"Genesi" / Tommaso Gatti
15 January - 6 February, 2021
MASSIMO
Via Degli Scipioni 7
20129 Milan
Genesi defines multiple starts inside and surrounding MASSIMO. It’s not only the chosen title of Tommaso Gatti first solo exhibition, but also the beginning of the art space’s calendar of shows which will be taking place inside its - never revealed yet - area. It comes both as the first chapter of Aparición, the critical essay that the artist started in 2019, and as the beginning of a series of events which are related to the book and designed to take place within diverse spaces. With its etymology, Genesi suggests the starting point of something new: MASSIMO is the medium through which Aparición finds its opening words.
Aparición is about a pupil and his master. The first chapter, coming as the
conceptual fulcrum of the exhibition, recalls the meeting between the two of them
on the occasion of a vernissage. A voice-over introduces the observer to
Sebastian Shatten, an art critic and fictional character who takes charge of
revealing the artist’s thoughts through his works and actions. Sebastian discusses
issues like Félix González-Torres critical legacy, the act of playing in terms of
metaphor for art and the poietic nature of the artistic experience. By
commemorating it, the artist evokes the atmosphere of an exhibition which has
been purely envisioned, while asking the observer to look at its backdrop: a sacred
yet religious ambiance that enables to experience art.
On the occasion of Genesi, Tommaso Gatti involves a series of artists from
diverse fields in the making of a challenging show that aims to cross multiple
platforms. By conceiving part of the exhibition exclusively for MASSIMO social
media, the artist marks the strict connection between the performative moment
itself and its promotional tract. Fashion photographer Giuseppe Triscari and stylist
Sebastian Palomares are called upon to visually outline the narration through the
photographic series “The opening” (2020). Coming as a hybrid between staged
and fashion photography, the pictures are a result of a performative moment in
which few background actors played as guests of an exhibition opening. Posing
and moving with preconceived and sampled gestures which are typically related
to the exclusive vibe that surrounds the vernissage experience, they are the first
unconscious users of what a show actually is.The glossy flavor that covers the
resulting pictures, virtually shared through MASSIMO’s site, is deliberately in
contrast with the extreme barrenness of the real life exhibition: an empty art space,
composed only by the Genesi’s text itself, handwritten on a plasterboard wall that
incorporates it by absorbing it into its own structure. The text thus becomes a
permanent mark of a temporal interstice that survives in the very place it was
conceived for. During the show, a paper publication will be presented, designed,
and produced by Graphic Designer Paola Bombelli, who curates the exhibition’s
visual identity.
Tommaso Gatti is a visual artist who lives and works in Milan. Graduated in Sculpture and in Curatorial Practices at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, since 2012 he carries on a sculptural artistic practice, together with a parallel path in writing, criticism and curating. In an apparently chaotic way, he carries on his own research around the phenomenon of the artwork. Since 2013 he has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, artist residencies, and workshops, receiving prestigious awards such as the sculpture prize of the Combat Prize 2014 and the Ricoh Prize. Since 2018 he has been reviewing exhibitions of artists he values on the pages of Flash Art Italia and in 2019 he curated for Mimesis the publication "Visual Studies, l'avvento di nuovi paradigmi". He currently works as an archivist for an important private collection in Milan and is part of the artistic direction of La Rada, a non-profit exhibition space in Locarno.