Galleria Bianconi presents L’invenzione del busto (The invention of bust), the new performance, for one spectator at a time, by Luigi Presicce, which gonna take place on Tuesday, September 17th, from 7 pm to 9 pm, at the headquarter of the gallery in via Lecco 20, in Milan.

For the first time after seven years, Lugi Presicce returns to exhibit in a gallery, in Milan, for a solo show, with a series of works wholly inspired by his performance.

The video resulting from the performance will be displayed as part of the exhibition Privata Vanitas, a solo show dedicated to the universe, works and method of his lastest years of production. The exhibition will open on Wednesday, October 9th (opening hour at 6:00 pm, running until December 23rd, 2013 ) at Galleria Bianconi.

The itinerary of the exhibition will be completed by a publication edited by a+mbookstore, enclosing critical texts by Andrew Berardini and Caroline Corbetta.

L’invenzione del busto links, through the theme of "invention", meant as discovery, two episodes: the biblical and pictorial scene of Saint Helen's "invention" of the Holy Wood and the discovery of the bust of Napoleon by one of the most extraordinary man of our time, the psychic turin-born Gustavo Rol (1903-1994).

This performance is part of the cycle Le storie della Vera Croce (The History of the True Cross), a series of performances designed to be merged up into a single monumental artwork. Inspired by the story of the Holy Wood, it is connected with two of the most important paintings of the Italian art history of XIV and XV century, referring to the frescoes of Agnolo Gaddi (1350-1396) in Santa Croce in Florence and to the frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca (1416-1492) in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. The invention of bust begins from the episode The invention of the Holy Wood, contained into both the pictorial cycles: Saint Helen, mother of the christian emperor Constantine, found in the Holy Land the three crosses of Golgotha. To verify which of these crosses is the one of Christ's martyrdom, Saint Helen uses a miraculous trick: a man, who died recently, is resurrected by the only contact with the True Cross.

The theme of the discovery recurs in the story of Rol, who began his career as sensitive in the Thirties in Paris, with the finding ('the invention') of a bust of Napoleon. Walking by the streets of the french capital he is driven to enter an old palace, to ask the concierge if there are unpaved cellars in the building and, if possible, to inspect them. Once in the cellars Rol asks the doorkeeper to take a shovel and start digging at a specific point: out of the ground came a marble bust of the emperor Napoleon. Rol had, in fact, an extraordinary gift he never showed publicly (Rol has never been a TV phenomenon), neither he used his powers to earn money. He used and showed his extraordinary abilities in two cases only: to help others or to entertain his friends during the evenings he used to organize at home. Among friends and witnesses of Rol's wonders we may name Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli and John Cage.

At the origin of Rol's powers there is the discovery of what he called the "terrible law," that bound together green colour, perfect fifth and heat. Through this law Rol was able to shape and change the state of matter at his own will, to move objects without touching them and make them move from one room to another by making them pass through the walls.

What ties Rol to the historical figure of Napoleon has never been sufficiently clarified. In addition to the episode of Paris, there are several stories that enrich with charm and mystery his relation with the emperor. It is told, for example, that the first word uttered by Rol, when he was little more than two years old, in front of a fireplace over which was placed an image of the emperor, was exactly "Napoleon". Other witnesses say that when Rol was still a student, he could describe the battles of the Emperor as if he had been present on the field. Many of them argue that even his handwriting was identical to that of Napoleon. Rol was also one of the biggest collectors of Napoleonic memorabilia. Among the many things he owned, there is the carriage used by Napoleon during his trip to Italy on the occasion of the coronation, currently housed in Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi in Turin.

On the scene of the performance, three figures are settled in the basement of the gallery. The first figure embodies the doorkeeper of the building where Rol found the bust of Napoleon. This figure has in his features a reference to one of the characters of the movie Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974) by Liliana Cavani. The second figure symbolizes Rol's "terrible law". His pose recalls a painting by Francis Bacon (1978), in which a man tries to open a door using a key held by a foot. The third figure brings the attention back to that man resurrected by Saint Helen through the miraculous contact with the cross of Christ. In this case the references are, on one hand, St. Paul (Saul before the miraculous conversion) painted by Caravaggio, and, on the other hand, the performance by Charles Ray, Plank Piece I-II, (1973), when his body is suspended and propped up against the wall through a beam.

As during other previous performances, also L’invenzione del busto is set for the admnission of a viewer at a time. Each visitor, welcomed and led in front of the scene, becomes an observer and an unique witness of this epiphany, supplementing with his presence and vision the work itself.

This work, thought for a limited audience, will origin a video that will be part of the solo exhibition Privata Vanitas on show at Galleria Bianconi on Wednesday, October 9th (opening hour 6:00 pm, running until 23rd December). The exhibition will feature three sections in order to offer a complete picture of Presicce's activity and artistic method.

Crucial node of the show, at the ground floor of the Gallery, is a selection of recent unpublished works and large documentary photographs that summarize the performative work of the artist. Presicce freezes every performance through a single work, or a single video or photograph printed in a large format (“archeologic” attitude to store his performative work, otherwise ephemeral, further compromised by the radical choice of not to admit more than only two viewers or, however, a restricted audience, dictated by public commissions).

On the same floor of the exhibition space, but in a different room, the artist will offer to the public the chance to get closer to his research methodology through objects and images that are part of his Studio/Wunderkammer. Presicce's Studio in fact does not appear as a cold and aseptic space, but it is a kind of "cabinet of wonders", where he stored for the past thirteen years every kind of object that attracted his attention or reflection, associating sacred instruments from different cultures and religions to masks and costumes, votive statuettes and paintings and sculptures made by the artist himself and by other authors, to tools made specifically for the scene of his performative action. These props play an important role into the activity of the artist so they have not any theatrical reason: the artist produced his props careless of their short term use, he often uses nobles materials such as bronze, marble, carved wood covered in gold leaf. Unlike other authors, Presicce does not separate himself from the instruments he uses during his performances, instead these instruments are exposed as in a museum, so his studio become a place where it is almost impossible to have access or to "work".

In the same space of the performance, in the basement of the gallery, it will be projected the video L’invenzione del busto.

A publication edited by a+mbookstore, with critical texts by Andrew Berardini and Caroline Corbetta, will be presented on the occasion of the exhibition.

Galleria Bianconi
Via Lecco, 20
Milan 40125 Italy
Ph. +39 02 22228336
info@galleriabianconi.com
www.galleriabianconi.com

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Saturday by appointment