery, Auckland (NZ)
Un Rumore Bianco, ASSAB ONE, Milano curated by Andrea Bruciati (IT)
Scenari di Terra, MART Museum Rovereto, curated by Veronica Caciolli, Daniela Ferrari, Denis Isaia, Paola Pettenella,
Alessandra Tiddia (IT)
London Biennale Pollination in Las Vegas, curated by David Medalla, Matthew Couper, Jevijoe Vitung (NV)
2013
XXII, Spazio Morris, Milano (IT)
2012
Exhibiting Museums, Artissima 2012, Torino (IT)
NIE DIEU NIE MATRE, Massimo de Luca Gallery, Venice (IT)
Falansterio, Casabianca, Bologna, curated by Anteo Radovan (IT)
LUCIE FONTAINE : ESTATE, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (NY)
Bazaar, Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn (NY)
Akyioshi, Draok, Woo, Illuminated Metropolis Gallery, New York (NY)
LACUNE. Spazi di archeologia ed arte contemporanea, Museo archeologico Eno Bellis, Oderzo TV, Curated by L. Lanteri
(IT)
Mostra Workshop 2010-2011, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, curated by Stefano Coletto (IT)
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Giorgio Guidi
2011
Lords of the dirt, UGM, Maribor (SI)
Yearly exhibition, Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Poirino TO (IT)
No-made, L’art contemporain et la còte azur, Cape d’ail, (FR)
MBS, Morris by summer, La Polverosa GR, (IT)
Nuova creatività italiana, Officina Bergamasca, ALT, Alzano Lombardo BG, (IT)
Officina italia, Bologna, curated by Renato Barilli, (IT)
Il ramo d’oro, Udine, curated by Andrea Bruciati and Eva Comuzzi, (IT)
2010
Route tournante en sous bois, Upload art project, Trento, curated by Silvia Conta, (IT)
Festa mobile, Bologna, curated by Davide Ferri and Antonio Grulli, (IT)
There is no place like home, Milano, curated by Francesca Chiacchio, (IT)
2009
Il raccolto d’autunno è stato abbondante, Careof & Viafarini/Docva, Milano, curated by Chiara Agnello and Milovan
Farronato, (IT)
Intorno al centro, Brescia, curated by Guido Molinari, (IT)
_Workshops and Residencies
2012
Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Poirino (Torino), curatorial workshop 2012, visiting professor Andrea Viliani, (IT)
LMCC Lower Manhattan Cultural Cocuncil, Swing Space artist residency, New York (NY)
2011
Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Poirino (Torino), curatorial workshop 2011, visiting professor Andrea Viliani, (IT)
VIR – Viafarini in residence, Viafarini, Milano, (IT)
2010
Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Poirino (Torino), autumn workshop, visiting professor Liliana Moro, (IT)
_Special projects and prizes
2014
Zap! 6, Public art contest, Las Vegas, (NV)
2012
Art in General, Artist Welcoming Comittee, New York City (NY)
2011
Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte, Poirino (Torino), final exhibition grant, (IT)
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Giorgio Guidi
2010
No soul for Sale festival, Tate Modern, selected by DOCVA, London (UK).
2009
AACA Athens, project and residency, invitation by Antonio Grulli, Athens (GR).
_Collaborations
2010
Draok Group with artist Marta Pierobon.
_Selected Press Review
Cogoni F. (2013), GIORGIO GUIDI :: STUDIO VISIT, Drome Magazine Online, Jan 2013
Perra D. (2012), “20 talents by Kult”, Kult Magazine #8, October 2012
Tagliafierro M. (2012), “Hypermediatic Composition”, Victor Magazine #4, June 2012
Tagliafierro M. (2012), “Draok”, e motus, Flashartonline.it, interview 2012
On-verge (2012), “Krypta”, on-verge alternative art criticism, review, 2012
Cravero C. (2011), “More than a yearly exhibition”, Artibune.com, oct 2011.
Carnevale R. (2011), “Oltre la realtà, l’imprevisto come opera d’arte”, Espoarte #70, april-may 2011.
Perra D. (2011), “Talent Hunter”, Exibart#70, dec-jan 2011.
Bruciati A. (2010), “Ritratto dell’artista da giovane, una nuova generazione di artisti italiani”, Flash Art Italia#289 dec–
jan 2011.
Molinari G. (2010),“Punti di equilibrio”, Flash art Italia#281, march 2010.
Casavecchia B. (2009), “I giovani artisti crescono e il docva è la loro vetrina”, La Repubblica, november 12th 2009.
Farronato M. (2009), “Nuovi Nuovi Nuovi”, Exibart #61, nov-dec 2009.
_Contact details
mobile:
e-mail: web site:
+1 347 896 38 70
[email protected]
www.giorgioguidi.com
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