Nicola Samorì

November 14, 2015 – February 1, 2016
Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio, Bologna, Piazza Galvani 1

The project Les Gares finds its second venue at the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio in Bologna with the exhibition of Nicola Samorì titled Gare du Sud (November 14, 2015 – February 1, 2016). Gare du Sud is in direct dialogue with the first show held in Amsterdam, Gare du Nord (July 16 – August 15, 2015), which launched this international research. In the Dutch capital in the exhibition at de Waag, the magnificent octagonal theatre where Rembrandt painted the famous Anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, three artists (Sonja Bäumel, Laurent-David Garnier and Nicola Samorì) were confronted with the history of the theatre, its space and its possible readings. Fundamental on this occasion was the contribution of some works from the Vrolik Museum, the Museum of Anatomy of Amsterdam. Les Gares proposes to develop an ongoing historical and artistic study of anatomy theatres in which it temporarily settles, with particular attention given to the different social contexts in which the anatomical dissections were performed. These researches, conducted through a study on site, the involvement of specialists and the analyses of documents lead to the realization of a conference and an exhibition, always site-specific.
If in Amsterdam the anatomization had yet to start since the figure of Nicola Samorì placed at the centre of the theatre was still standing, criminal and surgeon at the same time, the visitor is welcomed in Bologna when the operation is at an advanced stage. In the “room for the function of Anatomy”, “venue for the control of the truth and for the contemplation of each open secret” the artist has performed the first cuts, raising the decaying organs from the figure resting on the dissecting table. The sculpture is in dialogue with an altarpiece placed on the chair, where the lector was used to holdhis dispute, presenting the unfolding of the dissection process. Samorì desired to occupy both sides, in an act that considers the history of the theatre in its various actors and in its various phases. This sculptural performance also includes viewers who admire the curious secret crack on a wall of the theatre mentioned in the Acts of the “Congregazione della Gabella Grossa”, from which it was perhaps possible to look without being seen.
Always interested in the domain of time, the artist has considered the process of anatomy. And if we asked about the nature of the entity placed on the table, covered with a grain of sand?

“Depriving the dead of the burial is an absolute outrage. Antigone refuses the order of Creon not to bury Polynices. To obey the sacred duty imposed by the gods, but also dictated by unwritten laws, Antigone scatters dust over the corpse of her brother. For this act of piety, she will be sentenced to death and buried alive in the tomb of Labdacidi from which she was descended.”
Jean Clair, De Immundo

The project Gare du Sud, realized in collaboration with Istituzione Biblioteche of the Comune of Bologna – Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio, is part of the programme of ART CITY Bologna 2016 on the occasion of ARTE FIERA.
A project by Chiara Ianeselli

Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10-18
Saturday 10-19
Sunday and public holidays 10-14 25, 26, 27 December, 1st and 6th January 14-19

Thanks to the Monitor Gallery, Rome.

July 17 – August 16 2015
Theatrum Anatomicum,
Amsterdam, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR

“Auditor, te disce, et dum per singula vadis, crede vel in minima parte latere Deum”. “Listener, learn yourself, and while you proceed through the individual [organs], believe that God lies hidden in even the smallest part”

Caspar Barleus, On the new anatomy theatre at Amsterdam in “Poemata”, Editio IV, Amsterdam, 1645-6, pars ii, p. 537.

Gare du Nord, a project initiated by Chiara Ianeselli and developed with Lucas Evers of Waag Society, opens
on July 16th 2015 at 6 pm in the historic, anatomical theatre of de Waag building in Amsterdam.

The exhibition includes site-specific commissions of Sonja Bäumel (AT), Laurent-David Garnier (FR) and Nicola Samorì (IT). Along with the curator, the artists have researched the history of the building visible in its inheritance: the octagonal shape hosted anatomical dissections since the XVII century. Lessons were held in the theatre to investigate shapes and structures that human and animal biology would reveal when properly questioned. Maps and anatomical plates have been used to guide surgeons through the dissections, while a large and composite audience admired human knowledge itself moving forward. The place for viewing, as originally theatre means, welcomes this exhibition about the identity of the body, its boundaries, membrane and skins. Gare du Nord also relates to the contemporary practices housed in the Waag building: the visual arts and early medical sciences not only met in the past through the act of seeing, but they also cross today through interactions and collaborations that produce new insights on and give new meanings to bodies and technology.

Gare du Nord investigates the nature of men inside the Theatrum Anatomicum, the stage of mankind pour l’excellence, a watchtower in the Nord temporary inhabited by three overseers.The sentence written along the walls of the theatre (a quote by the humanist Caspar Barlaeus) has been read and interpreted by the artists that have researched from various spectacles the smallest part. Those spectacles, tools for research, artworks, earlier named anatomical plates, become in Gare du Nord concave and convex lenses similar to mirrors. In their interaction they show an expanding body rather than a singular, isolated organ.

A project curated by Chiara Ianeselli in collaboration with Lucas Evers, Waag Society

Participating artists: Sonja Bäumel, Laurent-David Garnier, Nicola Samorì
Opening: 16 July 2015, 6 pm
Opening hours: From Thursday to Sunday: 12 am – 6 pm

January 18-March 22, 2015

TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art
4 Świętego Ducha st.
70-205 Szczecin, Poland

TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to present Poland’s first comprehensive institutional exhibition devoted to the art of Nicola Samorì. In his paintings, sculptures, and room installations, he invites the viewer to partake not only into a deeply visual, but also a profoundly physical experience. Combining a sense-penetrating intensity inspired by the theatrical aesthetics of renaissance and baroque art with modern references to the gesture-led field of post-war expressionist painters, Samori’s meticulously paint compositions, hand carved marble sculptures and shimmering abstract canvasses form the basis for his reflections on the role of classicism and the figurative form in contemporary art today.
The exhibition as a whole realizes a sum of the artist’s body of work. In approaching the surfaces of his paintings as a material skin, Samori puts his compositions through an aggressive physical transformation which forces a reordering of the viewer’s perception. In the deconstruction which the work undergoes, it is pushed over the boundary of the strictly 2D and physically enters the viewer’s space. In other paintings Samori continues to experiment with abstract and ‘hidden’ compositions in copper, gold, and silver, which reference the visual practices of icon writing.
In his site-specific installation at TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Samori reduces the concept of personal belief to its essential components, the worshipper and the deity, thereby divesting it of its fundamental determinants, namely social context and history. As the viewer is further confronted by an archeological level which becomes viewable in the same moment, the build up of layers of religious and aesthetic history reveal subjective perceptions in the viewer’s own approach to personal belief. Hence, Samori’s installation is not only a forceful reminder of the very pagan roots of modern religion, but is also an examination of modern personal religious practices, or lack thereof, and its reverberations in contemporary art today.

Press Preview: January 15, 2015 at 2 p.m.
Exhibition: January 18-March 22, 2015
Public Opening: January 17, 2015 at 7.00 p.m.
Panel Discussion: January 18, 2015 at 12 noon
Curator: Marie-Eve Lafontaine

visiting hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
T: +48 91 400 00 49

www.trafo.org

September 14 – January 04
Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen

Dutch painting of the Golden Age is regarded as the epitome of realistic, “true” depiction of the visible world. Whether the work be a landscape, a portrait or a still-life, the modern viewer is always spellbound by the detailed accuracy of Baroque artists’ painting. But truth goes beyond mere appearance: the paintings often contain coded allegories, tiny hints and allusions, which only the attentive (and knowledgeable) spectator sees, deeper meanings founded on theological and philosophical truths.
There are many connection points with contemporary painting here. The framework of cultural references has of course changed considerably since Baroque times, but looking at old and modern art side by side gives rise to an exciting, surprising and revealing dialogue that opens up new perspectives on truths that only become visible through painting. The works from the SØR Rusche Collection Oelde/Berlin demonstrate this principle of dialogue convincingly. The private collection owned by Thomas Rusche, which has been built up over generations and originally focused on 17th-century art, has now been expanded by the owner to include important representatives of international contemporary art such as Neo Rauch, David Schnell and Matthias Weischer. But Rusche does not just concentrate on well-known figures; he discovers new artists who enrich the dialogue and make the collection unmistakable. The collection shows a selection that explores the question of “truths” in five sections and genres – still-lives, landscapes, physiognomy, history and phantasmagoria.
The art expert Mark Gisborne, much sought after on the international scene as a curator and author, has been the custodian of the collection for many years and will curate the exhibition for Bayer Arts & Culture. A book will be published about the exhibition.

Bayer Kulturhaus
Nobelstraße 37, 51373 Leverkusen
http://www.bayer.com

24 Maggio – 31 Agosto 2014

Stadtgalerie – Kiel

Dal 24 Maggio al 31 agosto 2014 la Stadtgalerie di Kiel ospiterà il “VI° Premio Fondazione VAF”, Posizioni attuali dell’arte Italiana. La mostra, già ospitata nello SCHAUWERK di Sindelfingen dal 9 febbraio al 27 aprile, presenta gli attuali sviluppi della giovane arte italiana. La Fondazione VAF prosegue così la sua ambiziosa serie di mostre assegnando per la sesta volta consecutiva il premio ad un giovane artista italiano creando al contempo, oltre alla premiazione in sé, una piattaforma privilegiata di confronto per gli artisti che avranno modo di presentare i loro lavori più recenti. In mostra i lavori di Guglielmo Castelli, Flavio De Marco, Marco Di Giovanni, Rä Di Martino, Zoè Gruni, Jacopo Mazzonelli, Margherita Moscardini, Caterina Nelli, Maria Elisabetta Novello, Giovanni Ozzola, Laurina Paperina, Nicola Samorì, Marco Maria Giuseppe Scifo, Nicola Toffolini, Gianluca Vassallo.

A cura di: Volker W. Feierabend, Lorand Hegyi, Silvia Höller, Norbert Nobis, Peter Weiermair, Klaus Wolbert
Catalogo: Allerheiligenpresse – Innsbruck

Stadtgalerie Kiel
Andreas-Gayk-Strasse 31
24103 Kiel, Germania
http://www.kiel.de/kultur/stadtgalerie/