Zebras in Pietrasanta piazza's for Herreman and Cavenago exhibition

From Saturday October 26 (opening at 6pm) to January 26, 2020, the exhibition spaces of Pietrasanta (Lu) - Piazza del Duomo, the Church of Sant'Agostino and the nearby cloister - will be the intriguing setting for the “Erratico” exhibition. The mutual protagonists of the show are two artists who work in two different mediums, photography and sculpture, but who have many features in common.

The artists in question are Bart Herreman (exhibiting 27 photographs including 6 large works) and the sculptor Umberto Cavenago (20 works). The exhibition is promoted by the Municipality of Pietrasanta, mayor Alberto Stefano Giovannetti and by the councilor for heritage and cultural activities, Massimo Mallegni. It is curated by Mauro Daniele Lucchesi of the Quattro Coronati Association (catalogue with a critical text by Alessandro Romanini).

The works of the two artists will be arranged in a specifically designed installation in the Pietrasanta spaces. While operating in different fields, both Herreman and Cavenago share a common focus on the syntax of space and matter as well as an innovative approach to technology.

Umberto Cavenago's sculptures and installations are created to converse with the architecture, using and experimenting with the technical, material and volumetric potential of plastic. This stylistic trait characterizes his oeuvre and has led to his work being exhibited in prestigious venues. The national and international exhibitions in which he has been featured include the 1990 Venice Biennale curated by Giovanni Carandente, the Martin Gropius-Bau of Berlin and the Biennial of Saint Paul, the Biennial of Johannesburg, the Rome Quadrennial, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, the Magasin di Grenoble, the Pecci Museum in Prato and the Pomodoro Foundation, to name a few.

For Bart Herreman, photography is not simply a tool for an objective recording of reality, but it is part of the avant-garde canon that began with the avant-gardes at the beginning of the century, (Man Ray, Moholy Nagy) and continued throughout the 20th century to the present day. Photography is seen by the Belgian artist as an expressive medium like painting and sculpture. He experiments with all the potential of photography as a medium, moving from fashion to portrait to artistic tout court, becoming part of public and private collections internationally.

Herreman uses all the possibilities of the new digital technologies to create interesting but realistic spaces, using photography in a pictorial way. Engaging single visual components from the chromatic ones to the luministic ones, he also makes intriguing choices based on the arrangement of the narrative components of the frame.

Both artists have designed a significant exhibition that intends to involve the viewer in an active way, forcing him to create his own individual narrative, removing viewers from an apathetic perception, distracted by the daily invasion of images by mass-media and social media.

"The works of Bart Herreman and Umberto Cavenago offer the viewer a different relationship with space and the works of art at the same time" explains the curator Mauro Daniele Lucchesi and the critic Alessandro Romanini. “The works present an alternative interpretation of vision, freed from the functional rationality that characterizes our era. The works exist in a dimension in which the human and the animal can coexist and where non-natural plastic forms are an integral part of a building or a square. Technology for the two artists is not solely intended to create astonishment, but it is also a tool to create images and innovative plastic forms. The new erratic path, as the title suggests, is hosted in the ideal location of Pietrasanta. The city has a centuries-old relationship with beauty and formal experimentation, a long-tradition of sculpture and architecture, innovative approaches to technology and engaged in using technology in collaboration with artists and craftsmen. All this represents a fertile landscape for such an innovative, unique show”.

The "Erratico" exhibition will be open from October 26, 2019 to January 26, 2020 (free admission). Hours: Tuesday to Friday (16-19), Saturday-Sunday (10-13 and 16-19). Special openings:  November 1, December 24, 25, 26 and 31, January 1 and 6, 2020 (16-19).