Famous comedian and radio showman, Bergonzoni is also a visual artist: he presents his works in an institutional setting in Pordenone
PArCO finally offers exhibitions of contemporary art, as promised by the institutions at its opening a year ago. The museum complex of the Friuli, which started in 2010 with a stunning exhibition of
Jim Goldberg (a punk American photographer), later devoted much of its programming more to modern art than to contemporary art, disappointing the many who hoped for a real movement of new ideas, a space for emerging artists. On the other hand, the frame is institutional and we also like to review private spaces.
Anyway, even if it's not turning into a laboratory of ideas and debates that we had hoped to become, it offers at least new innovative living artists. Just like
Tonino Guerra and his "diary" in a visual key, or like
Alessandro Bergonzoni who presents right here his first institutional exhibition since December 17, 2011:
Maceriaprima - Accuse mosse (allegations). He is not only a comedian, radio showman, player, but also a real artist who can interact with the public.
His work is characterized by "the operation of the gathering", as the curator Marco Minuz writes. It "becomes the breath of his work; indeed his works are the result of the union of elements already digested by the present day, small debris of sense or meaning that are revived. Tars, wood chips, cardboard, iron, glass, asphalt, become the colours of his palette which are taken from the streets, from industrial production processes, from lumps, hanks" (Marco Minuz in Alexander Bergonzoni - Maceriaprima. Accuse mosse, City of Pordenone publisher, 2011).
Martina Cavallerin also writes: "I see the same 'hypothesis of neglect' in his elaboration of the Dadaist ready-made that Bergonzoni applies to materials (paper, wood, steel, Plexiglas, glass, graphite), offering them another role and another meaning, making them far away from a concept of use and 'contraption'."
The other big issue that distinguishes this artist coming from Bologna is certainly his ongoing research, his not wanting to admit to being in one single place: a schizophrenia the artist himself explains through often humorous, nonsense paradoxes and talks, which indeed do make sense. Minuz continues: "Collecting small fragments of reality to reconstruct a new order - less certain, less secure, less well known - is neither distraction, nor entertainment, but a necessary search, a responsibility".
And again: "These works claim for affection because, unlike words, they will never tear applause or laughter; they will never be close to words and punctuation, ready to support themselves in times of difficulty. They are works where the colours are rare, they carry the colours of their lives otherwise they are covered with a few colours such as blacks, grays, browns. Their colours are loaded with nostalgia, stories, time. Bergonzoni says he does not use colours because he respects them; like the silence: he lets it rest and not work."
Even the catalogue, although introduced by curator and critics, is exuberant. Apart from the introductory section, which is traditional, it is a sort of "artist book" with drawings and sketches printed on uncoated paper: all designed by Bergonzoni himself.
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