THECA GALLERY | Via Tadino, 22 – Milano – 20124 | ITALY www

THECA GALLERY | Via Tadino, 22 – Milano – 20124 | ITALY
www.theca-art.com | [email protected] IT
Marco Mendeni (1979, Italia) è un artista visivo in instabile equilibrio tra Milano e Berlino, città in cui vive e lavora. Rappresentato
internazionalmente da Theca Gallery, Mendeni si forma all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Milano) prima in pittura e successivamente
in Nuove Tecnologie per l’arte. Virtualità e realtà, presenza e assenza, tradizione e innovazione sono alcune delle coppie
apparentemente antinomiche sulle quali si fonda la ricerca artistica condotta da Marco Mendeni. “Apparentemente”, poiché egli rimette
in gioco i valori "tradizionali" in un’azione di decostruzione e decodificazione della simulazione che, come afferma Matteo Bittanti, negli
scritti critici dedicati all’artista "rinuncia all’imperativo della rappresentazione per assumere nuove possibilità comunicative e dissimulanti". I lavori che Mendeni sviluppa spaziano così dall’etereo digitale dei machinima come “I am Niko Bellic” o “FOV02”, estratti
stranianti di videogiochi modificati attraverso la riscrittura del loro codice-genoma, alla matericità dell’opera su cemento delle serie
“SimCity” o “Google/search”. Le sue opere accostano e intrecciano in questo modo l’incorporeità delle costruzioni digitali alla fisicità dei
supporti e dei luoghi che le accolgono, facendo di questa dicotomia il vettore del loro potenziale significativo. Il lavoro di Marco Mendeni
è stato esposto a livello internazionale in diverse mostre, tra cui; Ende Tymes IV (New York U.S.A); Museo Pecci (Milano, Italia); Gamec
(Bergamo Italia); Team Titanic (Berlino, Germania); MIA The Armory Center for the Arts (California, U.S.A); FILE (San Paolo, Brasile);
Cultural Center of Novi Sad (Serbia); Athens SlingShot (Georgia, U.S.A); DigitalGraffiti ArtTechnology (Florida, U.S.A); Galleria Civica
(Campione d’Italia, Italia); MART (Trento, Italia); Games That People Play (Brusseles, Belgio); Museo Civico di Monfalcone (Gorizia,
Italia); Theca Gallery (Lugano, Svizzera + Milano, Italia).
EN
Marco Mendeni (1979, Italy) is a visual artist and he moves unstably between Milan and Berlin, cities where he is living and working at
the moment. Mendeni is internationally represented by Theca Gallery. He studied painting and New Art Technologies at Brera Academy
(Milan). His artistic research is based mostly on apparently antinomic pairs such as virtuality and reality, presence and absence,
tradition and innovation. This aspect of appearance is clear by bearing in mind that Mendeni puts into play again “traditional” values
through the deconstruction and decoding of simulation. Fittingly, as Matteo Bittanti states in his critic texts on the artist, “Mendeni
dismisses the imperative of the representation in order to take on new communicative prospects”. All the works realised by Mendeni
develop in two fields: digital process and solid substance, precisely concrete and plaster. The digital etherial aspect characterises the
machinima works, such as “I am Niko Bellic” and “FOV02”, both disturbing extracts from video games previously modified by the artist
by rewriting their genome code. Among the concrete works, “SimCity” and “Google/search” are to mention. Mendeni’s works of art
combine and mingle the immateriality of digital works to the substances of the supports and to the physical places that hold them. In so
doing, the dichotomy digital-material that characterises his whole work becomes the basic vector of its meaningful potential. Marco
Mendeni’s artwork has been internationally exposed in a number of shows, such as: Ende Tymes IV (New York U.S.A); Museo Pecci
(Milan, Italy); Gamec (Bergamo, Italy); Team Titanic (Berlin, Germany); MIA The Armory Center for the Arts (California, U.S.A); FILE
(San Paolo, Brazil); Cultural Center of Novi Sad (Serbia); Athens SlingShot (Georgia, U.S.A); DigitalGraffiti ArtTechnology (Florida,
U.S.A); Galleria Civica (Campione d’Italia, Italy); MART (Trento, Italy); Games That People Play (Brussels, Belgium); Museo Civico di
Monfalcone (Gorizia, Italy); Theca Gallery (Lugano, Switzerland + Milan, Italy).
MOSTRE PERSONALI | SOLO SHOWS
MARCO MENDENI: “r_lightTweakSunlight”, Auditorium S.Caterina, Foligno, 2015
MARCO MENDENI: “r_lightTweakSunlight ”, Live Cinema Festival, Roma, 2015
NO TITLE [that’s the way the cookie crumbles], Theca Gallery, Milan, Italy, 2015
Why not?, Azimut Milano with Theca Gallery, Milan, Italy, 2014
EXTRAORDINARY WORLD invasione sinestetica di Marco Mendeni, SPAZIO BARNUM, Bologna, Italy, 2014
r Light TweakSunlight Drone, VIDEO ART EXPERIMENTAL, Ende Tymes Festival, Brooklyn / New York, USA 2014
R lightTweakSunlight 01, DigitalGraffiti (Art Technology), Panama City Beach, Florida, USA 2014
Mendeni*Kalinka, GAMES THAT PEOPLE PLAY, OFF FAIR BRUXELLES, Theca Gallery Lugano, curated by Matteo Bittanti, 2014
Mendeni*Kalinka, Drome, [.Box] Milano with Theca Gallery Lugano, Switzerland, 2014
r_lightTweakSunlight, Spazio Ultra, curated by Chiara Moro and Stefano Monti, Udine, Italy, 2014
Deceptive Perceptions, Galleria Civica, Campione d’Italia, curated by Matteo Bittanti, Switzerland, 2013
Artificialia. Un mondo dis-simulato, Camera di Commercio dell’Uruguay Saronno, Theca Gallery, curated by Luca Avanzini, Italy, 2013
I’m not playing. (For hacked videogame and real-time sampler), [.BOX] Video Art Space, curated by Alessandra Arnò, Milan, Italy, 2013
I’m not Playing, RoBOt Festival, curated by Marcella Loconte, Bologna, Italy, 2013
File / Electronic Language International Festival, San Paolo, Brazil, 2013
SetUFOCam, Cultural National Institute, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2013
Kenell Game Over, Theca Gallery, curated by Andrea Carlo Alpini, Lugano, Switzerland, 2013
Evolution Life (video site-specific installation), Accessibile Art Fair Milan, curated by Andrea Carlo Alpini, Italy, 2013
MIA, The Armory Center of the Arts, curated by Alanna Simone, California, U.S.A., 2013
Athens Slingshot, Innovative Art and Technology, curated by Eric Mart, Athens, Georgia, U.S.A., 2013
I’m not playing for hacked videogame and real-time sampler (audiovisual performance), Altes Finanzamt, Berlin, Germany, 2013
FOV01 (audiovisual performance), Start-schuss, Berlin, Germany, 2013
Playing the game, Spazio O’ (main sponsors: Provincia di Milano, Camera di Commercio di Milano), curated by Paolo VJ Visualloop Branca,
Milan, Italy, 2012
Impossible Backgrounds (audiovisual performance), Sowieso, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Inside me, Pulsart Art Festival, curated by Anna Zerbaro Pezzin, Schio, Italy, 2012
RoBOt Festival, curated by Marcella Loconte and Federica Patti, Bologna, Italy, 2012
ZeroMap (video installation), AlexanderPlaz, Berlin, Germany, 2011
I am Niko Bellic (interactive installation), ATM project curated by Ezio Cuoghi, Milan, Italy, 2011
Game Over (video installation), Tacheles, Berlin, Germany, 2010
[Marco Mendeni | CV]
www.theca-art.com | [email protected] THECA GALLERY | Via Tadino, 22 – Milano – 20124 | ITALY
www.theca-art.com | [email protected] MOSTRE COLLETTIVE | GROUP SHOWS
B-Side & Rarities, Vilnius Art fair, Lithuania, presented by Theca Gallery Milano, 2015
No Place to Hide, curated by Martina Cavallarin and Stefano Monti, Galleria Civica di Monfalcone (Udine), Italy, 2015
27th Festival Les Instants Vidéo, r lightTweakSunlight Drone, Marseille, France, 2014
AUTFEST2014, languages of the unheard, Altes Finanzamt, Berlin, Germany, 2014
NEFest, International festival for experimental art, organised by the Bulgarian foundation NO Studio, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2014
ROBOT07, Digital paths into music and arts, curated by Federica Patti, Bologna, Italy, 2014
Teamtitanic#19, group show + live performing, Berlin, Germany 2014
FILE ELECTRONIC ART FESTIVAL, San Paolo, Brazil, 2014
FMK Festival (Pordenone), curated by Stefano Monti, Italy, 2014
VIDEO ART NIGHT, Fuori Festival, curated by Anna Pezzin, Pesaro-Urbino, Italy, 2014
PULSART Art FESTIVAL, Italy 2014
ICON {a short retrospective on contemporary iconography concept}, Buzzi, Mendeni, Kalinka, Theca Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland, 2014
Perduti nel paesaggio, Galleria Civica di Trento / MART curated by Giorgio Verzotti, Trento, Italy, 2014
Videoart night, Ca dei ricchi, Treviso, Italy, curated by Carlo Sala, 2014
Landshape, Spazio Ultra, curated by Chiara Moro and Stefano Monti, Udine, Italy, 2014
Voyage en Italie, Bergamo Art Fair, (curated by Theca Gallery Lugano), Italy, 2014
Palindrome #10, Teamtitanic, group show + live performing, Berlin, Germany 2013
PREMIO FRANCESCO FABBRI PER LE ARTI CONTEMPORANEE, Villa Brandolini (Treviso, Italy), curated by Carlo Sala, 2013
Never odd or even | Palindrome, Team Titanic Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2013
New Game Designer 2013, CTU Università degli Studi di Milano, curated by Debora Ferrari, Milan, Italy, 2013
NOVART Festival Digital Art, Nova Milanese, Italy, 2013
Green Box MoMa14 Tribute, Neoludica Game Art Gallery, curated by Debora Ferrari, Turin, Italy, 2013
A contribution to anonymous history, Fiera Arte Contemporanea Arte Accessibile 2013, Theca Gallery Lugano, Milan, Italy, 2013
GAME ART CAMP, Neoludica Game Art Gallery, curated by Debora Ferrari and Luca Traini, Monza, Italy, 2013
Carnem, Fabbrica del Vapore, curated by Care of Docva, Milano, Italy, 2013
Games Week Milano, Neoludica Game Art Gallery, curated by Debora Ferrari, Milan, Italy, 2012
Ti Racconto, curated by CRAC (Centro Ricerca Arte Contemporanea) and UnDo.net, Cremona, Italy, 2012
Galleria OltreDimore, curated by Marcella Loconte, Bologna, Italy, 2012
ArtExpò, Officine Mizar, Animafamily, Work’s in progress, curated by Lakasatasakapata, Pontecorvo, Italy, 2012
BYOB Milano, in collaboration with Museo Pecci Milano and Miart, curated by Domenico Quaranta, Milan, Italy, 2012
Statments, Galleria Federica Ghizzoni, curated by Ivan Quaroni and Barbara Nahmad, Milan, Italy, 2010
RICONOSCIMENTI | AWARDS
Finalist, PREMIO FRANCESCO FABBRI PER LE ARTI CONTEMPORANEE, Treviso, Italy, 2013
Winner of the 1° Buildingart award, GAMeC (Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea), Bergamo, Italy, 2009
Winner Video Arte MOVIN’UP 15° edition, sustainable mobility program for Italian artists around the world, Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Italy,
2013
[Marco Mendeni | CV]
www.theca-art.com | [email protected]