31 May 2012

Berlin Art Projects presents Claudia V. Vitari

Berlin Art Projects is pleased to invite you to the opening of the solo exhibition 'Le Città Invisibili' by Claudia Virginia Vitari on Friday June 1, 2012. Under the patronage of the Italienisches Kulturinstitut Berlin Berlin Art Projects presents the current project by the Italian artist.

Claudia V. Vitari's work centers on the investigation of groups and institutions at the margins of our society. Her latest project, Le Città invisibili, is a documentary piece about Radio Nikosia in Barcelona, the first and only Spanish radio program that is designed and organized by people with mental disorders. The artist met the staff and asked them to describe themselves and their histories. These stories are then related to the viewer, who in turn finds a reflection of their own experience in the experiences Vitari recounts.

Vitari interviewed and accompanied fourteen of the radio station's employees over a longer period. The result developed into a number of genuine, personal documents, including portrait drawings and plaster casts, transcripts, and quotations. Displayed in a number of illuminated 'light boxes' and vitrines, the artist presents intricate drawings and texts silk-screened onto a resin surface and carefully crystallized in glass. Thoughts and memories are preserved and supplemented by quotes from poetic and philosophical sources. Each box represents a single person and is part of an artistic model that offers a glimps into the individual's internal world.

Vitari characterizes her work as 'graphic documentations.' Thoughts are archived in the medium of the written word, allowing what is hidden to come into view. Taking a cue from scientific classification, the artist has developed a system comprising modules and illuminated steel boxes, the aesthetic of which challenges the viewer to look beyond (institutional) boundaries.

Generously supported with funds from the Piedmont region, the project was presented at the Museo die Scienze Naturali in February/March 2012 and will be in June/July 2012 on view at the gallery Berlin Art Projects and later in Barcelona. Turin communicated with Barcelona and Berlin about the project in a poetic way that was free of geographical and spatial boundaries. The result is a differentiated approach to psychiatry, as evoked through various international influences.

CLAUDIA VITARI born 1978 in Turin, Italy I Studied painting at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, Germany I Graduated 2004 I Participated in various group and solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Turin, and Berlin, among others I Lives and works in Barcelona, Turin and Berlin.