Galleria Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea presents the first solo show in Milan by Andrea Salvino.

The show, whose title is based on the “tragic and desperate” film by Jean-Luc Godard (Contempt, 1963) and the novel by the same name by Alberto Moravia, presents new works seen here for the first time – two large paintings on canvas and wood, three drawings and a video.

Salvino’s work focuses on a reinterpretation of the events in Italy from the mid-sixties to the present, which become symbols for a social polarization and a reality that have not changed in the dynamics of the antagonism and the political contradictions that continue to exist.

The paintings and drawings are based on historical images from photographs and videos shot at the time, and other images shot by the artist in his visits to the scenes of the events in Milan.

The two large paintings on canvas are on the death of Claudio Varalli and Giannino Zibecchi, two leftist activists who were killed in a two-day period in Milan in April 1975: one in a fight with fascist thugs, the second run over by a truck of the carabinieri that was driven into a protest march.

The works operate on a dual register: the places where the events happened viewed by the artist today, as in the gigantic cityscape of “Corso XXII Marzo”, and scenes of urban struggle that broke out in the zone after the murder of Zibecchi. The portrait of a youthful “antagonist” of the present – photographed and “reconstructed” by the artist – becomes the realistic transposition of an activist of the past.

The video “Scorn” (b+w, 9’, 2001), presented last May at Fondazione Adriano Olivetti in Rome, is the result of the re-editing, based on aesthetic and emotional criteria, of a film-document now considered of historical importance made at the time by “extraparliamentary” activists: the images document the death of Varalli and the funeral of Zibecchi, while the soundtrack is “L’Internazionale” played by the rock group Area. “Emotion is the key to this work – writes Cristiana Perrella – emotion that captures even the most jaded eyes, as the images move on the large screen, as in a newsreel, unusually tough and true, shifted in time by a quarter century”.

This is the first video made by the artist, and it represents the central nucleus of the exhibition, around which the paintings and drawings are organized. Through their tragic, timely pertinence the episodes examined in the show reveal the state of mind of the artist and the conditions of life today. Salvino intentionally portrays the events without commentary, as an operation that is political in and of itself, a complex memory whose different meanings are still being deciphered today. Through these works memory – that of the artist and that of us observers – makes unpredictable, revealing incursions into the world of art.

The exhibition catalogue contains an essay by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and a contribution from the association “in order not to forget Varalli and Zibecchi” (www.pernondimenticare.com).

The opening is on Thursday 17 January 2002 ate 6.30 PM.
The show will be open to the public until 8 March 2002
Tues-Sat, 4 Pm – 7.30 PM

Andrea Salvino was born in 1969 in Rome, where he lives and works.

His solo shows include: in 2001 “Spazio aperto”, Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (with Marco Neri) and “Il disprezzo”, Fondazione A. Olivetti in Rome; in 2000 “Operai contro la metropoli”, Studio Legale, Caserta; in 1998 “Stiamo tornando”, Studio Ercolani, Bologna; in 1997 ”Adunata sediziosa”, InArco in Turin, and “Senza tregua”, Oddi Baglioni in Rome. In 1996 “Con ogni mezzo necessario”, Loft, Valdagno, in 1995 “Cloro al clero”, Milleventi in Turin, in 1994 “Pagherete caro, pagherete tutto”, Autori-Messa in Rome.Group shows include: in 2001 “Videonight - Schermaglie”, Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena and “Pay attention”, MAN, Nuoro; in 2000 “Arte in Italia - Futurama”, Centro Arte Contemporanea L. Pecci oi Prato, and “Premio Michetti”, Fondazione Michetta in Francavilla al Mare; in 1999 “Molteplicittà”, Fondazione Adriano Olivetti in Rome; in 1996 “XII Quadriennale: Ultime generazioni”, Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and “Martiri e Santi”, L’Attico, Rome; in 1995 “Artist’s choice”, Accademia Americana in Rome.