IGAV - Project Room "Corinna Gosmaro. Uahed!Uahed!"

IGAV – the Garuzzo Institute for the Visual Arts inaugurates the PROJECT ROOM at the Castiglia in Saluzzo: a venue for the development of emerging local artists

Corinna Gosmaro. “Uahed! Uahed!”

From 15 October, 2016, to 6 January, 2017 Inauguration Saturday, 15 October, 2016, at 11am On the AMACI Contemporary Day Corinna Gosmaro (Savigliano, 1987) is the artist who has been chosen by the curator Alessandro Demma to open – on Saturday, 15 October, in conjunction with the AMACI “Giornata del Contemporaneo” (Contemporary Day) – the series of Project Rooms within the spaces used for the Permanent Collection and Exhibition at the Castiglia in Saluzzo (Piazza Castello, 1; ground floor; inauguration at 11am).

Through this initiative, being staged as part of the “Contemporary Saluzzo” project, in partnership with the Municipality of Saluzzo, IGAV – the Garuzzo Institute for the Visual Arts – is from this year opening itself up to the output of emerging local artists, while also comparing and contrasting the local scene with the latest trends in the wider art world.

Within the Permanent Collection and Exhibition, a space has been given over to artists aged under 35, thus affording an opportunity to interact with the local area and to boost cultural exchange and interaction. In this way, the so-called Project Room becomes a place for reflection – in the process, enabling IGAV to continue its journey along the paths of emerging art – and a locus for theorising

and displaying, dedicated to cutting-edge experiments that mark out the new perspectives and new frontiers of the art system.

Corinna Gosmaro (Savigliano 1987). Colour is the prime motor of Corinna Gosmaro’s works; it is the visionary and elaborative surface of a thought process that becomes form and substance. Theoretical meditation and visual creation are interwoven in a space that is not a representation of reality and is not separate from life but is, in itself, reality; a total space of reflection and of traces of existence, a “polychromatic universe” to be explored. The artist works on the basic meaning of the stratification of material and memory, on the overlaying of time and space in the “production” of the work. In her most recent output, polyester filters become both the support for and the essential material of the work – surfaces that accumulate to “construct” the history of the work.

“Uahed! Uahed!” is a sound, a pure recollection that, like a lullaby, makes its way around an infant’s ear, unleashing a trip that runs backwards in time – an inventory of optical effects and moments belonging to memory – which ends up at a glimpsed landscape, an “early mind image” that the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti had of his childhood: the desert of Alexandria, in Egypt, where time and infinity are marked by the voices of the night guards at the edge of the desert, who would cry out Uahed! Uahed!

The “poetic projection” in Ungaretti’s desert sets the scene for a large Baggages, a polyester-filter sculpture, which arose directly out of this rumination on the concepts of knowledge and memory. Like an unexpected guest, human beings cannot fail to bring with them their baggage, constituted by an ensemble of things, both physical and mental, by ways of thinking and, above all, by a cultural heritage that is often as invasive as it is necessary. In this “mental scenario”, the tenuousness and lightness of the sand continually transform the landscape, mixing up the experiences and producing new meanings, resulting in the emergence of “carcasses” while obfuscating memories and emotions. This baggage is continually changing, but always anchored to those who generate it, shifting across an infinite backdrop in which the solitude of every existence becomes imagination, perception and freedom to interpret, leaving traces of existence.

IGAV, the not-for-profit institution largely funded by contributions from its partners, is thus pressing ahead with its commitment to support the cultural life of Saluzzo, both by providing the town with opportunities to chart the evolution of contemporary art – which plays a crucial global role in terms of culture, tourism and the economy – and by helping to raise the international profile of Saluzzo as a “City of Art”.

The Exhibition, hosted in the rooms on the ground floor of the 19th-century wing of the former jail and inaugurated in autumn 2009, is the fruit of IGAV’s partnership with the Municipality of Saluzzo. It showcases the works in the Permanent Collection and Exhibition and is periodically updated, in order to give the public not just a snapshot of the current art scene but also a dynamic insight into the evolution of Italian contemporary art. Alongside the works of the consolidated masters are those of young, emerging artists, who constitute the avant-garde of the art world in Italy, and who have already started to make a

name for themselves internationally. Over the course of the years, the Exhibition has featured around 100 works by more than 90 artists.

The new layout. The architectural layout was overhauled in its entirety last spring. Curated by Alessandro Demma, the new space is radically different in appearance: the previous layout, which drew its inspiration from the palazzo’s former incarnation as a jail, has morphed into a visual mechanism designed to re-decode the perception of the space and to afford the visitor the opportunity for a different, more effective sense of physical and mental participation.

20 important works of art have now come to the Castiglia to join the more than 40 that are already part of the permanent Exhibition, which is included in the limited number of “Contemporary Sites” recognised by the Italian Ministry of Culture and Tourism. 15 of these works are by artists who have participated in IGAV’s most prestigious international exhibitions over the past two years, and five are by artists whose work was already featured in the collection.

ARTISTS New arrivals (spring 2016): Matteo Basilè, Fabrizio Cotognini, Carlo Ferraris, Gioberto Noro, Pierpaolo Lista, Claudia Losi, Eleonora Manca, Tancredi Mangano, Massimo Mastrorillo, Marco Neri, Simon Perathoner, Pietro Privitera, Pierluigi Pusole, Alessandro Sarra and Ciro Vitale. New works by artists already featured in the Exhibition: Nicola Bolla, Filippo Centenari, Corinna Gosmaro, Elena Tortia, Luisa Valentini.

Original group: Maura Banfo, Gabriella Benedini, Domenico Borrelli, Stefano Cagol, Gianni Caravaggio, Davide Coltro, Dario Ghibaudo, Paolo Grassino, Paolo Leonardo, Nicus Lucà, Masbedo, Nino Migliori, Enrico Partengo, Francesco Sena, Saverio Todaro e Fabio Viale. The One Minutes Archive Section: Maura Banfo, Botto&Bruno, Bianco-Valente, Giulia Caira, Filippo Centenari, Danilo Correale, Valentina Ferrandes, Paolo Grassino, Moio&Sivelli.

The Permanent Collection and Exhibition forms part of “Contemporary Saluzzo – an IGAV ‘diffused art’ project”, staged in partnership with the Municipality of Saluzzo; under the patronage of Piedmont Region and the Province of Cuneo; with the support of the CRT Foundation; official partner Flyren.

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Corinna Gosmaro. “Uahed! Uahed!” – Project Room

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IGAV Permanent Collection and Exhibition – MIBACT Contemporary Site

Castiglia di Saluzzo Piazza Castello 1, ground floor – Saluzzo Inauguration Saturday, 15 October, 2016, 11am Free entry on the AMACI “Contemporary Day” (visiting times 10.30am12.30pm and 2.30pm-5pm)

Opening times for the IGAV Permanent Collection and Exhibition and the Corinna Gosmaro Project Room (also applicable to the Museo della Civiltà Cavalleresca and the Museo della Memoria Carceraria): Wednesday and Thursday 2.30pm-5pm; Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays 10.30am-12.30pm/2.30pm-5pm. In addition, guided tours of the Castiglia are available on Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays at 11am and 3.30pm. Entry fee: €7.

Ufficio Turistico IAT Saluzzo Piazza Risorgimento 1, Saluzzo (Cuneo) Tel. +39 0175 46710 Email: info@saluzzoturistica.it; iat@comune.saluzzo.cn.it Website: www.saluzzoturistica.it Facebook pages: La Castiglia e i Musei di Saluzzo and Saluzzo Mi Piace IGAV – Istituto Garuzzo per le Arti Visive Lungo Po Antonelli 21, Turin Tel. +39 011 8124456 Email: info@igav-art.org Website: www.igav-art.org Facebook page: Istituto Garuzzo Arti Visive Press Office IGAV, Elettra Pr Mauro Perego Tel. +39 393 8188596 Email: mauro.perego@elettrapr.it