For the first time in his long career, the artist from Reggio Emilia, but Venetian by adoption, breaks the mold that has so far characterized his work, presenting an absolute preview of Digital wall.
Plessi's works will entirely occupy the spaces of the Milanese bank, through the installation of real digital walls. Like flashes of lightning transferred vertically onto the wall, the screens (each 100x60x4 cm) will be mounted like large mosaics and will display films belonging to his most typical expressive figure, linked to the themes of water, fire and lava.
These two elements, apparently opposite and contrary, coexist through the alchemical use of the digital medium of video which gives life to a game of references and metaphors, capable of triggering highly evocative pictorial visions.
The novelty of Digital wall lies in totally stripping the screens of any support, freeing them from any structure and de facto removing them from any theatricality that has so far distinguished every work by Fabrizio Plessi.
Digital wall is also an example of how Plessi's imagination, through the magic of new technologies, remains closely linked to the contemporary world and its most current topics.
“The commitment to art, in the search for new ideas and cultural reflections to offer to the people, is a distinctive pillar in Banca Generali's universe of social initiatives – declared Piermario Motta, Banca Generali's Chief Executive Officer -. We are happy and honored to host in our headquarters in Piazza Sant'Alessandro a world-famous artist like Fabrizio Plessi capable of moving with his incredible poetics that marries high-tech with the material essence of the elements. The artist's choice to represent the evolution of cutting-edge digital creativity together with us, in the spaces of our offices, reflects the common attention to innovation and sensitivity to a culture of technology that characterizes us”.
The exhibition is accompanied by a Peruzzo Editore catalogue, with a critical text by Philippe Daverio.
Among the new features of the Digital Wall, “BG Events” also stands out, an App for smartphones and tablets developed exclusively by Banca Generali to make the visitor experience even more unique. Thanks to "BG Events", in fact, the user will be able to be guided in the use of the works directly by the artist through exclusive video contents, which describe their emotions, genesis and creative dynamics.
Downloadable from the Play Store for Android and from the Apple Store for iOS, the "BG Events" app is based on the principle of augmented reality (Augmented Reality, AR), i.e. a process that allows images of the physical world to be taken and superimposed on data from that digital.
Fabrizio Plessi. Biographical notes
Fabrizio Plessi was born in Reggio Emilia in 1940. He completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice where he taught for many years. Using video as an artistic tool, he has traced an innovative path that has made him famous all over the world. Co-founder of the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln, he taught Humanization of Technologies and Electronic Scenography. His Bombay-Bombay installation is famous at the Ludwig Museum in Köln. He participates in 14 editions of the Venice Biennale from 1970 until the last one in 2011 with Mari Verticali at the Venice Pavilion. In Italy he was awarded by the Quadrennial of Rome in 1999. In the same year the Kestner Gesellschaft of Hanover awarded him as artist of the year with the NLB award. In 2002 anthological Paradiso/Inferno at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome. He has had over 500 solo exhibitions, from the Center Pompidou in Paris (1982) to the Guggenheim in New York (1998), from the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego (1998) to the Guggenheim in Bilbao (2001). He participates in
Documenta VIII of Kassel (1987) with the famous installation Rome. He was present in Berlin in 2003 with an anthology at the Martin Gropius Bau. Also in Berlin you create a large installation for the Sony Center in Potzsdammer Platz.
He collaborates with the most important museums in Austria such as the Kunshistoriche Museum, the Museum Ludwig and the Neue Galerie in Linz. Even emerging countries have a sure point of reference in Plessi, as evidenced by the inauguration of the new Museum of Contemporary Art in Rabat in 2006. she Participates in the Cairo Biennale as an artist of honor in 2001; as well as that of Sharjah and Gwangiu in Korea in 2000. Since 2008 he has collaborated with the Louis Vuitton group, combining his art with the events of the famous French house, such as the America's Cup.
Close relations with the industry as demonstrated by its links with BMW, Dornbracht, Loewe, Swarovski, Calvin Klein. Intellectuals and musicians such as Robert Wilson, Philip Glass and Michael Nyman worked with him. Unforgettable are his electronic scenography created for the memorable concert by Luciano Pavarotti in Central Park in New York in 1993. Monumenta in Agrigento is his last grandiose installation created inside the Valley of the Temples. From 21 June 2013, at the Brenner Pass, the Plessi Museum hosted a permanent exhibition venue dedicated to his art and is the first Italian example of a museum space on the motorway. During the Venice Biennale of Art, from 5 May to 22 November, Fabrizio Plessi will be the protagonist of an anthology, entitled Plessi in Venice, in the prestigious spaces of Ca' d'oro and Tese 94 at the Arsenale.
