In a room filled with stucco and antique mirrors he depicts the end of a utopian world which has lasted for over a year, the detonation of a form, a broken structure, the demolition of a dream, represented by using materials from a stalled building site and safety signs. Attention to be paid to a presumed imminent danger, a state of imbalance and collapse next to come.
Paolo Gonzato in a few words.
Contradictorily realistic.
“Rose Island”, where does the title come from?
Rose Island (Esperanto: Insulo de la Rozoj), the official name is the Republic of Rose Island, was the name given to a manmade platform of 400 m², which stood in the Adriatic Sea 11.612 km off the coast of the then province of Forlì and 500 m outside Italian territorial waters, founded by the Bolognese Giorgio Rosa, it become an independent state on 1 May 1968.
This state, which was given the official name of the Republic of Rose Island and even an official language (the Esperanto), a government, a currency and postal service, was never formally recognized by any country in the world.
Occupied by police on 26 June1968 and subjected to blockade, the Rose Island was demolished in February 1969.
What is the genesis of this exhibition?
The Rose Island is a useful image for to recognize in the material form of an historical event the melancholy prolapse of forms, an energy that implodes by blowing up on surfaces and structures from within the matter with terracotta mixed with champagne, mutilated and cranberry juice stained felt tapestries, torn up road maintenance boards and burned ribbons without any surprise.
Focusing on failed utopias in a temporary state of rigor and chaos where the produced voltage is the only possible equilibrium.
Upcoming projects.
I have just come back from London where, during Freize Art Fair, I set up the works of my series “Out of stock” for a Fiorucci collection and where I’m going to stay for a few months at the beginning of 2013 in order to create a large wall painting.
Soon, I will present a Renault car of which I reinterpreted the coachwork by dressing it like Harlequin.
In Turin, at the Artissima fair, I will present some new works for the A Palazzo, a gallery of Brescia, and then I will work on some projects on design and food, and a multiple in production for a space in London.
Photo: Courtesy A Palazzo Gallery, Brescia
Translation credit: Chiara Ferrara
