LUCA MASSARO AND ANNA MERCI
Agorà
Agorà is a new work created during an artist residency in Gibellina, as part of the Call “Fotografia Spazio Aperto” in collaboration with Triennale Milano.. Following the site-specific and time-specific method of the ten-year work Dizionario Vol.1 (2012-2022), Massaro photographs words, signs and graphics of a city, Gibelllina, with an almost non-existent urban typography. The result is a series of new “canvases” between the pictorial, sculptural and photographic again, hand painted starting from the photographic matrix of words shot in Gibellina. The exhibition in the public space exploits the generative qualities of time, both atmospheric and chronological, to give back to the city, “typographical bodies of work” on which the passage of time is imprinted, like on a photographic negative.
In this installation designed by Anna Merci, Luca Massaro’s work appears to flutter in mid-air, supported by a willowy structure in which the aesthetics answer to precise functional requirements. The original dimensions of Franco Purini and Laura Thermes’s piazza are partly reproduced to give form to a new, more dynamic spatiality, with the floor – dark volcanic stone crisscrossed by contrasting lines of pale travertine – brought to life through its elevation to the vertical plane. This embracing of Gibellina’s urban imperfection is a conscious choice that excludes a dominant point of view: every image finds its own unique space of dialogue with the city, suggesting new and unexpected perspectives from which to read it.
BIO LUCA MASSARO
Luca Massaro (Reggio Emilia, 1991 – Lives and works in Milan) is an artist and photographer who works with Images and Words. His projects have been published internationally (FOAM, Aperture, Mousse, Purple, M Le Monde, i-D, Danilo Montanari, Skinnerboox, Art Paper Editions) and exhibited in group and solo exhibitions: among others, Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Montevideo) , Viasaterna (Milan), MBAL Museum (Le Locle), Museo Degli Eremitani (Padua), MAR Museum (Ravenna), BACO Contemporary Art (Bergamo), Peckham 24 (London), Matèria (Rome), Printed Matter (New York) , Photo Weekend (Düsseldorf), Triennale Museum (Milan), Palazzo Del Governatore (Parma European Capital of Culture), European Photography Festival (Reggio Emilia). His work is present in private and public collections, such as the Regione Emilia Romagna, MBAL Museum, Benetton Foundation (Nascimben Award), the Italian Cultural Institute of Montevideo. Art Paper Editions published in 2023 his third monography Dizionario Vol.1 (2012-2022). Since 2020 he is represented by the gallery Viasaterna.
BIO ANNA MERCI
Anna Merci (Verona, Italy 1982), founder of the Anna Merci Architecture studio, is graduated with honors in Architecture from the IUAV in Venice, and she holds a master’s degree in Strategies and Tools for a Sustainable Architecture. In 2013, she won the “New Italian Blood Award”, selected as the best ten young Italian architects. In 2016 she became a member of Renzo Piano G124, the working group of the Senator on Italian suburbs. Since 2008 she won international competitions, awards and the results have been published in various international magazines. She has participated in architectural exhibitions worldwide (among others, Athens, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne) including Milan Triennale and La Biennale di Architettura di Venezia. She also works as a curator and researcher. In 2022 Anna Merci Architecture was the only Italian firm among the winners of the “The Europe 40under40” Next New Talented Generation of European Architects award. She is currently completing “Follow Me!”, an 33.180 square meters archaeological urban park in the historical context of Canosa di Puglia.