In the story entitled The devil in the belfry written by Edgar Allan Poe, one of the most fascinating and grotesque authors from the nineteenth century, it is told of the sudden arrival of a strange creature that found refuge in the bell tower of the Vondervotteimittiss village. Only later, considering the reaction of the clocks that inexplicably attached themselves to the tails of the cats and pigs of the village, it was discovered that this being was a monster demolishing ancient orders. With the same daring visionary and bewitched madness, curator Marta Pellerini tackles the theme of the monstrous with the project You were kept awake all through the night, set up at the British School at Rome until June 21st 2024, where the works by Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher and Tura Oliveira are exhibited. Furthermore, with the aim of establishing a rich and constructive dialogue, also serving as a catalyst for artistic and cultural projects, the exhibition includes interesting participations of external collaborations and artists linked to study paths at the same institution.
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira, “You were kept awake all through the night”, curated by Marta Pellerini, installation view at British School at Rome, ph. credit Robert Apa, courtesy British School at Rome and the artists
In this context, it is certain that the theme of the monstrous is addressed with a strong critical lucidity by Pellerini, who, like the character in the story, is capable of unhinging normal orders, indulging in a dreamy and hallucinated design practice. In her ability to find a balance of inquiry and the correct research theme, the project turns out to be seemingly bare in manifest simplicity, instead unexpectedly opening singular critical insights. Thus, by proposing visually rough juxtapositions with truly dissimilar works, the curator ingeniously reverses the activity of a normal curatorial practice, that is, she works by dissociations and not by forced relationships. Thus, the artists in the exhibition must be analyzed independently, otherwise by contrast since the works on display are first and foremost exemplifying and identifying their personal research.
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira, “You were kept awake all through the night”, curated by Marta Pellerini, installation view at British School at Rome, ph. credit Robert Apa, courtesy British School at Rome and the artists
This is what happens with Dario Carratta, who through the depiction of inexplicable and seemingly negligible situations, anonymous as well as arcane, is dedicated to dealing with the mysterious, rather than the monstrous. For the artist, painting is the most natural language with which to express himself, experienced as a challenge to externalize what the lexicon does not normally allow to be formulated; each painting echoes bangs of grotesque surreality certainly stemming from a dreamlike underground. It is from such terrain that hallucinated chromatics, acidulous, iridescent tones gush forth and, although the works are sparse in detail, dilated reading times are necessary, prompting us to wonder where his visions find their origin. Differently, Aaron Ford turns out to be strongly influenced by the perceptual aspect by treating painting in the perimeter of a visual screen by deforming and crushing the subjects: the memory that inspires him is nothing but a reservoir of visions, in which form and color describe spaces for impressions. It is, in other words, a strongly balanced approach, where the fantastic, grotesque imaginary and the real mingle. Of particular interest among the works on display, which faithfully embraces the theme of the exhibition, is the one with the glass support, in which the shadow of an apparently damned soul, seems to be traced by fragments of smoke.
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira, “You were kept awake all through the night”, curated by Marta Pellerini, installation view at British School at Rome, ph. credit Robert Apa, courtesy British School at Rome and the artists
Tura Oliveira approaches the theme of the monstrous in a wholly experimental manner, using recycled materials and playing with drawing techniques on textiles she locates the delicate balance between the power of the iconography of the Magdalene from the Italian seventeenth century and its transgression. Severe and dry lines are drawn, moreover the absence of background and horizon emphasize the immobility of the figure, leading us to imagine an absurd and chilling narrative. Ginevra Collini in a completely unique way, presents a bizarre sculpture that is the result of a surreal exercise in framing and balancing distorted geometries. The work lying on the ground, as if it were a crawling insect or otherwise a succession of marching houses, traces the path of a sculpture that is object and place. Moreover, it stands out among all the proposals in the exhibition for the absence of colors, playing with transparency, probing and hybridizing different languages, Collini touches at the same time the issue of narrative and plastic, understood as an artifact created simultaneously with an action.
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira, “You were kept awake all through the night”, curated by Marta Pellerini, installation view at British School at Rome, ph. credit Robert Apa, courtesy British School at Rome and the artists
Kerstin Kartscher also presents a strongly visionary installation, both for not setting herself any limits about the materials and for interweaving studies carried out on the theme of dwelling and belonging. The result is a work characterized by an installation melting pot, a fusion of clotheslines, paper and awnings that manifest a plural and fluid identity, investigating the sense of adherence to a place. In fact, Kartscher intends to tell the story of an area and the period of one’s stay in the capital with an irrational language for bizarre and genuine simplicity. The plots of habit are broken, charged with new meanings, also with Eloise Fornieles, who presents a video in which the story of a lost voice is told, a miscellany of symbols, mysteries and fragments of memory. This way of acting is a combinatorial art in which experiments on her own kaleidoscopic and desecrating identity are collected with a visual dictionary of intimate behaviors.
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira, “You were kept awake all through the night”, curated by Marta Pellerini, installation view at British School at Rome, ph. credit Robert Apa, courtesy British School at Rome and the artists
What is on show gives space to the unreal rather than the monstrous, in fact each work exhibited is the result of a visionary curatorship, certainly unhinging the classical orders: the same inspiration that drove the clocks mad in the village of Vondervotteimittiss, where the care of things was entrusted to a rebellious spirit.
Info:
Dario Carratta, Ginevra Collini, Aaron Ford, Eloise Fornieles, Kerstin Kartscher, Tura Oliveira. You were kept awake all through the night
Curated by Marta Pellerini
British School at Rome, Via Antonio Gramsci, 61, 00197 Roma
17/05/2024 – 21/06/ 2024
From Monday to Friday from 3-7 pm
https://bsr.ac.uk/
Maria Vittoria Pinotti (1986, San Benedetto del Tronto) is an art historian, author, and independent critic. She currently is the coordinator of Claudio Abate’s photographic archive and Manager at Elena Bellantoni’s Studio. From 2016 to 2023 she was the Gallery Manager in a gallery in the historic center of Rome. She has worked with ministerial offices such as the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Culture and the Central State Archive. Currently, she collaborates with cultural sector magazines, focusing on in-depth thematic studies dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
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