Sculpture Exhibitions...

As part of my Sculpture 'homework' this week I had to visit some exhibitions around Milano~
Here are my observations/thoughts...

1. Centre Cultural Francais de Milan~ Aurelien Froment

This exhibition was held at the French Institute in Milano. As you entered the space you were faced with two projection spaces, that looked like inward boxes and a large hanging sculpture piece. In these box-like spaces there where two different projections, one with a floating jellyfish and the other with a strange paper machine.

The first piece, as you walked into the gallery was a video projecting a floating jellyfish. It was a perfect object; natural, floating like a ball of  smoke. It's presence completely took over the space, it was absoloutely electrical; a wonderful creature. But there was a strange voice over with this piece that I couldn't understand as it was in french so I didn't quite distinguish it's link to the piece...

Then at the back of the galley space was another box space, showing a video piece called 'The Fourdrinier Machine Interluede'...It was a very bizzare piece, the film was dragged accross the screen extremely slowely, appearing as though the machine was coming out of nothing, and to accompany it was a strange sound piece, that echoed the same rythmn of slowness. It felt like a massive projected process of the artwork...

Hanging sculpture pieces...

2. Peephole~ Pavel Buchler & Eva Spiliopoulou

The Peephole gallery was a very interesting venue because it was situated within a courtyard of flats. It meant that once I finally found it I had to buzz the gallery to be let in. I have found on my wanders that a lot of these artists run, non-profit spaces are situated in these very strange courtyards, and are  converted flats. Iam very interested in the roots behind these spaces and that the gallery has taken over a private space and turned it into a public one, it definitely gives a very different feel to the exhibition...

I really liked this exhibition as a sculptural piece of work. It had a very engaging physical presence and a very interesting visual play with the projected spheres. The projectors themselves had a great sculptural stance within the space, almost as standing people. When I looked up close to see how they had built the projection it was very interesting to see the relationship between the balls that were visible and the ones that were hidden within the projectors....

It definitely had a very playful and spontaneous approach, yet it is was obviously a process that had taken a lot of time and experimentation to work out the precision of where the circles meet, and how they relate to one another as shapes...

A really interesting exhibition with a great realtionship between the space and the objects within it...Like floating moon projections...

"NOTES FROM THE BOTTOM OF A BAG"- Pavel Buchler

TV's & Projections...

3. Zero~ Part of the Process  # 4

 The Inward Bench. 

This space was probabely my favourite gallery. It had a very intersting set out and good diversity of mediums. In the main exhibition space there were lots of different objects, all placed in relation to one another, and I thought it was very interesting from a curatorial view point. 

Zero is especially interesting because it is run by a collective, and therrefore doesn't embody just one presence. I feel this really enrichens the space because there are so many more creative minds behind it, and also because they work as a team. It was very evident just through the diversity of pieces and approach to the space...

"Mikhail Baryshnikov is the best dancer in the world...."

This was such a wonderful piece...As you wandered around the main exhibition space, you could hear the sound of this video piece coming through from this little darkened room...When I entered the I got a really strange feeling, like I had just walked into a socially awkward situation/world...

If I had to describe it as I saw it, it would just appear as a man repeating lots of different phrases, yet throughout his performance, the man keeps on looking at the director, behind the camera for his next acting directions, like he isn't sure about his performance, or what he's meant to be doing...its gives the whole piece a very interesting voyeuristic feel, it almost feels its like a rehearsal, rather than a final piece...

And there is also the odd world of video, when something is presented on screen it suddenly has a presence of importance, it takes an immediate stance...But the weird thing is that the man is so unsure of what he saying, so it completely breaks that notion-it presents the strange boundaries of acting & reality...very weird yet so watchable. There is such a wonderful natural rhythm of the words, there is something so human about his presence on screen...

I really liked this space. It is definitely somewhere I will re-visit  in the future and look forward to seeing what other art works they exhibit and how they use the space...