08.02.21 – 18.09.21

SUPERBLAST, from sùper, from Latin super-, «above», and from -blasto, from Greek βλαστός «seed», something large, which has yet to be born.

The first edition of SUPERBLAST saw the six selected artists involved in the production of six works that were inspired by the rethinking of the relationships between man and environment, individual and community, nature and culture.

The digital archive supersuperblast.it – the interactive platform that collects the survey carried out by the six artists in residence – has been added to the physical exhibition.

Supersuperblast.it

The Book

SUPERBLAST I ended with the publication edited by Nero Editions.
The book combines research material, photographic documentation, narration and theoretical exploration, reflects the elusiveness of the topic investigated by SUPERBLAST, returning a fluid snapshot of the state of the current situation through the thought of intellectuals, critics and artists.

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The Exhibition

The exhibition, curated by Caterina Taurelli Salimbeni, displays the works of six international artists who were selected through an open call inspired by the idea of rethinking the relationship between humans and nature, the individual and the collective, and nature and culture.
This constitutes itself as an organism: it breathes and evolves according to the space and time requirements of each of the six artists’projects. It finds its habitat in the grey area between categories which are culturally distant from one another, crossing the borders and breaking the limits of a traditional exhibit. The idea of ecology as a new space in which to form relationships manifests itself in the subjects of research chosen by the six participating artists: the state of contemporary nature within the virtual; the relationship between urban and natural environments; the intrinsic paradox of electric mobility; the seeds of colonialism in the representation of landscapes; art’s place in relationship to uncontrollable factors of setting and context; the parallel between cultural and natural biodiversity.

Each artist delves into an aspect of these themes and expands upon them and explores them in the context of Manifattura, which itself is a space in evolution. Thus the SUPERBLAST participants contribute to Manifattura Tabacchi’s newfound identity, layered upon its preexisting history and enriched by a series of conversations, sparking what Nicolas Bourriaud refers to as the “infinite conversation”.

All the performances, sculptures, videos, and installations are the result of individual journeys, which share a web of similar threads of which the SUPERBLAST exhibition is a visual representation.

Micromegàsuoni – IPER-collettivo
4-20 Airmarks – Oliviero Fiorenzi
Nature is not green – Antonio Bermúdez Obregón
Violette Maillard – Bargaruda I
NOT SO FAR AWAY – Federica di Pietrantonio
Edoardo Aruta – La Furia del Dire

Photo credits: Leonardo Morfini, ADRYA
Video credits

Superblast | Video

The Artists

EDOARDO ARUTA

Edoardo Aruta was born in Rome in 1981. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in his native city and at the IUAV University in Venice. During his studies, he also worked as scenographer and stagehand for theatre and cinema productions. Since 2003, Aruta’s work has been displayed in exhibitions in Italy and abroad. In 2013, he founded the artist collective Gli Impresari in Venice, with Marco Di Giuseppe and Rosario Sorbello. Aruta’s artistic practice is based on the examination of the phenomena underlying the experience of daily life, from the interaction with places and the relationship between people and ‘objects’ to the possibilities of exploring the real and fictitious meanings that surround them.

ANTONIO BERMÚDEZ OBREGÓN

Antonio Bermúdez Obregon was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1991, where he continues to live and work. His work has been displayed in exhibitions at the notable Espacio El Dorado and the SGR Galería (Bogotá). Obregon’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Humboldt Forum (Berlin) and the Jan Van Eyck Academie (Maastricht). Obregon is a visual researcher and architect, and his dual practice intertwines territory and its different meanings working within the intersection of culture and land. His work deals with topics such as orientation, geopolitics, toponymy, colonialism, exoticism and the imaginary of nations.

FEDERICA DI PIETRANTONIO

Federica Di Pietrantonio was born in Rome in 1996, where she currently lives and works. She studied painting at the Rome University of Fine Arts. Di Pietrantonio graduated in 2019, and based her research on the thesis spending free time at KASK (Ghent), where she developed the project ‘Vacation Spot’. In 2017, Di Pietrantonio was selected for Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale and the following year she started working at Spazio In Situ as artist and web designer. Her work has been exhibited internationally in Las Palmas (Lisbon), Gouvernement (Ghent), and the Una Vetrina gallery and The Gallery Apart in Rome. Her work centres on the relationships and processes which arise from simulations, virtual reality, and social media platforms.

IPER-COLLETTIVO

Iper-Collettivo (Giulia Landini, Prato, 1992; Lorenzo Romaniello, Pistoia, 1988; Lorenzo Vacirca, Prato, 1988; Marco Conti, Prato, 1988) is a multidisciplinary artist collective formed by four young professionals with different backgrounds. Iper-Collettivo is united by an interest for experimentation, sustainability, and interactive forms of expression. The group shares a vision for art, architecture and ecology and explores the relationship between the territory and its communities through the realisation of socially inclusive projects that invite community participation.

OLIVIERO FIORENZI

Oliviero was born in Osimo in 1992. For the past ten years, he has lived and worked in Milano. With one foot in his hometown and the other in the vibrant urban hub, Fiorenzi has developed a unique sensibility for the theme of natural landscapes. His personal life experience has inspired him to build complex figurative sign apparati, thanks to which he enters into a relationship with the context in which he works, producing pictorial and sculptural installations. Fiorenzi’s work has been displayed in many galleries, foundations, and museums, including The Address (Brescia), Sonnenstube (Lugano), Fondazione Feltrinelli and La Triennale (Milano), Ex-Dogana (Roma) and La Mole (Ancona).

VIOLETTE MAILLARD

Violette was born in Bourg la Reine in 1984. She is a French-Italian artist who works in the field of contemporary art. She has exhibited internationally in several experimental and institutional spaces such as the National Art Museum of China (Beijing), the ex-showroom Gavina and the Museum of Modern Art in Bologna, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, the Museum fur Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt am Main), Palazzina dei Bagni Misteriosi and Fondazione Feltrinelli (Milan). Among other prizes she was awarded in 2016, Maillard won the XIII edition of the New York Prize and has been artist-in-residence at ISCP, International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York. In 2019 she won the first edition of the Italy-China Prize and has been artist-in-residence at the National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

Superblast, Photo Credits: Giovanni Savi