14 Feb 2012

Cristiano Berti at the Mole Vanvitelliana in Ancona

From 19 February to 18 March the Mole Vanvitelliana will host the exhibition Vertigo of Reality by Cristiano Berti.

This extensive exhibition includes works mainly carried out with photographic, digital and industrial printing techniques, but also, in some cases, consists of used and abandoned items which the artist employs as fetishes, bestowing them with a new meaning. A common element is the constant reference to reality, never manipulated from its basic meaning, always interpreted in a key that can reveal anomalies, stories which have been hidden and fallen into oblivion, the absurdities. In his explorations of reality, Berti often gives preference to situations of social marginality which by their nature are charged with a potential of subverting habitual point of view. Taking a close look at these microcosms, works of visual art without any rhetoric emerge, in which you can listen to the voice of the protagonists without unnecessary filters and with an evident lack of any cautioning, much less moralizing intention, by the artist. Berti's role is that of a medium able to reflect and amplify these smaller stories, bringing them to our eyes and our ears.

The images unroll to show anonymous landscapes becoming scenes of crimes committed many years before, the Somali embassy buildings abandoned to their fate in '91, glimpses of the avenues of Turin that hide unexpected exotic anthropology, faces of actors who didn't make the limelight of Italian cinema for whom destiny held a horrible end. And then luggage lost on trains, the casts of amputated limbs, a batch of burglary tools confiscated from the thieves and auctioned by the court, the great forest of discarded Christmas trees. Finally, moments in which the word gets the upper hand, such as the acoustic self-portraits of young African women intent on telling the stories which have left a mark on their skin, or the trip of Ferko and Martinka to the Czech village of Lety, a symbolic place of the Roma Holocaust.

Vertigo of Reality gives the opportunity to take stock of some of the most interesting work of the contemporary art scene. For the first time the artistic works that have been previously exhibited individually are brought together and, as a result, offer additional keys to their reading and interpretation.

The exhibition Vertigo of Reality, curated by Gabriele Tinti, is organized by Fuorizona ArteContemporanea in collaboration with the Omero Museum, in order to make it accessible also to blind people.
It has been carried out under the patronage of the Marche Region, the Province of Ancona and the Municipality of Ancona, and with the support of Abet Laminati Spa, Banca dell'Adriatico and Unipol Assicurazioni.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by Umberto Allemandi & C., with an essay by Luigi Fassi.