Its first sightings go back to the beginnings of the 1800s, when some polar expeditions ran into huge spreads of snow stained by an alarming red hue. Responsible for the snow melts of the summer, the algae shows not only a great attitude towards adaptation and resistance, but also a great capacity to erode and transform.
The basic but extremely complex unicellular structure of the Chlamydomonas Nivalis sets itself as a model for the entire exhibition, a red thread that bleeds through the different rooms of the gallery and connects the artworks developed by the artists into a multifaceted organism. Elements such as the traces of a pink, dusty spray give shape to an instinctual gesture performed above the senses, following a pattern through an indefinite space and time. There’s an overlap of basic shapes that mark paper, extending and compressing on themselves like an algae which, through mitosis, reproduces and quickly takes over the environment, marking its territory irremediably.
In the same manner new life forms develop in this aseptic space, such as the hollow heads composed of an infinity of iron-like threads that appear on the walls like spontaneous growths of vegetation. Similar to the tasks performed by some stone formations, these veins seem to imitate the articulate bends and folds of roots and branches of trees. There’s a tactile and visible power that catches and holds the eye. Faces, heads, unicellular algae formations synthesize together into forms and lines, giving life to new “beings.”
To make the eyes two speakers are brought in to diffuse sound and their faces take their final form in an electric board and a memory card that continuously loops a single file.
The machines pulse red with two small LED lights accompanied by voices that recite shrill and unattainable verses, hypnotical and blurred hums, deaf and unripe crackling. At the centre of this intricate organism the artist places Man, continuously facing our own structure and complexity, face-to-face with our own poignant essence.
Alberto Tadiello (Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza, 1983) graduated from IUAV University of Venice in 2007. His work has been featured in many solo and group shows in Italy and abroad, including: “T2 Torino Triennale – 50 lune di Saturno”, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2008; “Science versus Fiction”, Bétonsalon, Paris, 2009; “Experimental Station”, CA2M – Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, 2011; “Terre vulnerabili”, Hangar Bicocca, Milan, 2011; “Sound Art. Sound as a Medium of Art”, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 2012, “High Gospel”, Villa Croce Museum, Genova, 2012, “Art or Sound”, Ca’ Corner della Regina, Fondazione Prada, Venice, 2014; “That’s IT!”, MAMbo, Bologna, 2018. In 2009 he won the 7th Premio Furla, and in 2011 received the New York Prize. He has taken part in various residency programs, organized by Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art (Paris), Gasworks International Residency Programme (London), Villa Arson (Nice), HIAP – Helsinki International Artist Programme (Helsinki), Viafarini (Milan), and ISCP – International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York).
Exhibition duration: October 7th, 2021 – November 26th 2021
Address and contact:
Galleria Umberto Di Marino
Via Alabardieri 1, 80121, Napoli
www.galleriaumbertodimarino.com
