„The site-specific installation is an OSANNA(!) (hosanna) – as explained in the critical text edited by the curators of Balloon Project, a research platform that deals with contemporary visual culture since 2012 – that is generated, evolves and it is transformed into something else thanks to the succession of repeated actions that create an uncontrolled and unpredictable change.
OSANNA(!) recalls symbols, hierarchies and actions typical of religious ceremonies. If the officiant and the faithful did not take part in the liturgy, each fulfilling his or her task, this would not exist, likewise, if there were not the artist, the curator, the public, the mutation desired by Barchitta would not be realized.
Barchitta, with blue and white salt, draws on the floor a geometric pattern obliged by the architectural conformation of spazioSERRA. At the center we can read “vorrei ci fosse una frase ad effetto, ma non ne valeva la pena, è già altro” (I wish there was a sentence with effect, but it wasn’t worth it, it’s already something else): a tautology, a denial of itself from the first appearance.
A plant automaton will wander through the space until energetic exhaustion, mixing colors, deforming the design, destroying the sentence, through various performative actions.
Alessio Barchitta, OSANNA(!), 2021, Exhibition view 
Alessio Barchitta’s research questions the contemporary art system in a constant diatribe between causality/chance, legitimation/authenticity, thus triggering short circuits between the work, the author and the public. The work is created by itself, in favor of the show, so who is the subject/object of this installation: the action, the artist, the curator, the space, the viewer?
Excerpt from OSANNA(!) – critical text by Balloon Project
Dear audience, what will you bring with you of this mutant veneration?
Returning to the meanings of OSANNA(!), if the destruction of the drawing has aroused your bewilderment and you have tried to give it meaning after his death, you can say that you have participated in the exhibition as a faithful, that you have contributed to the salvation, to the resurrection of the work in you. In fact, if the aesthetic experience is understood as αἴσθησις that is „ability to feel“ or „sensitivity“ you will have lived the work as a personal experience, albeit perturbing and traumatic. On the contrary, if you have not perceived the trauma, your experience will have been anesthetic, and you will have participated in the exhibition as a spectator, contributing to the further celebration of the art system. Finally, do not worry about what you have or have not tried, in any case it is already something else…
Alessio Barchitta (Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, 1991) In 2010 he moved to Milan where he began his studies at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts which ended in 2017 with a second level academic degree in Visual Arts, specializing in painting. His research pays particular attention to sculpture but does not exclude any media, each project is developed with materials and means more suitable for the purpose in relation to contrasting themes such as: public/private – tragic/comic – stability/transience.
spazioSERRA is part of Artepassante project, a program for the regeneration of metropolitan spaces lead by Le Belle Arti Association in collaboration with RFI and with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan and the Lombardy Region. SERRA is a non-profit exhibition space that was created with the aim of enhancing the Milan area through the work of emerging artists, in a place, the suburban one, not dedicated to art, where art becomes an accident. The realization of the exhibition has been possible thanks to: Gianfrancesco Aurecchia, management and implementation of the website; Silvia Biondo, press office and public relations; Virginia Dal Magro, administration and venue management; Angelo Di Matteo, layout design and technical support; Massimiliano Fantò and Giacomo Lambrugo, social and communication strategy; Nicolas North, management and maintenance of digital services; Cristiano Rizzo, photography; Valentina Toccaceli, graphic design.
Balloon Project is a study and research platform in the field of contemporary visual culture active since 2012. It promotes and disseminates the visual arts through independent curating, communication and micro-publishing projects. It also deals with design, fashion, music, intermediary projects, always maintaining a transversal and dialogic approach. The realization of the critical apparatus of this exhibition has been possible thanks to: Valentina Barbagallo, Bianca Basile, Giuseppe Mendolia Calella, Laura Cantale, Anna Papale, Alessandra Tomasello.
Exhibition duration: 25.03.2021 to 22.04.2021
Address and contact:
spazioSERRA
Stazione ferroviaria di Lancetti, Milano
FB: www.facebook.com/spazioserramilano
IG: www.instagram.com/spazioserra/
