The collective memory of Sardinia, its landscape, together with the social and ecological consequences of extraction processes, are at the center of the work conducted on the island by Giorgio Andreotta Calò: an investigation carried out between 2013 and 2018, which led to the creation of a fundamental corpus in the artist’s career.
Today, a part of these works finds an ideal location at the MAN museum thanks to the Contemporary Art Plan of the Ministry of Culture, completing and integrating the previous acquisition of Productive .
In 2019, in fact, the artist donated part of the environmental installation to MAN Productive , composed of core samples extracted during the mining campaigns of Carbosulcis.spa, a company that until 2018 was involved in the exploitation of the Sulcis coal basin, an area in the south-west of the island.
With a procedure similar to geognostic investigations, Giorgio Andreotta Calò analyzes the stratification and identity of the place examining its socio-cultural aspects.
A similar semantic root is shared by the works of the project in girum imus nocte , which testify to a common process of research and interaction with the Sardinian territory and its history.
The title, taken from the Latin palindrome “in girum imus nocte et consumemur igni” (“we walk around at night and are consumed by fire”), alludes to the symbolic charge of the film installation of the same name which, with the sculptures Pinna Nobilis And Dogod, creates a coherent whole in which the individual elements enhance each other’s meanings.
The fulcrum of the installation is the film which documents the march carried out by the artist together with a group of miners and fishermen from Sulcis on the night of 4 December 2014 (the day of Santa Barbara, protector of the mining community).
The journey becomes a ritual in an eschatological perspective that recognizes the social role of workers, accentuating the value of their presence. The ritual march from the mine to the island of Sant’Antioco, from sunset to dawn, is emphasized by the stick that accompanies the journey, which later became an integral part of the work presented in the exhibition.
The use of 16 mm film is, in its fragility, functional to the overall meaning of the story, evoking the alchemical component of transformation of matter that all the works on display have in common.
The metamorphosis of the skull of a creature halfway between dog (Dog) and divinity (God) is at the center of Dogod , whose constituent elements, coming from the Cirdu pond, in Sant’Antioco, were assembled to then create the lost wax casting in white bronze exhibited here. Sculpture also refers to Sulcis Pinna Nobilis , produced from the cast of a specimen of the homonymous bivalve species endemic to the Mediterranean, also recovered in Punta Trettu during the making of the film.
The works on display, among the most emblematic and representative of Giorgio Andreotta Calò’s research, accompany the visitor in depth: into the depths of the earth, but also into the essence of the artist’s method. In this way, landscape and history are assimilated by the works, becoming an essential term.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Venice in 1979, Giorgio Andreotta Calò lives and works in Venice.
He studied sculpture at the Venice Academy and the Kunsthochschule in Berlin. Between 2008 and 2010 he was artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In 2011 Calò’s work was presented at the 54th Venice Biennale directed by Bice Curiger. In 2012 he won the Italy Prize for contemporary art promoted by the MAXXI Museum. In 2014 he won the New York Prize, promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2017 he is one of the three artists invited to represent Italy in the Pavilion curated by Cecilia Alemani at 57. International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2018, with the project Anastasis , wins the Italian Council tender promoted by the Ministry of Culture, for the creation of a monumental installation at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam. In 2019 a personal exhibition was dedicated to him at Pirelli Hangar Bicocca. His works are part of numerous public and private collections in Italy and abroad.
The project is supported by the PAC 2022-2023 – Plan for Contemporary Art, promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.
