cleo fariselli

CLEO FARISELLI
2012 - ongoing
Since the beginning of 2012 I am exploring a new expositive method: instead of installing my works
in the space, I hand them directly to the people. The pieces are passed among the hands of each
participant, then they are stored. The first time I experimented this method was in february 2012
at Ex-Brun space, Bologna. In the empty gallery, I showed a selection from a series of sculptures to
groups of maximum 10 people at a time. Since then, I exhibited my works in this way both on public
occasions such as art shows, and private, such as friend’s houses. The simple structure of this action
may be open to infinite planned and unplanned variations. It is not possible to assist to this action
without being involved in it. All the works I have shown in this way until today are sculptures.
Untitled, 2012
print on cardboard, plasticized
18 x 26,7 cm
Untitled, 2012
print on cardboard, plasticized
18 x 26,7 cm
installation view, Cripta 747, Torino
Untitled, 2012
print on cardboard, plasticized
18 x 26,7 cm
installation view, Cripta 747, Torino
Untitled, 2012
print on cardboard, plasticized
18 x 26,7 cm
installation view, Cripta 747, Torino
Untitled, 2011
public action
I launched a public call to the citizens of Cremona to run by bike, equipped with one or more
portable lights, along a given trail, creating a long luminous snake. Everyone was invited to
participate in this “ephemeral monument”, alive and joyful, that marched through the streets of
Cremona illuminating them at dusk. The performance was dedicated to the italian Resistance in
WWII and our attempt was to reach the number of 134 cyclists (the number of young men from
Cremona who left the city to fight as partisans). We didn’t make it, but it was beautyful, anyway.
The performance ended at the Cremona ANPI headquarter were we had a party.
Ricercar (20-20k), 2010
sound installation, 20 minutes loop
installation view, O’, Milano
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Musical Offering BWV 1079 contains one of the most unique
compositions in the history of Western music. It is a perpetual canon, as an octave cycle finishes,
immediately another ascends, and so on ad infinitum. Exploiting the extension potentiality of a
synthetic sound, I performed this piece from the lowest boundaries of human hearing (20 hertz)
to the highest (20.000 hertz).
Untitled, 2010
nine inkjet prints on cotton paper
variable dimensions
installation view, O’, Milano
This series combines astronomical photos of stars and anatomical pictures of human anuses.
In this last subject, black and white have been reversed.
Untitled, 2010 (detail)
nine inkjet prints on cotton paper
variable dimensions
Me as a star, 2008
HDV video, 00:6:45
In this performance I dance wearing a costume made by materials that reflect the sun light.
Dancing far enough from the camera, or from the spectators, I appear as a shiny sparkling dot,
indistinguishable as a person. The performance was set on the Generoso mountain, Switzerland.
Grains, 2010 (detail)
eight white clay sculptures
variable dimensions
Small sculptures are used to make a space “porous”, keeping its doors and windows open, creating
draughts, apertures and small incongruities. The conceptuality of the artwork is completed by its
physical use.
Grains, 2010 (detail)
eight white clay sculptures
variable dimensions
installation view Brown project space, Milano
Untitled, 2010
acrylic on goatskin parchments tuned on wooden drum frames
diameters 83, 70, 90 cm x depths 8, 7, 9 cm
Both being membranes stretched across rigid frames, painting canvases and drums share
affinities as evident as intriguing. I wanted to reveal this similarity creating objects hovering
between these two worlds. The paintings are played in planned performances: it is essential for me
to contextualize in moments of “ritual” the interaction with the pieces. On such occasions they
are explored musically: the canvases are caressed, vibrated, beaten. The “do not touch the painting”
taboo crashes, originating sound events that affect and modify the perception of the paintings. The
conceptuality of the pieces is completed and amplified by their practical use: the works recall a
correspondence between function and meaning.
Untitled, 2010
installation view Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano
Documentation of the performance with the frame drums
Prague Biennale 5, 2011
Untitled
performance
The Zero Budget Biennial, 2010
In an empty, dark industrial warehouse, fifty performers move around with flashlights
exploring the space. The quick movements of the lights inside the building, reveal random
architectonic details to the audience outside.
Untitled (lights), 2009
solar radiometer 8 x 13,5 cm on photographic print 12,5 x 17 cm
In 2007 I became fascinated by Hessdalen Phenomenon, a luminous natural phenomenon of still
unknown origins appearing in different places in the world. I followed it in different,
discontinuous ways which during the years have produced objects, actions, still and moving
images. This fluid container with its uncertain boundaries, becomes itself a shape for something
unformalizable.
In September 2008 I followed a scientific expedition to the Hessdalen valley. I participated to
the nocturnal monitoring sessions and, the last night, I sighted the phenomena and I managed to
document it with a photograph. This is how I showed the picture in 2009.
Untitled (lights), 2009
HDV video, 00:10:00
This is a ten minutes video about Hessdalen lights and humidity.
Untitled (lights), 2009
Installation view of the Untitled (lights) room in the group show Hotel Meridian,
river barge Spaceman Spiff, London
Untitled, 2008
inkjet print on blueback paper
160 x 250 cm
Documentation of Untitled installed in Mozzate, 2008
Untitled, 2007
in collaboration with Patrizio Fariselli
digital video, 3 versions of 00:02:56 each
On the top of the trees, 2007
digital video, 00:15:00
Sculpture inhabited by woodworms that slowly modify the form of it, 2004
wood, living woodworms
80 x 8 x 320 cm
installation view Ashed space, ex Ticosa, Como
Untitled, 2004
agar-saccharose gel on wall
variable dimensions
Installation view Vifarini, Milano
Some portions of space, delimitated in simple shapes, are wall-painted with agar-saccharose gel:
a transparent substance used in scientific laboratories to cultivate microorganisms. The painted
surfaces become fertile to the proliferation of the microscopic forms of life that inhabit the space.
Untitled, 2004
Installation view Vifarini, Milano
.
Untitled, 2010
lambda print
30x45 cm
Photography has always accompanied my work and my life as a research tool, a device to explore
images, reality and vision. The photographs I shot accumulate in a growing archive, which runs
parallel to my work and finds different formalizations. Here and in the following pages I present a
small selection
Untitled, 2012
lambda print
30 x 45 cm
Untitled, 2009
lambda print
30 x 45 cm
Untitled, 2010
lambda print
30 x 45 cm
Untitled, 2007
lambda print
30 x 45 cm
Untitled, 2007
lambda print
30 x 45 cm
CLEO FARISELLI
Cesenatico, 1982
EDUCATION
2011
Solid Void, visiting professors Roberto Cuoghi and Gian Antonio Gilli, Diogene Bivacco Urbano, Torino
Workshop in residence, visiting professor Andrea Viliani, Spinola Banna Foundation, Torino
Workshop in residence, visiting professor The Otolith Group, Spinola Banna Foundation, Torino
2010
Workshop in residence, visiting professor Liliana Moro, Spinola Banna Foundation, Torino
2007
Degree in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, Milano
2004
Advanced Course in Visual Art, Visiting Professor Jimmie Durham, Ratti Foundation, Como
No vitrines, no museums, no artists: just a lot of people, workshop held by Rirkrit Tiravanija,
Domus Academy, Venezia
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2012
Estate, Marianne Boesky, New York
Entourage, Lucie Fountaine, Milano
2011
Hear me out, Ciac Museum, Genazzano, Roma
Prague Biennale 5, Prague
Ariane de Rothschild Prize, Palazzo Reale, Milano
Festa Mobile, Bologna
2010
If you want this story to continue…, neon>campobase, Bologna, MAN, Nuoro; Prague Biennial 5, Prague
videoReport Italia 08_09, GCAC, Monfalcone
L’arpa magica, Lucie Fontaine, Milano
Mulhouse 010, Parc Expo, Mulhouse
In full bloom, Raffaella Cortese Gallery,Brown Project Space, Kaleidoscope project space, Milano
The Zero Budget Biennial, Performance program in the neighborhood of Lambrate, Milano
2009
No Soul for Sale, a Festival of Independents, New York
Pièce(S) Temporaires, Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echanges des Récollets, Paris
Niniendi su pipieddu, church of St. Anna, Perdaxius
Il raccolto d’autunno è stato abbondante, Viafarini and Care/of, Milano
Studio Visit, GCAC, Monfalcone
New Italian Epic, Brown Project Space, Milano
2008
Hotel Meridian, River barge Spaceman Spiff, London
Il gesto del suono, Centro Trevi, Bozen, 2008, Palazzo Reale, Milano
2004
Surely we will be confused, with Jimmie Durham, Ashed space, Como
Arrivederci e Grazie, Viafarini, Milano
SOLO SHOWS
2012
Cleo Fariselli, LU MI project, Roma
(with Manuel Larrazabal), CRIPTA 747, Torino
u. , Ex-Brun, Bologna
2011
La Resistenza e la sua luce, CRAC, Cremona
2010
Ricercar (20-20k), O’, Milano
2008
on The Top of The Trees, Lucie Fontaine, Milano
RESIDENCIES
2009
Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris
SELECTED PARTICIPATIONS IN SPECIAL EVENTS
2012
Terra Iperbolica, round table at Museo Carlo Zauli, Faenza
2010
Predictions, round table at the XIV International Biennial of Sculpture, Carrara
Photography? A series of encounters about Photography, Care/of, Milano
New, Old Frontiers: The Artist Run Spaces, round table at PAC, Milano
2008
Jeune Photographie Italienne Contemporaine, Une Géographie des Talent Naissants, La Maison
Rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris
WEBSITE and CONTACTS
http://cleofariselli.tumblr.com/
http://cleofarisellifoto.tumblr.com/
cleofariselli@gmail.com