Ottomanè
from 1 June 2013 to 31 July 2013
Venezia
Ottomanè
During the world’s most important art festival, Venice is shining two spotlights on the multifaceted work of Aldo Mondino, who – to coincide with the 55th International Art Biennale – is presenting his solo exhibition Ottomané in the evocative setting of the historic pharmacy housing the Berengo Collection, and is also taking part in the group exhibition Glasstress at Palazzo Cavalli-Franchetti, the Scuola Grande Confraternita di San Teodoro and the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass.
Aldo Mondino’s presence in Venice for the Art Biennale seems almost natural, not only because of the contribution this Turin-born artist has made to Italian and international contemporary art, but also because one of his favourite themes has been the dialogue with the East, for which Venice has always been a privileged link.
All of Mondino’s work is interwoven with connections to the cultures of the East, but also with late 19th-century European Orientalism. In the splendid setting of the ‘Vecchia Farmacia’ at the Berengo Collection – where the period inlaid wooden furnishings have been skilfully preserved, just a stone’s throw from St Mark’s Square – Ottomané, curated by Valerio Dehó, presents some twenty works from 2 June to 31 July that illustrate this aspect of the Turin-born artist’s work.
Aldo Mondino’s penchant for the marvellous, for sensual and cultured art, always surprising and full of coups de théâtre, is well known. This fascination with refinement is reflected in the exhibition both through his jewellery – masterpieces of goldsmithing created in Valenza based on his designs and under his supervision – and through the work Jongleur, a perfect synthesis of Murano glass and bronze, created by Berengo Fine Art, which evokes the Orient through its technical perfection and the interplay of materials.
There are traces and scents of the East in his carpets, painted or created using grains, seeds and coffee; as well as in Dumauntai, a ceramic sculpture depicting a pair of Siamese twins whose title in Piedmontese means ‘let’s call it a day’: an irony, certainly not politically correct, to describe the two solemn female faces with Oriental features and hairstyles in perfect Thai style.
The Venetian exhibition also provides an opportunity for a comparison between the Turin-based artist and one of his key points of reference in art history: Edouard Manet, who is the subject of a major exhibition at the Doge’s Palace at the same time. Mondino has revisited several of Manet’s works, such as *Le philosophe*, as well as his characters and themes, as in the brilliant work *Ottomané* (1992), in which, across eight paintings, he reinterprets a vase of flowers by the French artist. Mondino’s solo exhibition during the Biennale thus becomes an occasion for absolutely extraordinary comparisons and references between modern and contemporary art.
Aldo Mondino has captured the Eastern spirit of refinement in form and material, the sensuality of lines and colour, and the interplay of movement with his famous ‘turcate’, in which he often superimposed decorative elements alongside the gestural quality of the painting that accompanies the dance of the dervishes.
Here we encounter another important characteristic of his work: the elevation of decoration, mosaics, ceramics and glass to the status of Art. Already in the famous Iznik series, not only was the Byzantine and later Turkish city of Nicaea—the site of two highly significant councils—evoked, but the famous Ottoman majolica was also depicted.
It is within this conceptual framework that Mondino’s participation in the group exhibition Glasstress—a collateral event of the Biennale now in its third edition—takes place. The aim of the exhibition is to reveal how contemporary artists use glass as an exceptional medium of expression. For a long time, particularly in Venice and Murano, glass was associated merely with decoration, and its use in the creation of works by great artists was underestimated.
At Glasstress, Mondino is represented by the sculpture Endless Watermelons, a cultured and, as always, ironic reference to Brancusi’s famous ‘Endless Column’, created in Murano in 2003.
Alongside him, among others: Ron Arad, Cai Guo-Qiang, Mona Hatoum, Joseph Kosuth, Mimmo Paladino, Tony Oursler, Joana Vasconcelos, Zhan Wang.
Aldo Mondino’s presence in Venice for the Art Biennale seems almost natural, not only because of the contribution this Turin-born artist has made to Italian and international contemporary art, but also because one of his favourite themes has been the dialogue with the East, for which Venice has always been a privileged link.
All of Mondino’s work is interwoven with connections to the cultures of the East, but also with late 19th-century European Orientalism. In the splendid setting of the ‘Vecchia Farmacia’ at the Berengo Collection – where the period inlaid wooden furnishings have been skilfully preserved, just a stone’s throw from St Mark’s Square – Ottomané, curated by Valerio Dehó, presents some twenty works from 2 June to 31 July that illustrate this aspect of the Turin-born artist’s work.
Aldo Mondino’s penchant for the marvellous, for sensual and cultured art, always surprising and full of coups de théâtre, is well known. This fascination with refinement is reflected in the exhibition both through his jewellery – masterpieces of goldsmithing created in Valenza based on his designs and under his supervision – and through the work Jongleur, a perfect synthesis of Murano glass and bronze, created by Berengo Fine Art, which evokes the Orient through its technical perfection and the interplay of materials.
There are traces and scents of the East in his carpets, painted or created using grains, seeds and coffee; as well as in Dumauntai, a ceramic sculpture depicting a pair of Siamese twins whose title in Piedmontese means ‘let’s call it a day’: an irony, certainly not politically correct, to describe the two solemn female faces with Oriental features and hairstyles in perfect Thai style.
The Venetian exhibition also provides an opportunity for a comparison between the Turin-based artist and one of his key points of reference in art history: Edouard Manet, who is the subject of a major exhibition at the Doge’s Palace at the same time. Mondino has revisited several of Manet’s works, such as *Le philosophe*, as well as his characters and themes, as in the brilliant work *Ottomané* (1992), in which, across eight paintings, he reinterprets a vase of flowers by the French artist. Mondino’s solo exhibition during the Biennale thus becomes an occasion for absolutely extraordinary comparisons and references between modern and contemporary art.
Aldo Mondino has captured the Eastern spirit of refinement in form and material, the sensuality of lines and colour, and the interplay of movement with his famous ‘turcate’, in which he often superimposed decorative elements alongside the gestural quality of the painting that accompanies the dance of the dervishes.
Here we encounter another important characteristic of his work: the elevation of decoration, mosaics, ceramics and glass to the status of Art. Already in the famous Iznik series, not only was the Byzantine and later Turkish city of Nicaea—the site of two highly significant councils—evoked, but the famous Ottoman majolica was also depicted.
It is within this conceptual framework that Mondino’s participation in the group exhibition Glasstress—a collateral event of the Biennale now in its third edition—takes place. The aim of the exhibition is to reveal how contemporary artists use glass as an exceptional medium of expression. For a long time, particularly in Venice and Murano, glass was associated merely with decoration, and its use in the creation of works by great artists was underestimated.
At Glasstress, Mondino is represented by the sculpture Endless Watermelons, a cultured and, as always, ironic reference to Brancusi’s famous ‘Endless Column’, created in Murano in 2003.
Alongside him, among others: Ron Arad, Cai Guo-Qiang, Mona Hatoum, Joseph Kosuth, Mimmo Paladino, Tony Oursler, Joana Vasconcelos, Zhan Wang.
Ottomanè
Opere correlate
Nessuna opera correlata trovata