Art Club #36 Rosa Barba

September 14 to October 27, 2022

 

Since its creation in 2016, the Art Club cycle of exhibitions has brought works by international contemporary artists into dialogue with the centuries-old heritage of the Académie de France in Rome. Taking the form of visual and plastic interventions scattered throughout the strolling spaces of the Villa Medici (loggias, gardens, salons), the series Art Club series renews the experience of visiting a place where eras intermingle and unexpected connections arise. For the next event in the series in September, Villa Medici welcomes Italian artist and filmmaker Rosa Barba. His work, at the crossroads of cinema and contemporary art, will be exhibited alongside the Villa Medici Film Festival from September 14 to 18, 2022.

Rosa Barba presents three pieces that offer an overview of over 10 years of artistic practice, combining film, sculpture, sound and text.

With Disseminate and Hold (2016), Rosa Barba explores man-made landscapes and how they are often the result of political considerations and utopian visions. Shot in Brazil, the film depicts the daily chaos of the Minhocão (“Great Earthworm”), the elevated highway that runs through the center of São Paulo, and is the starting point for a reflection on the traces that history leaves on the urban landscape and environment.

Color Clocks: Verticals Lean Occasionally Consistently Away from Viewpoints (2012) consists of three spatially arranged objects, each reminiscent of a clockwork mechanism. Each, with its specific rhythm, produces a kinetic image. By playing with different modes of perception, the Color Clocks installation seeks to capture the very measure and experience of time, and invites an endlessly repeated meditation on color, time, perception and language.

Weavers (2021) is an installation of moving frames made from a weave of 16 and 35 mm film, forming a surface that is sometimes reflective and sometimes transparent, allowing the surrounding space to be perceived. The irregular weavings, accentuated by a short-throw light projector, create fleeting sequences. Rosa Barba questions the plasticity and transparency of film as a medium in a work that unfolds like a cinematic image and a rotating suspended screen.

The exhibition is supported by Vistamare, Milano / Pescara.

Photo credits:
Cover image: “Color clocks”, 2012, installation © Daniele Molajoli
Portrait of Rosa Barba: © Saskia Uppenkamp
Portrait of Pier Paolo Pancotto: © Daniele Molajoli
Images of the works: © Daniele Molajoli