Today at 5:30 pm will be inaugurated at the Camec museum Usodimare by Giovanni Frangi, with unpublished works inspired by the Poets Gulf and its islands, open until 22 January 2017 and in collaboration with Mus-e.
Usodimare was the nickname of the Genoese navigator Antoniotto Da Noli, who in the fifteenth century was one of the first explorers of the African coast and the course of the River Gambia. “Usodimare” means experienced sailor, and inspired the preparation of La Spezia exhibitions of the many works since 2002 by the artist Giovanni Frangi on the theme of the sea and water , especially in new works dedicated to Palmaria Island and the Gulf of Poets.
The exhibitions is divided into areas that collect different moments of the Frangi’s work, also recognizable from the color composition, in a sort of retrospective that also takes into account the artist’s work methodology, always interested in the characteristics of movement and refraction of light in the water, broughts on the canvas with quick strokes of color. The impression is that the total dive in the marine element, to leave for a totalizing exploration.
The circuit, specifically designed by the artist in the exhibition areas of Camec, offers the visitor to get lost in a sliding direction, as in a sea stream, to “enter on one end and get out from the other, losing the thread of speech, but ntering into that sense of flow that, at the very thought, water is able to communicate.“
In one of the exhibitions rooms was set up a anonymous looking great wooden box, with some holes. Through them, as in a sort of stereoscope, one can observe the inside of the box (called “master view” as the toys from the ’60ies), and suddenly find themselves in an underwater seabed, crossed by fish and jellyfish.
The lowest holes of View Master are designed for kids, and with this the exhibition reveals the attention of Frangi and association Mus-efor schools: the artist will donate one of the works on display at La Spezia, worth € 25,000, to the international philanthropic association, in order to fund its many projects designed to promote, through art and aesthetics, communication and play between children of different ethnic groups in the classes.
The series Genova Suite is dedicated to the Ligurian city: again the feeling of the seabed and its species through repainted photography of the aquarium tanks.
in Wabi-Sabi, the dive experience refers to Frangi’s study on the nature and man’s relationship to it. The series name indicates, in the Japanese tradition, the acceptance and value of imperfection and impermanence of nature.
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