Residenti, the fifth appointment of AN EDUCATION – a series of exhibitions of artists’ videos and workshops conceived for students and anyone interested in contemporary art – opens on October 26th 2013 at Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese, the property owned by FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano. The film Residenti, by the artist Diego Tonus, will be shown in the project room of the Villa until November 28th.
The film, produced in 2011, lies within a study that over the years has focused on investigating the potential of a work of art to influence the perception and the formation of the thoughts of the observer. This achieved through the exploration of forms of power extrapolated from cultural, political and social processes.
In recent years the work of Diego Tonus has dealt with such methods as the use of editing scripts and transcripts taken from recordings of conversations, instructions sent to performers, and the use of the voice as an instrument to reveal hidden aspects of reality or to challenge public and private situations. The elaboration of these processes has been transformed into film and performance. Residenti has been realized with the video-archive materials documenting the courses organized by the Spinola Banna Foundation for Contemporary Art from 2005 to 2010. The work focuses on the experience of the artist’s residence, its specific process and its deconstruction, and emphasizes how any creative process can be compromised by the influence an already given context can have on participants: this specific context can undermine the perception of the experience at the residence itself.
On the morning of the opening – from 10 am to 1 pm – the artists Diego Tonus and David Bernstein will conduct the workshop Critique Session with a group of students from the Brera Academy. The workshop is the first stage of a film that will be shot by the artists at the CAC in Vilnius during their residency; the film will be successively presented at Villa e Collezione Panza. In the afternoon, at 5 pm, they will meet the public in the Salone Impero of Villa e Collezione Panza during a conversation with the artistic director of Villa e Collezione Panza Anna Bernardini, the curator of AN EDUCATION Maria Rosa Sossai, the art critic and Brera Academy teacher Barbara Casavecchia and the film critic Mauro Gervasini.
From October 27th to November 28th the film will be screened in the chapel on the first floor of the villa, specially set up as a project room. There will be guided tours for students of schools, colleges and universities of the surrounding area and of Lombardy.
AN EDUCATION is an initiative of FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano and is curated by ALAgroup, the platform for education and contemporary art founded by Maria Rosa Sossai. The project stems primarily from the didactic-educational need to attract young people to the museum and stimulate their interest in contemporary art, with an emphasis on new technologies and the new media, which has always been one of the main guidelines behind Giuseppe Panza’s choices in the creation of his Collection.
AN EDUCATION is organized with the support and assistance of the Province and the Municipality of Varese. The event benefits from the valuable contribution of Eni, which – as main partner of “Eventi nei Beni del FAI” (events in the FAI properties) – sponsors the Foundation in this important project. PIRELLI, which for many years has supported the Foundation, Cedral Tassoni, the historic Italian brand that for the second consecutive year has decided to pair the tradition, the history and the naturalness of their product with FAI, and UBI – Banca Popolare di Bergamo, also renew their contribution. Special thanks go to Giorgio Fasol – Collezione AgiVerona– for the help and support given to the artists.
Diego Tonus (Pordenone, 1984) lives and works in Amsterdam. He was recently selected for Add fire – the ninth edition of Premio Furla, 2013, Bologna. Among his most recent exhibitions: Rehearsal of the Real, Kunstverein Nürnberg, 2013; The Real Thing?, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013 and Fuoriclasse. Vent’anni di arte italiana nei corsi di Alberto Garutti, GAM, Villa Reale, Milan, 2012. As solo events he presented the film Hour of the Wolf at the Danish Pavilion – Giardini Biennale, Venice, 2012 and Processing Authorities – Act I in Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, 2013.
Among his group exhibitions: The 338 Hour Cineclub, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2013; Jusqu’ici tout va bien, OSLO10, Basel, 2012; Three artists walk into a bar … De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam, 2012; Out-of-_________, Michael Benevento Gallery, Los Angeles, 2012; Global House Video Screenings, by the Gwangju Biennale 3rd International Curator Course, Kunsthalle Gwangju, South Korea, 2011; Mostra Workshop, Fondazione Spinola Banna, Poirino, 2011; Effetto Venturi – Hour of the Wolf: screening and interview with Liliana Moro, Peep Hole, Teatro Oberdan, Milan, 2011; Archive & Counter Archive, Dryphoto & Monash University, Prato, 2009; Iuav al MAXXI, MAXXI, Rome, 2008; Spritz Time!, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, 2007; The private eye: a prologue, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, 2006. He also participated in residency programmes in Italy and abroad, among them ‘Real Presence’, Belgrade, 2006. In Italy he was artist in residence at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, 2007, and Fondazione Spinola Banna, Poirino, 2010. www.diegotonus.com
David Bernstein (San Antonio, Texas, 1988) is an artist based in Amsterdam. He often works in collaboration with Jurgis Paškevičius and Géraldine Longueville as the collaborative pun jugedamos. Recent exhibitions include: Grand Opening, Frutta, Rome, 2103; The Hayy Residency, Nüans, Istanbul, 2013; The Marble Man, Rongwrong, Amsterdam, 2013; Bourgeois Leftovers by jugedamos, De Appel Art Center, Amsterdam, 2013; Super Usurped Supper by jugedamos, Kadist Art Foundation, Nomas Foundation, and David Roberts Art Foundation, Rome, 2013; Lucky Draw by jugedamos, Sculpture Center, New York, 2013; Brucennial, New York, 2012; LIKE (Collaboration with Nicole Demby), Vogt Gallery, New York, 2011. Upcoming exhibitions: David Bernstein, Frutta, Rome, 2013; Restorun by jugedamos, Performa, New York, 2013. He is currently in residence at the Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius until January 2014. www.yesyesdavid.com