Alberto Garutti
Alberto Garutti Là, Ora
11 Sep—28 Nov 2015

Alberto Garutti Là, Ora

11 Sep—28 Nov 2015
Buchmann Galerie
Press release

„Distance, between places and persons, is not a void to be filled for Garutti, but an invisible road that unites us, as long as we have the desire and the curiosity to walk down it.“ (Francesco Bonami, Alberto Garutti, didascalia/caption, 2012)

 

The Buchmann Galerie is delighted to announce its first solo show of works by Alberto Garutti. 

 

Alberto Garutti (*1948 in Galbiate, lives in Milan) is one of the most influential contemporary Italian artists. Since the 1970s, he has been working with photography, drawing, sculpture, painting, video and sound. Writing and teaching are other important elements in his artistic work. 

 

Much of Alberto Garutti’s work examines the topic of public space, reflecting the connection between the artist and the viewer, the work and the way in which it embeds in the social context of its specific location. 

 

One example of this approach is Piccolo Museion/Little Museion (2001-2003), a small, cubic pavilion made of glass and concrete situated in the suburb of Don Bosco in Bolzano. At intervals of three months, this space – which viewers can only look into – is used to display works from the collection of the Museion, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano. Piccolo Museion shows the complex interaction between artistic intervention and the urban and social context. Positioning an annex of the museum in one of the city’s suburbs triggers a process of decentralisation of the art system and generates a new, positive tension between the centre and the suburbs, between the art audience, the museum and the reality of city life and its citizens. Alberto Garutti’s work becomes a hub with a deep emotional quality. 

 

The pieces presented in the gallery, which have been taken from two different groups of works, reflect the relationship between the artist, his work and the viewer, both empirically and emotionally. 

 

Matasse (Hanks)

 

These works consist of fine nylon threads that are wound around a short piece of cardboard tube. The length of the coloured threads corresponds exactly to the distance between the two places that each work refers to and which are mentioned in the title: the distance between the artist’s house in Milan and the place where the presentation is taking place, i.e. the gallery in Berlin. In another piece it is the distance between the gallery and a place to which the artist has a special personal and emotional connection, for instance Bologna, where he taught. Alberto Garutti started making the Matasse in 1997, and the group is considered work “in progress”. The thread is spun out further and further, and every new piece in the group makes the network of references and connections even denser. 

 

In his Matasse Garutti unites the poetic understanding of space, place and distance with the empirical, with an industrial form of the object. The title includes the length of the thread, indicating not only the distance between the two places but also the emotional bond between the artist and the place or the viewer. The Matasse occupy a territorial and social context. 

 

Specchi forati (Perforated mirrors) 

 

The Specchi forati are wall-mounted mirrors that have been drilled with holes of the same diameter. In the first version of these mirrors, created in 1996, the position of the holes corresponded to the contours of the furniture in the artist’s apartment which were reflected in the mirrored surfaces. 

 

The holes capture the moment that the artist makes an observation; they give new life to the memory of a reflection. The infallible and eternal reflection of reality is contrasted with the memory of a different, a past reality. The Specchi forati unite the past and the essence of what once stood there with the here and now. Là, Ora also combines the dual meanings of the words there and now. Temporal and spatial levels are superimposed in Specchi forati

 

The viewer, who is reflected in the mirror, completes the work with his imagination and perception. The connection between viewer, artist and work, between the present and the recollection is also reminiscent of a plaque by Alberto Garutti which is set in the floor of Milano Malpensa Airport: 

 

TUTTI I PASSI CHE HO FATTO NELLA MIA VITA MI HANNO PORTATO QUI, ORA 

EVERY STEP I HAVE TAKEN IN MY LIFE HAS LED ME HERE, NOW. 

JEDER SCHRITT DEN ICH IN MEINEM LEBEN GEMACHT HABE HAT MICH HIERHER GEFÜHRT, JETZT

 

For additional information on the artist or for visual materials on the works in the exhibition, please do not hesitate to contact the gallery at any time.

Alberto Garutti

Alberto Garutti

Born in 1948 in Galbiate. Died in 2023.

Lived and worked in Milan

Solo Exhibitions

2021
2019
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
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2003
2002
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1997
1996
1995
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1975

Group Exhibitions

2020
2018
2017
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
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1988
1987
1986
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1983
1982
1981
1979
1978
1977
1975
Permanent Installations and Commissions

2012 Permanent artwork, Porta Nuova-Garibaldi, Milan
2011 Permanent artwork, Malpensa airport, Stazione Cadorna, Milan
2005 Appointed for the enclosure project of the garden in front of the Fondazione Sandretto, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
Invitation contest for the new Cittadella Giustizia, Venice
2002 Artwork for the Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome
1999 Artwork for the Pietrasanta Hotel, Room 101, Pietrasanta Forte dei Marmi
1998 Permanent artwork, Piazza Dante, Bergamo
1996 Artwork for Palazzo Cordati, Fondazione Teseco per l’Arte, Barga
Permanent artwork, Piazza Pontida, Bergamo
1993 Permanent artwork, Hotel Palace, Room 402, Bologna