Preface
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing is honored to launch a great show of the Italian artist Paolo Gioli curated by prof. Bruno Di Marino and Rosario Scarpato. This is the second exhibition of the artist in China after the successful show organized by offiCina Beijing in its art space at the 798 Art Factory in 2007.
Paolo Gioli: Anthological/Analogue is organized by Antonio Musci and Daniela Di Niso (Cineclub Canudo) and consists of three exhibitions, two in Italy and one in China, together with a series of side events on the artist's practice (1969-2019). Most of the artworks are supplied by Paolo Vampa, Gioli's main collector. Published by Silvana Editoriale, the catalogue contains essays in three languages by several international art critics and scholars.
With more than 100 outstanding works, the show has finally moved to China from June 26 to August 29. It is divided in four sections, Nature Body Face Medium, featuring big and small Polaroids displayed in dialogue with several films whose themes are very much connected to them. To be nicely adapted to the architectural Bauhaus-structure, the exhibition has been set up following a linear itinerary so that the visitor can experience the trespassing between techniques, devices and languages. Therefore, Gioli's bodies, chests and torsos with his still lives (flowers, leaves), his decomposed and recomposed faces, his thoughts towards the pioneers (homage to XIX century's masters such as Marey, Cameron, Eakins and the lithographs from his film frames) create a constant parallel between our reality and those imaginary worlds of the artist. In some cases, such as the Luminescenti photos, whose main subject is represented by Greek-Roman iconography, the very same classical art is the effective matter of Gioli's choice to be elaborated in his imagination. An almost complete survey of Gioli films will be also screened in the photography center in six projection's areas. All his films, with very few exceptions, were made in analogue, using film-stock. The most experimental ones, like Film stenopeico or Filmfinish were realized with a camera deprived of its essential components or with no camera at all (animation, found-footage, pinhole shootings, elaborations from photos, stop-motion, mattes, etc).
Painter, photographer, film-maker, Paolo Gioli is one the most innovative Italian artists of the last decades. Above all, for his ability to experiment with equal skillness in different fields, also by altering his devices, removing parts of or even eliminating them. His experimental films as well as his paintings and photographs are in the collection of several prime public institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou and the MEP (Musée Européen de la Photographie) in Paris, the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna and the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica in Rome. Lately, his photographs have entered even in the Collezione Arte Contemporanea of the Vatican museum. A multifaceted production, spreading over more than fifty years, which, although very diversified, remains consistent. His aesthetic is connected to the origin of the two medium that means to the works of the pioneers of the XIX century when photography was still developing and the cinema was yet to be invented. A very early stage, therefore, where the artist is able to facilitate a dialogue between fixed and moving image with surprising and stimulating results. It is to highlight that deeply unsophisticated nature, an archaeologist of media, that the adjective "analogue" has been added to the title of the show.
Previously, ANTHOLOGICAL/ANALOGUE Films and photographic works (1969-2019) was hosted in Apulia region's most ancient archeological museum, Castromediano, in Lecce from March 5 to May 9, 2021 displaying almost two hundreds works, mainly large Polaroids, films and portfolios of lithographic prints to highlight a confrontation between the pieces of the collection the museum is showing with the contemporary art. The second leg of the project opened on March 6 in the XVI century's halls of Palazzo Tupputi in Bisceglie. Just Screens presented a series of acrylic and silk-screen paintings made by Gioli during the 70's. They established a sort of discussion with both the Renaissance venue and the frescoes of the beautiful Palace. As an alchemical exchange of themes and processes, these works are derived from frames of his films (Traumatografo or Immagini disturbate da un intenso parassita) and/or from his photographic works (pinhole or strip photographs).
About the Artist
Paolo Gioli was born in Sarzano (Rovigo) on 12 October 1942. In 1960, Gioli settled for a few years in Venice, where he attended the Scuola Libera del Nudo, part of the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1967, he travelled to New York, where he remained one year. He received a study grant from the John Cabot Foundation of Boston and met with art dealers Leo Castelli and Martha Jackson. In America, he also discovered the "New American Cinema."
In 1970, he moved to Rome, where he got in touch with Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente. It was between Rome and his home near Venice that he produced his first films, which he developed himself, using a camera as his laboratory, following in the footsteps of the Lumières. In 1976, he moved to Milan, where, in addition to making films, he also deepened his interest for photography. Notably, Gioli found the Polaroid to be a surprisingly flexible means with which he could carry out his research in photography. Moreover, by transferring the film onto support other than the original, such as onto paper or canvas, Gioli elevated the Polaroid to the level of the fine arts.
In the early eighties Gioli began to get significant recognition for his activities in photography: with a solo show at the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica di Roma (1981), at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1983), at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles - a city where he was invited to exhibit several times, including a solo exhibition at Arles' Réattu Museum (1987). His work was featured on the cover of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers' AIPAD) fair's catalogue. In 2006, Rarovideo published a two-set DVD with a selection of fourteen of his films. That same year, Gioli's films were showcased for the first time in Views from the Avant-Garde, the New York Film Festival's specialized program for experimental film, where Gioli would consistently present his work in subsequent years.
That following year, Gioli was invited as an artist on focus to the 44th Hong Kong International Film Festival, where he was since then invited each year to present his latest work. In 2008, a selection of his films were presented at the Ontario Cinémathèque in Toronto. He subsequently participated in the Toronto lnternational Film Festival's avant-garde section, Wavelength. In June 2009, the Pesaro Film Festival paid a tribute to Gioli with a complete retrospective of his films, as did the Cinémathèque Française in Paris the following year. In December 2009, the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC) in Rome published a monograph on his work as a filmmaker. In the summer of 2014, the American art magazine Artforum featured a major article on him.
In 2015, a second DVD was released with his complete works, again, published by Rarovideo with two editions: one for the European market and another for the American one. That same year, Gioli participated in the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, where he presented a selection of his works at the Italian Pavilion. After a series of solo exhibitions at various museums and art galleries, in 2020, a team of professors from the Sorbonne III headed by Phlippe Dubois and Antonio Somaini published a volume in French on Gioli's complete works entitled, Paolo Gioli. Impressions sauvages, edited by Les Presses du Réel. Gioli's films are distributed by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and by LightCone in Paris. For his artworks, Gioli is represented by Galleria del Cembalo in Rome. Gioli currently lives and works in Lendinara, Italy (www. paologioli.it).
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