Galleria Zelig - Bari
Philosophers and Crustaceans
11 November – 10 December 1994
Bari, Galleria Zelig
curated by Pietro Marino
From 11 November to 10 December 1994, the Zelig Gallery in Bari became the setting for one of Aldo Mondino’s most brilliant visual and linguistic short-circuits with the solo exhibition “Les philosophes aux crustacés”. Entirely curated by the art historian and critic Pietro Marino, the exhibition represents a crucial milestone in understanding the Turin-based master’s extraordinary ability to deconstruct intellectualism through irony and cultured play.
In this exhibition, Mondino stages a veritable conceptual pastiche that ironically attacks ‘high culture’. The focus of his work centres on visual paradox: the great thinkers and philosophers of Western history are taken out of context and desacralised, literally juxtaposed or fused with the profane iconography of lobsters, crabs, crayfish and fish. Through different formats and techniques, the artist’s painting highlights bilingual assonances and French-inspired wordplay, transforming philosophical speculation into a maritime feast or a refined visual enigma.
Under Pietro Marino’s critical lens, Mondino’s presence in Bari reaffirms his penchant for the material experimentation typical of the 1990s. Marine subjects and portraits of thinkers come to life not only on canvas but also on the artist’s preferred industrial substrates, such as linoleum and Eraclit. On these rough and unconventional surfaces, the oil paint interacts with the very texture of the material, creating a jarring yet fascinating contrast with the solemnity of the themes addressed. With "Les philosophes aux crustacés", Mondino once again confirms himself as an exceptional and refined "nomad of the mind", capable of moving between erudition and play, offering the public a style of painting that is free, cultured and deeply ironic.
Colour photograph. Aldo Mondino standing in front of one of his works: "Philosophes aux crustaces"