JAUME PLENSA: TOGETHER
THE 56TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
May 9, 2015 – November 22, 2015
JAUME PLENSA:
TOGETHER
May 9, 2015 –
November 22, 2015
A SERIES OF
NEW SCULPTURAL INSTALLATIONS IN COLLABORATION WITH ABBAZIA DI SAN GIORGIO
MAGGIORE COLLATERAL EVENT OF THE 56TH INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION LA BIENNALE
DI VENEZIA
On the
occasion of the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia,
one of Venice’s most celebrated landmarks, the Basilica of San Giorgio
Maggiore, will host Together, a major exhibition of new works by Spanish artist
Jaume Plensa.
Plensa
(Spain, b.1955) is one of the world’s foremost artists working in the public
art space, with permanent works spanning the globe including the Crown Fountain
(Chicago), Echo (Seattle), Breathing (London) and Roots (Tokyo). The exhibition
is curated by Clare Lilley, Director of Programmes at Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
The works in the exhibition all make their debut in San Giorgio and reflect the
artist’s continued interest in a bodily relationship to space, scale, material
and place.
For four
hundred years the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore has been a place of worship,
communication and meditation, where Palladio’s profound architecture creates a
stilling and contemplative environment. Plensa’s response to this powerful
space is Together; a conversation between two sculptures - hand, suspended
beneath the cupola in the foreground of the altar, and head, sited in the nave.
Placed on the dominant westeast axis of the building, the works set up a line
of spiritual and intellectual discourse which evokes emotion and seeks to
connect with his viewers on an intuitive level.
As a speaker
of five languages alongside a nomadic life that takes him around the globe,
Plensa’s work reflects a desire to break down barriers. Merging difference is a
cornerstone of his work, and here it is further emphasized by the installation
of meticulous drawings and a group of five alabaster portraits in the
contiguous Officina dell'Arte Spirituale, located 300 meters from the entrance
to the Basilica on the island’s northern edge. Plunged in darkness and lit to
reveal their luminous opacity, the sculptures were carved using reformed scans
of real girls; chosen because, like nomads, they have traveled, settled and
traveled again. Chosen, too, because they are teenage girls on the cusp of leaving
and arriving, whose potential – like that of all humanity - so deeply
glows.
Plensa’s
sculptures reference a Judeo-Christian tradition while connecting with a much
longer human history, where the making of art has social purpose and which we
see played out across histories and geographies – in heads from the Croatian
Upper Paleolithic, carved some 26,000 years ago; in exquisite, elongated hands
incised in stone from 1300 BCE Egypt. For these and other reasons, Plensa’s
forms will connect people and welcome them into the Basilica. Made from
stainless steel which distills and diffuses light, Plensa’s hand and head are
at times transmutable hazes that pull and root the gaze. The opening, gestural
hand formed from characters of eight languages, speaks of a coming together of
peoples and traditions. Similarly, Nuria’s face speaks of diversity; indeed the
subject is the daughter of a Chinese friend in Barcelona, who in her young life
has already crossed many borders.
Clare Lilley,
Curator, commented: “Plensa’s installations for the Isola di San Georgio
Maggiore are testament to his acute understanding of space and scale. His
sculptures do not impose themselves on these historic spaces; rather they
capture and reflect the actual light and shadows within to communicate a
metaphorical language. Both visually stunning and intimate, they draw our
attention to a world where migration and difference challenge civilised
behaviour; in this place, which for centuries has welcomed world travellers,
Plensa’s work will connect people of many faiths and of no faith.”
In
collaboration with the monks of the Abbazia di San Giorgio, as part of the
cultural activities of the Benedicti Claustra Onlus, Together hopes to advance
the Benedictine community’s efforts to develop a number of restoration projects
of the monumental Palladian complex on San Giorgio Maggiore. Inspired by
textual elements in the body of Plensa’s work, the project has contributed a
significant donation to restore the Abbazia’s 15th and 16th Century illuminated
manuscripts; prayer books previously too delicate for public view.
Dr. Carmelo
Grasso, head of the Benedicti Claustra Onlus explains: “During the Plensa
exhibition an 'Illuminated choral' of San Giorgio Maggiore Abbey, liturgical
instrument of prayer and spiritual dialogue used by the monks for centuries for
the daily Opus Dei and community prayer, will be placed on the lectern of
badalone's choir behind the main altar. This is the contribution of the
Benedictine Community to strengthen the sense of togetherness and the
intellectual and spiritual dialogue between the hand, the head and those who
wish to enter into a relationship with the artist's work and the great
Palladian Basilica.”
You may
visit Jaume Plensa’s exhibitions news at Tampa Museum, Galerie Lelong Paris, Espoo
Museum of Modern Arts, Finland and Galerie Lelong New York to click below
links.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2016/04/jaume-plensa-human-landscape-at-tampa.html
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2013/11/jaume-plensa-at-galerie-lelong-new-york.html
TOGETHER 2014 ( DETAIL )
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
TOGETHER 2014 ( DETAIL )
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
TOGETHER 2014 ( DETAIL )
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
TOGETHER 2014
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
TOGETHER 2014 ( DETAIL )
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
TOGETHER 2014
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 147 x 120 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
TOGETHER 2014 & MIST 2014
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore 2015
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore 2015
MIST 2014
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
MIST 2014 ( DETAIL )
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
TOGETHER 2014 & MIST 2014
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore 2015
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore 2015
Photo: Jonty Wilde
MIST 2014
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Stainless Steel
Dimensions: 525 x 531 x 425 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
SLUMBERLAND XIV ( NATALIE ) 2014
Graphite on Paper
Dimensions: 143 x 113 cm
Photo: Fotograpfia Gasull
Graphite on Paper
Dimensions: 143 x 113 cm
Photo: Fotograpfia Gasull
LOU, OLIVIA, DUNA, SANNA II, LAURA III - 2015
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
LAURA III - 2015
Alabaster
Dimensions: 180 x 64 x 67 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Alabaster
Dimensions: 180 x 64 x 67 cm
Photo: Jonty Wilde
LOU, OLIVIA, DUNA, SANNA II, LAURA III - 2015
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
Photo: Jonty Wilde
LOU, OLIVIA, DUNA, SANNA II, LAURA III - 2015
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
Photo: Jonty Wilde
Alabaster
Dimensions Variable
Installation View From Together, San Giorgio Maggiore (2015)
Photo: Jonty Wilde
BASILICA DU SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE
BASILICA DU SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE
The monastic community of San Giorgio was founded in 982,
when the island was donated to the Benedictine Giovanni Morosini by Doge
Tribuno Memmo to build a monastery dedicated to San Giorgio. When the
celebrated Italian architect Andrea Palladio arrived in Venice in 1560, he made
great improvements to the refectory, and in 1565 was asked to prepare a model
for a new church. Although work was not completed until Palladio’s death in
1580, the body of the church was complete by 1575 and it was ultimately
finished thirty years after the death of Palladio in 1610. The interior of the
church contains beautiful sculptures and considerable works of art created by
Jacopo and Leandro da Bassano, Sebastiano Ricci, and Domenico and Jacopo
Tintoretto. The church of San Giorgio achieved the title of ‘basilica’ under
pressure from the Venetian prelate Giuseppe Sarto (the future Pope Pius X) to
mark the hundredth anniversary of the election of Pope Pius VII.
JAUME PLENSA
Jaume Plensa,
born is Barcelona in 1955. From 1980 with his first exhibition in
Barcelona until today, he has lived and worked in Berlin, Brussels, England,
France, USA, and he currently shares his residence between Paris and Barcelona.
He has been a
teacher at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and has also been a
lecturer at many universities and art institutions. He collaborates as
professor invited at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Since 1992 he
has obtained various distinctions and awards, both national and international,
notably his investiture as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French
Ministry of Culture (Paris, 1993), the National Culture Award for Plastic Arts
of the Government of Catalonia (Barcelona, 1997), Honorary Doctorate from the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2005), the Mash Award for
Public Sculpture (London, 2009), the National Award for Plastic Arts (Madrid,
2012), and most recently, the National Award for Graphic Arts 2013 (Madrid,
2013)
His
sculptural work has gone through several stages developed largely with
recuperation materials, iron, bronze, cooper, … In 1986, he started a series of
cast iron sculptures, then he incorporated light and relief written text.
Recently his melting materials have been synthetic resin, glass, alabaster,
plastic, light, video and sound. He also has a large production of works on
paper and etchings.
Beside his
sculptural oeuvre he is collaborating often working on stage design and
costumes for opera and theatre productions.
A significant
part of Plensa’s production is set in the context of public sculpture, a sphere
in which he has works installed in Spain, France, Japan, the United Kingdom,
Korea, Germany, Canada, the USA, etc. The Crown Fountain,
2004, in Chicago’s Millennium Park, is one of his biggest project, and
undoubtedly one of his most brilliant. In 2005 he finished Breathing, which is installed in
the new BBC building in London, in 2007 Conversation à Nice for the place Masséna in Nice,
(France), El Alma del Ebro for the Expo
Zaragoza, 2008, in Zaragoza, (Spain) and in 2009 Dream for St Helens,
Liverpool, (UK) and World Voices in
Dubai in 2009 (UAE), Ogijima’s
Soul in Ogijima, 2010, Japan, Awilda in Salzburg, 2010, Austria,Tolerance, for the city of
Houston, in 2011 (USA), and Echo for
Madison Square Park, 2011, in New York, Mirror,
2012, for the University of Houston, and Olhar nos meus Sonhos in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012 and most recently, Wonderland in the city of Calgary, Canada.
Currently he is exhibiting in the city of Bordeaux.
His work has
been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in Europe, the United States
and Japan: Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (Spain); Galerie Nationale du Jeu de
Paume, Paris (France); Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax (United Kingdom);
Malmö Konsthall, Malmö (Sweden); Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim (Germany);
Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon (France); Museo Luigi Pecci, Prato (Italy);
Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (Germany); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung
Ludwig, Vienna (Austria); Palacio de Velázquez - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofía, Madrid; BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (United
Kingdom); the Arts Club Center for Contemporary Art, Chicago (USA); Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Caen (France); Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg (Germany), Kunsthalle
Mannheim Museum (Germany), Centro de Arte Comtemporáneo, (Málaga); Musée d’Art
Contemporain, Nice (France); IVAM Institut Valencià d’Art Modern,
Valencia, (Spain); The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand
Rapids, Michigan, (USA), The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, (USA); Picasso
Museum, Antibes (France), The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, (United Kingdom), Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki etc.
He regularly
shows his art works at Galerie Lelong in Paris, Galerie Lelong, New York and
Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and New York.
