ANDREA GALVANI - SELECTED WORKS 2006 | 2016

Sometimes, the biggest limits that surround us are physically very small or invisible: psychological, geographical, or political territories. They are apparently simple, yet impenetrable structures, insurmountable distances, dimensions inaccessible or unknown. In geometry, when one approaches a point in Euclidean space, one never reaches the end. This exhibition is an extended encounter, a descent to the depth of an infinite void, but also the vertigo of disclosure: a new state of power, a new perspective, an act of retribution.

- Andrea Galvani

The Mart Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto proudly directs its focus to the research of Andrea Galvani (Verona, 1973), one of the most important Italian artists of his generation in the international field, with an unprecedented survey exhibition of work produced in the last decade. The show will be followed by the artist's first monograph, published by the Museum, including text by Giorgio Verzotti.

In Galleria CIVICA, the Mart's third art space, ANDREA GALVANI: SELECTED WORKS 2006 | 2016, curated by Margherita de Pilati, re-contextualizes selected works from major collections and reconfigures the historic gallery's newly-renovated space with two large site-specific installations. The museum is transformed into a laboratory for exploration and analysis with a number of Galvani's most acclaimed international investigations: The End Trilogy (2013-2016), A Few Invisible Sculptures (2012-2016), Higgs Ocean (2008-2011), and Deconstruction of a Mountain (2004-2005) engage in dialogue for the first time. Projects exist in a perpetually transformative state: documenting collective actions and visionary experiments; the instability of physical phenomena, paradoxically monumental and ephemeral. Through a compact, interdisciplinary itinerary including photography, sculpture, drawing, performance, video and audio installations, this exhibition deconstructs distinctions between visible and invisible, continuity and temporality - freeing a space where limits are distorted and boundaries expanded, elements of a more profound and complex existence.

The exhibition opens with The End (Action #1), a large and spectacular site-specific video installation occupying almost the entire first floor. Funded by Art in General's New Commission program, The End (Action #1) was first introduced in New York during Frieze Art Fair in May 2015. To realize the project, Galvani coordinated with local cameramen to film the sunrise along the eastern coastline of five different countries in Central America. An homage to the heliocentric model of our solar system championed by Galileo Galilei, father of modern cosmology, the event was filmed on the anniversary of Galileo’s death on 8 January 1642, in over 30 different locations simultaneously. Discrepancies between atmospheric conditions, the sensitivity of 16mm film technology, and the movements of each individual manifest as a prism of time and space. The architecture of The End (Action #1) was conceived as an ephemeral monument – seven pedestals of light designed to be used by seven vocalists whose voices activate and enlivened the space at different times throughout the exhibition. Galleria CIVICA presents the first performance to the public during the opening reception on Saturday, 15 October at 7:00 PM.

The route continues as an immersion into darkness. The length of the hall is bathed in an otherworldly shade of cobalt blue – emanating from blown glass, neon illuminates a complex mathematical equation. This new site-specific work represents an ongoing collaboration between Galvani and renown astrophysicist Eloy Ayón-Beato, Professor for the Department of Physics at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINESTAV-IPN) in Mexico City, a leading expert in black holes and gravitational physics.

Audiences are cast into a dimension that is both conceptually dense and emotionally charged, concrete yet metaphysical. Through an extraordinary selection of works, many of which have never been seen before in Italy, the path continues on the gallery’s lower level, revealing the strength and coherence of Galvani’s effort in the last ten years.