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MAT COLLISHAW at Galleria Borghese Curated by Anna Coliva and Valentina Ciarallo

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MAT COLLISHAW at Galleria Borghese Curated by Anna Coliva and Valentina Ciarallo BLACK MIRROR – MAT COLLISHAW at Galleria Borghese Curated by Anna Coliva and Valentina Ciarallo. The Special Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Museum of the City of Rome under the direction of Daniela Porro, and the Galleria Borghese, under the direction of Anna Coliva, are thrilled to present Mat Collishaw’s exhibition titled Black Mirror at the Galleria Borghese, from October 8, 2014 through January 11, 2015. Galleria Borghese, a museum of worldwide renown, fuses contemporary art with its historic collection in an ambitious new exhibition by Mat Collishaw. Black Mirror is comprised of four works that respond to Galleria Borghese’s existing collection. Three paintings by Caravaggio (Madonna and Child with St. Anne - Dei Palafrenieri, David with the Head of Goliath, Saint Jerome Writing) appear and disappear behind the surfaces of large mirrors framed in black Murano glass. The figures are animated to appear as though posing for the painting; breathing, blinking and shifting their weight in front of us. Everyday people caught in the process of being transformed into religious icons, trapped like spectres in an indeterminate space between the real world and the realm of the painting. The Massacre of the Innocents by Ippolito Scarsella is referenced by a fourth work on the ground floor of the museum. Here the depiction of frenzied violence is exaggerated and restaged in the compelling form of a three dimensional zoetrope – a contemporary version of a victorian optical toy. The zoetrope enhances this cornucopia of savagery with multiple characters in a heaving mass of kaleidoscopic brutality. Playing out horrific acts, they too are forever trapped in a frenzied purgatory of interminable violence. The exhibition is organized by 1/9unosunove, a private gallery located in Palazzo Santa Croce, an elegant XVII century building in the historical centre of Rome. The focus of the gallery, since its inception in 2005 by Fabio Ianniello, has always been the promotion and support of young and international contemporary art in all its different languages (painting, sculpture, video, installation) through exhibitions in the gallery space and also important events and shows in institutional and museum spaces. A documentary film about the show is also being produced by the British Council., partner of the exhibition. The film is conceived to be more than a simple documentary but a fascinating journey of reflection made with and about the artist and his work, captured through the talented eye of Elisa Fuksas, a rising star in Italian filmmaking and produced by Cecile Leroy via her production company Person Films. The exhibition is part of the programme for Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The artist Mat Collishaw (1966, Nottingham) lives and works in London. After graduating from Goldsmiths' College in London in 1989, Collishaw quickly stood up as one of the key figures of the group known as the Young British Artists. The artist participated in some of the most important international exhibitions like Freeze in 1988 (where he exhibited his best known work Bullet Hole) and Sensation in 1997, and his work is now part of prestigious public collections including the Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Mat Collishaw has been always fascinated by the way in which the figurative language can subliminally affect the observer, and a personal vision can contradict the presumed objectivity of the image. Experimenting different media such as photography, sculpture, video and environmental installations, the artist creates works that powerfully magnetize the viewer's attention, overwhelming him/her with a storm of sublime feelings of attraction and repulsion, fascination and disgust. Mat Collishaw’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo shows around the world, including: Mat Collishaw: The Yielding Glass, An Gailearaí, Ghaoth Dobhair, Londonderry (2014), Mat Collishaw, Bass Museum of Art, Florida, US(2013), Mat Collishaw, Pino Pascali Museum Foundation, Bari (2013), Mat Collishaw: Afterimage, Arter, Istanbul (2013), Magic Lantern, Victoria & Albert Museum, London (2010), Retrospectre, British Film Institute, London (2010). Recent group exhibitions include: Corporeality and Sexuality, Votive Church, Vienna (2014), GLASSTRESS: White Light/White Heat, collateral Event of 55th Venice Biennale, Venice (2013), Freedom Not Genius (curated by Elena Geuna), Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin (2012), 720°, as part of Ron Arad’s Curtain Call Project, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2012), Out of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London (2012), 12th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul (2011). PRESS OFFICES The Special Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Museum of the City of Rome Anna Loreta Valerio e Davide Latella [email protected] Black Mirror exhibition Erica Prous – Head of communication and national press office [email protected] - + 39 347 12 00 420 Flaminia Casucci e Allegra Seganti – press office Rome [email protected] - +39 339 49 53 676 [email protected] - +39 335 53 62 856 INTRODUCTION by Valentina Ciarallo Mat Collishaw, christened Matthew, has always imagined provocative scenes in which good and evil, the sacred and the profane, love and violence attract and repel in an ambiguous atmosphere whose tones are at times fairytale-like, at other times, spectre-like, hovering on the border between reality and fiction. Images which seduce and disturb at the same time, entrancing the onlooker in a compelling loop. Who can forget one of his early works, Bullet Hole (1988), an explosive photographic work which brought us a close up view of a bullet wound in a human skull? An image which was technically impeccable, intensely eloquent but just as equally repellent. Collishaw’s intention is indeed to provoke, but also to persuade the viewer to grapple with the poetry in that which could be considered unpleasant, obscure or quite simply real. “My intention is to make the subject interesting, there to be analyzed in either a traditional or transgressive manner”. Having played a leading role in both the Young British Artist group and transgressive art shows – from Freeze (1988) set up in the Surrey Docks in London, to Modern Medicine (1990) by Damien Hirst and Carl Freedman presented in Building One, a former biscuit factory in London, to Sensation, the scandalous and impressive show of a new generation artists of the Saatchi Collection which was set up in the historic rooms of the Royal Academy of Art (1988), Collishaw continues to be a key figure on the international arts scene. Amongst his better-known works is the light box Children of a Lesser God (2007), based on the myth of Romulus and Remus, which shows two babies raised by wild dogs, immortalised in the intimacy of a mother-child relationship set in an ambivalent context of history and haphazard modernity. To give life to his vision, Mat creates detailed sets where the protagonists, be they animals or people, insects or children, orchids or sacred images, appear to be suspended in a state oscillating between reality and imagination. Whether through video, photography, light boxes or technologically advanced installations, the artist elaborates images which are rich in historical references ranging from classical to Gothic to Baroque art. Gazing upon his works is like crossing the threshold of the real world and entering into a dream containing the occasional gruesome twist. No matter how much the onlooker is disturbed by the artist’s compositions, there is a magnetic attraction to the works which holds his gaze. Collishaw’s research is focused on the transient condition of existence and a sense of precariousness. The photographic series Insecticide (2009), inspired by the theme of still life, shows the decaying body of a moth as if it were a memento mori. A close up at the instant of death, captured in the sharpness of the image with a raw aesthetic and supremely effective in the precision of its details and richness of its colours. All frozen in a poetic vision. For the Black Mirror show, with a highly-technical language, Collishaw creates the stage for a provocation which plays on the relationship between the work of art itself, its container and the public. The artist has already engaged with a historic space, the first time in Rome in the SPIRIT project at the Complesso Monumentale Santo Spirito in Sassia (2010) where, through a series of hypnotic projections, the suffering of man and the drama of existence is represented. The artist dares to interact with the spaces and the works of the Galleria Borghese, introducing the public to a new visionary experience. "The Massacre of the Innocents" a theme of many well-known paintings , is used in this case for a large zoetrope, the mechanical device offering the gaze a spectacular three- dimensionality. With the paintings La Madonna dei Palafreneri (Madonna and Child with St. Anne), Davide con la testa di Golia (David with the Head of Goliath ) and San Gerolamo (Saint Jerome) by Caravaggio, Collishaw animates each image with subtle movements , highlighting the dramatic naturalism of the great master . Accepting the risks of such a delicate operation, Mat Collishaw manages to bring to life these historic works of art for our contemporary eyes. TECHNICAL INFORMATION Title Black Mirror – Mat Collishaw Organizer 1/9unosunove Location Rome, Galleria Borghese
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