Adrián Villar Rojas: Rinascimento

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presents Rinascimento, the first Italian solo exhibition of works by Adrián Villar Rojas.

Born in Argentina in 1980, the artist has received international acclaim through a language that has a strong impact, and explores the narrative potential of contemporary sculpture. Many of his works have a monumental scale, and include multiple references – to art history as well as pop culture, ranging from literature to films, from music to comics to sci-fi, and often take the form of installations that have the power to completely change the spaces they inhabit, giving shape to scenes and worlds to explore almost as if they were ‘films made of sculptures’ . Just like film stills, the works of Villar Rojas are objects filled with time, devices that narrate time through images, from prehistoric finds to the most futuristic, or post-apocalyptic, landscapes, recording it in the physical substance of matter, in a constant process of evolution and decay. Typically, he produces large installations made from a mixture of raw clay and concrete, which looks fissured, cracked, as if its substance already were in a state of advanced corruption, as if time were turning these objects into ruins in front of our eyes. This frailty is not only apparent, but decisive for the fate of works which, very often, do not survive the exhibiting event, being conceived as transient creations. This entropic quality of the work also manifests itself in the use of organic matter which, by melting with inorganic substance, be it natural or artificial, generates disturbing hybrids, unstable artifacts constantly subject to mutation. Animals, plants, minerals, fossils, and the remains of the world of objects produced by humans, are pieced together into a dystopian-looking universe that contains the whole memory of the world. From macro to micro, this memory also includes a more individual, biographical dimension, having to do with the nomadic character of Villar Rojas’s work, who develops his projects in close connection with the places and contexts in which he exhibits. Each intervention therefore bears the traces of the one that came before it, or takes it as a starting point, sometimes building on research or suggestions that the artist came to as a result of his relationship with the place. He always works side to side with his team of collaborators, who follow him in all the international projects he is invited to. This nomadic studio, or better theatre company, to use the artist’s favorite metaphor, includes artists, craftsmen and technicians who, under the direction of Villar Rojas, collaborate for several weeks or months previous to the exhibition, creating the works and projects on the spot. Beginning in September, Villar Rojas’s studio will move to Turin, to create Rinascimento, a new big production especially conceived by the artist for the spaces of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. The exhibition is curated by Irene Calderoni, curator of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.