Dennis Del Favero | VISCERA
Cavallerizza / Recontemporary
13 September — 14 October 2023
Opening 13 September, 6:00 pm
OPENING
13 settembre, 18 – 21
Cavallerizza Reale / Via G. Verdi 9
Recontemporary / Via G. Ferrari 12b
free entry
exhibition curated by Recontemporary
in collaboration with Paratissima and Cavallerizza Reale
with the Patronage of the City of Turin
and the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo
Recontemporary, an independent space for video art, in collaboration with Paratissima and Cavallerizza Reale, presents VISCERA, the first solo exhibition in Italy by the Australian artist Dennis Del Favero.
Seven technologically advanced video artworks that delve into the relationship between human and nature, incorporating motion tracking, 3D video, and artificial intelligence, divided between Recontemporary (Via Gaudenzio Ferrari 12/b) and the spaces of Cavallerizza Reale (Via Giuseppe Verdi 9) in Turin.The dictionary defines as “viscera” the innermost part of the human body, animal or earth itself. Similarly, Dennis Del Favero’s exhibition explores the most intimate, concealed, and internal aspects of nature and how humans engage with it.
Today more than ever, facing environmental emergencies is of crucial importance, and Del Favero is capable of extending our sensitivity in both a delicate and intense way.
“While this summer, as in previous years, countless wildfires are destroying vast tracts of forests and habitats in the landscapes of Canada, Australia, California, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey or Siberia and the melting of the Arctic icebergs and permafrost in Alaska inexorably progress, Dennis Del Favero embarks on a series of seminal works that render the implications of such planetary destruction and the wider implications of global warming palpable.” Professor Ursula Frohne writes about the exhibition in the catalogue text.
Monumental videos immerse the viewer first in a fire, then in a stormy sea, thanks to the use of special glasses developed through the advanced technological research of the iCinema Center in Sydney. The audience is thus compelled to confront the human sense of helplessness in the face of an ongoing change, too immense for a single individual to grasp. However, the exhibition inspires us to act. Impossibility is dissolved by the realization that, despite being small particles of the whole, as in Nebula or Slipstream, as a community we are capable of giving rise to movements and actions. A shared commitment can therefore help us in improving the future and seeking solutions for a more harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The advanced technologies produced by the iCinema Center under the artist’s direction allow the message to be expressed in an imposing way. The extreme precision and technological innovation of the softwares employed allow the viewer to immerse themselves in the monumental projections and images of Dennis Del Favero’s work, experiencing first-hand the power of a rebellious Nature and humanity’s fleeting presence within it.
The opening will take place on September 13th from 6 to 9 PM at Via Gaudenzio Ferrari 12 and Via G. Verdi 9. On September 14th, coinciding with the opening of the artistic season in Turin with TAG, both Recontemporary and Cavallerizza will be open to the public with a special extension until 10 PM.
Admission to the exhibition is free. There is no specific order between the two locations, which are located 5 minutes apart on foot. Both locations are fully accessible.
Exhibited art pieces
- Penumbra 1.0. (Cavallerizza) 2022, Installazione in computer graphics e intelligenza artificiale stereoscopica 3D, bianco e nero, suono 5.1, durata 8’, anche disponibile come video a un canale 4K
- Medusa (Cavallerizza) 2023, Installazione grafica stereoscopica 3D a un canale, bianco e nero, stereo, durata 4’, anche disponibile come video single channel 4K e NFT
- Ellipsis 2.0. (Cavallerizza) 2023, Installazione video single channel, bianco e nero, stereo, durata 3’ 40’’, disponibile anche come video single channel 4K
- Nebula 5.0. (Recontemporary) 2023, Installazione in computer graphics e intelligenza artificiale stereoscopica 3D, bianco e nero, durata 15’, disponibile anche come video a un canale 4K
- Slipstream (Recontemporary) 2017, Installazione video a 3 canali, bianco e nero, stereo, durata 4’, disponibile anche come video a un canale 4K
Partner info
Paratissima
Paratissima is a hybrid and multiform brand: both a container capable of giving space to major national and international exhibitions, and a sounding board capable of amplifying the voice of emerging artists, arousing the attention and curiosity of the general public.
Founded in 2005 as a self-managed event, over the years it has expanded its range of action by enriching itself with numerous projects born and developed in collaboration with public and private bodies.
Presently located in the architectural complex of the Cavallerizza Reale, Paratissima stands as a cultural reference point for the City of Turin, actively involving citizens with exhibitions, events, activities, courses, workshops and workshops for adults and children. Faithful to its mission, Paratissima configures itself simultaneously as an incubator of emerging artists through calls, tenders and exhibition opportunities both offline and online.
Galerie Brigitte Schenk
Galerie Brigitte Schenk was founded in Cologne in 1993 by Brigitte Schenk. The regular gallery program has developed to feature artists like Curtis Anderson, Klaus Fritze, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Marilyn Manson, Arnulf Rainer and Maria Zerres; meanwhile her work in the MENA region (the Middle East and North Africa) from 1999 on as one of the real pioneers in the field has led to artists of that region showing with increasing regularity in Europe. Tarek Al-Ghoussein’s representing Kuwait and Abdullah Al Saadi the UAE at the respective Venice Biennale pavilions in 2013 were cases in point. Recently Magdi Mostafa and Halim Al Karim joined the gallery.
Additionally Brigitte Schenk has organized various exhibitions in the MENA region and participated several times with her artists at the Biennial in Sharjah, UAE. In 2014 she co-curated a voluminous exhibition of the collection of His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah and additionally “Works from the Sharjah Art Foundation” together with Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi in Cologne.The exhibitions: “Considering Dynamics and the Forms of Chaos” with Angela Bullock and Maria Zerres 2016 and “Subversive Forms of Social Sculpture” with Heimo Zobernig and Abdulnasser Gharem 2018 at the Sharjah Art Museum followed as well as the installation of the permanent large scale project “Rainroom” by Random International 2017.
iCinema Centre
The iCinema Centre is a multidisciplinary center focused on the development of AI-based creative visualisation across the Faculties of Arts, Architecture and Design, Australian Defence Force Academy, Engineering and Science of Sydney at UNSW. As the world is increasingly disrupted by climate change, visualising unpredictable processes in sensorially compelling ways is of paramount concern. Faced with increasingly unanticipated and distributed situations such as landscapes riven by megafires, the academic and industrial sectors are utilising fully immersive and intelligent visualisation systems to explore and prototype these events in order to optimise practical understanding and effective decision making. At the cutting edge of this research is the problem of how to visually depict these situations by integrating the way AI rapidly analyses underlying patterns with the human capacity to experientially interpret and respond.
Critical here is the development of a collaborative and experiential framework that facilitates the aesthetic visualisation of unforseen and multi-located scenarios and their translation for communities and emergency services. This involves open-ended decision making and situational awareness between users and AI scenarios – an as yet unattained goal in visualisation research. Such a framework involves integrating research into AI aesthetics with advances in 3D environments, so that visualisation operates as a collaborative exploration by networked AI and human agencies in ways that were previously unimaginable.
Author biography
Dennis Del Favero is a Scientia Professor of Digital Innovation, Director of the iCinema Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and Visiting Professor at Royal College of Art, London. He is the first ever artist to be awarded Australia’s most prestigious fellowship, the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship with a grant of US $2.4 million. The other 200 odd Laureates awarded since the scheme’s inception have gone to internationally recognised scientists and humanists. For the Laureate Del Favero is leading a team of artists, AI, computer and fire scientists, from leading international universities, to use artificially intelligent visualisation technology to interactively depict the new world of unpredictable extreme wildfires recently seen in Hawaii. Based on an extensive dataset of actual fires in geographically dispersed global locations, the viewer is transported into cinematic wildfire scenarios where they can interact with the uncertainties of an evolving fiery landscape to enhance their aesthetic and practical engagement with its independent agency and unanticipated dynamics. This is opposed to the two-dimensional linear graphs typically used by climate scientists which are unpersuasive due to their abstract and linear nature. By visualizing this new world of violent fires, Del Favero is making a vital contribution aesthetically and scientifically to our understanding, readiness and response to these unprecedented events. Currently Del Favero is preparing a proposal for a US $30 million Centre of Excellence for the visualisation of extreme events such as firestorms and flashfloods with a consortium of world-renowned universities including Cambridge and Stanford. His work is represented by Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne and Mais Wright Gallery, Sydney.
Galleria
