Partiture illeggibili

Curated by Angela Madesani

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Artists: Greta Schödl, Leila Mirzakhani, Nina Carini; Marcia Hafif, Max Cole, Elena Modorati

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Partiture illegibili is a project curated by Angela Madesani that consists of two exhibitions: the first one puts in dialogue Greta Schödl, Leila Mirzakhani and Nina Carini at Labs Gallery, Via Santo Stefano 38 in Bologna from 14 December 2019 to 22 February 2020; the second one involves Marcia Hafif, Max Cole and Elena Modorati at Artefiera Bologna from 24 to 26 January 2020, now transferred to the Gallery until 28 March 2020.

The two exhibitions present a dialogue on the sign through the works of three historical and three contemporary artists. They are artists with very different paths, brought together by the curator on the occasion of the exhibition both from the point of view of the theme addressed, and from that of the procedure of working, understood as a daily exercise that involves mind and body. 

Marcia Hafif has used graphite on drawing paper for her works because, as she says: "These are the most elementary materials, which are used to make art, always at hand and which do not require preparation time". The light signs in her works create scores, in which time and space confront each other, without producing any meanings whatsoever. 

In Max Cole's works on paper the sign, repeated as in a visual mantra, is the absolute protagonist. Explains the curator in the text in the catalogue: "His is a sort of sign discipline is the leitmotif of the American artist's research. What appear to be clear lines, horizontal in abstract space, are actually lines of different sizes in which short vertical drives act as a counterpoint in a rhythmic dimension".

For Greta Schödl too, meditation is a key aspect of the work. Madesani again: "In the Austrian artist's research the design aspect is absent. Her works, of different sizes, are beyond a precise temporal dimension. They are diachronic works that unite several moments, in which dating sometimes loses its meaning". In his book-works, almost all of them in a single copy, are glued fragments of nature, pages from ancient books of sacred subjects and parts of gold. 

"Writing as a sign that establishes meaning in a sense that refers to archetypes, to a sort of primary moment, in which it is the sign that scratches the earth and establishes coordinates with which you can orient yourself", this is how Elena Modorati describes her way of seeing the sign. In her works there are references to Flemish painting, to its intimate and nostalgic dimension.

Leila Mirzakhani's works are made with an essential technique, pencil on paper as it was for Marcia Hafif. In her works thought is dominant, while technique is at her service. The pencil creates the primitive, archetypal sign that brings the mind back to the sign of man before the advent of history. What we see is the result of a process, which starts from the artist herself: her actions, thoughts, rituals are rooted in the deepest zone of thought.

Nina Carini's installation works are on display. At the centre of the moon is a long necklace of spheres, large and small, which culminate in the moon, covered by black wires that connect it to the top. The moon pulls her hair, drags her. The investigation of time, as for the other artists of Partiture legabili, is an essential element of her research, as is the investigation of the themes of language. On display is Je t'aime (2019) composed of 110 sheets printed by hand with ink and transparine. Transparin was added to each printed sheet in minimal doses, sheet after sheet. So that in the last one the phrase Je t'aime disappears. It is a performative work. The choice of the phrase is not random. "I chose it because it's one of the most complex phrases in human language. "

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