Ivana Spinelli_Contropelo

Curated by Claudio Musso

Opening Artnight 25.01.2020
23.01.2020 > 28.03.2020

« On the traces Archeomitologia, ancestral signs move, shift , subtract. They slip away from decoration, where they are supposed to be seen, to language. Claiming on unconscious, historical and visual space»

Contropelo is the second solo show by Ivana Spinelli at GALLLERIAPIU. The exhibition is part of Zig Zag Protofilosofia project, a research path on “The Language of the Goddess” which gathers the studies of the Lithuanian archaeologist and linguist Marija Gimbutas. Following the previous projects Global Pin-Up (2012) and Minimum (2015-ongoing), even Zig Zag Protofilosofia is the result of a period of study, analysis and in-depth investigation of the theme followed by a multiple feedback including performance, sculpture, object and artist’s book.

Contropelo consists of a space in which mobile sculptural objects and bags-containers aim to re-emerge a system of values ​​and signs that never stop living in our subconscious, bringing into the present the echo of the Gilanic society widespread during Neolithic Age throughout ancient Europe, an egalitarian, matrilineal and peaceful civilization for more than 3.500 years. Before the social system and the philosophical thought on which we base our image of the world was established. A proto-philosophy. To comb the history against the growth (Martino Doni).

Ivana Spinelli appropriates through (re)writing and (re)design of an archaic and futuristic language, made of simple figures and iconic traits that she spreads in multiple conduits: from printing on fabric to wooden forms, from ink on paper to the APP for smartphones.

The exhibition is curated by Claudio Musso, his theoretical contribution together with the insights by Elisa Del Prete and Cecilia Canziani will be spread through the online platform Droste Effect.

Bulletins’ timeline:
22.01 Bulletin 1 – Narrative Portfolio by Elisa Del Prete
19.02 Bulletin 2 – Curatorial Text by Claudio Musso
21.03 Bulletin 3 – non-academic paper by Cecilia Canziani

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Ivana Spinelli ( Ascoli Piceno, 1972) is an Italian artist, she teaches sculpture at Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna from 2012. She lives and works between Berlin and Bologna. Her twenty-year practice mainly analyzes the relationships between body and language, which have the ability to continuously shift the limits of the perceived and reality by defining each other. In her works social and political dimension of personal relationships, the everlasting conflict where the normativity of the legislative language, but also of brands and social media, meets a vitality that reacts through protest and re-appropriation, more or less silent, of the world. Strict definitions as clandestine, female, terrorist, vegetable, minimum open through actions such as sewing, wearing, translating, giving voice, often participating in performances and workshops. Among her collective and solo shows in private and public spaces in Italy and abroad: Scrivere Disegnando When Language Seeks Its Other, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève; Zig Zag Protofilosofia, Una Vetrina, Rome; performance Minimum:Voci, Museo Barracco, Rome; Minimum GALLLERIAPIU, Bologna; 5th Mediations Biennale Poznań, Poland; Dodici Stanze, Museo CIAC, Genazzano, Rome; Il sangue delle donne, Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Rome; Exploring Resilience, Mila Kunstgalerie, Berlin; Progetto Italiano n.3 – “Avere fame di vento”, The Workbench, Milan; Topophilias, Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin; Baustelle, BeoProject, Belgrade; Art Goes City, Postaja Raumau, Slovenj Gradec; Loverrs/Fuckerrs, OltreDimore, Bologna; Embedded art, Akademie der Künste Berlin; Italian Academy of New York. Her work has been analyzed in several essays and catalogues, such as Das Image des Terrorismus im Kunstsytstem, Sebastian Baden, (Edition Metzel, Munchen (De)2018), Das Image des Terrorismus im Kunstsytstem, Sebastian Baden (Edition Metzel, Munchen (De)2018), Clothing as a symbol of identity, Irfan Hosic (Grandska Galerie (Bh), The Aesthetics of Terror, Manon Slome e Joshua Simon (Charta, 2009);  Caos #2, Raffaele Gavarro(San Servolo, 2010);  Global Fight Club, Matthias Reichelt (Distillery, 2011). Among her publications: Global Sisters – The Contradictions of Love (Revolver Books, Berlino 2012) e the artist’s book Minimum (2017).