How have Italian artists been involved in the 2006 Paris Biennal? .
Their first appointment was informal, in the headquarters of the Maison d'Italie at the University of Paris. After being warmly received by Prof. Roberto Giacone, director of the Maison, the artists took part in the colloques de la Sorbonne, respectively entitled Le bureau de les hyppotheses e L'art et l'entreprise.
We should first of all draw attention to: "the microcollector" Eliza Bollazzi, Name Diffusion, the group ideator of the linguistic game Tapis volant, Madame Duplok and her concept of gift-exchange, the Christina Show and the Trattoria da Salvatore, respectively Aldo Spoldi and Salvatore Nicola. And we should not forget the two events of an economic-artistic nature promoted by Aldo Spoldi with the Bank of Oklahoma and by Gahp with the presentation of Acir.
This experience has been very positive. It has enabled each of the participants - myself included - to realise after months of work, the projects presented on these three occasions, giving us the opportunity to get to know the international panorama of unconventional art, as it is set out repeatedly, on every occasion, by the director of the Biennal Alexandre Gurita.
Through Sguardi.info we can get to know these artists, unknown for the most part (except to those collaborating with them!). The most interesting may be found in the catalogue of the Paris Biennal, now being printed, but already being sold in advance - or at the next meeting of the Biennal in Italy, in the Galleria Civica di Gallarate, at a date still to be decided.
The first artist that I would like to present is Eliza Bollazzi whose microcollection has roused the curiosity of both the public and the organisers of the Biennal.
As she herself has stated, her new research and most recent artistic production started by chance, on occasion of the Biennal of Venice of 24.05.90, where for the first time, she thought of recovering some residues of the marvellous blue works of Anish Kapoor, that had finished up accidentally on the pavement.
These microparticles, for the most part forgotten, were valuable booty for our artist. By collecting them, Bollazzi wished to preserve something precious belonging to the work exhibited that would inevitably have been lost at the conclusion of the Biennal itself.
All the microparticles recovered (perhaps stolen, as the gesture of the artist was not authorised) have been mounted on common glass under microscopes in the laboratory, along with captions and a brief description of the work giving details of the "theft". All this with the aim of preserving a work which exists and at the same time is invisible, belonging previously to the artist who had realised it.
But such paternity counts less in the moment when the theft of the microparticles takes
place, creating a short circuit between what is created and its creator.
The " installation" expresses both the concept of invisibility and that of the impossibility, through a microscope, of making the invisible visible.
The artistic project of Bollazzi, born secretly, and linked to the basic idea of the theft of microparticles, has led her to consider herself a "thief artist," who works in secret and unknown. She wishes above all to become invisible, to realise an infinite series of microparticles, to generate successive clonings, and distribute the same works in different parts of the world.
Today the microcollection numbers about three hundred microfragments of works of contemporary art, accumulated thanks to thefts by the artist herself and "accomplices" who continue to help Bollazzi with her project.
In conclusion, we may propose the rules of invisible art that the artist herself has given us. Indications for the success of the operation are:
- If possible the theft must not damage the work of art (in contemporary art works often have
microparticles that would in any case get lost: my first piece of booty was a few grams
of blue powder off a large sculpture of Anish Kapoor, scattered on the pavement at the
Venice Biennal. At the moment of dismantling this powder would in any case have been lost!
- The "thief" must remember to note the artist and the title of the work, the year of production, the
place of the misdeed, the date and time of day.
- Photographing the original work is optional
The microcollection which comes into existence from different stolen goods, acquires automatically a "market" value (if we may so define it), proportional to the actual value of the original work, from which the microparticles have been stolen.
