FRANCESCO ARENA SELECTED EXHIBITION

AUTUMN LINES Sprovieri, London Numbers that take on form. If one were to compress a large part of Francesco Arena's work into a simple, direct formula, this could certainly be it. Because while it is true that from a linguistic point of view his work can be read as a development, a personal “derivation” of sculptural processes that arise from the geometric shapes typical of Minimal art and from the more archetypal ones of Arte Povera – the abstract and impersonal key of which mixed with experience, the narration of historical or private facts – it is equally true that from a thematic point of view his pieces are often the translation of formulae and numbers linked to those facts or histories from which they originate. The artist's research often moves along two tracks – that of collective history, chiefly national, and that of personal history – forming two lines that touch, overlap, cross. In his performances, installations and sculptures, the narrative “in-forms” the objects, be they everyday objects – diaries, cigars, living room furniture – or composed of traditional sculptural materials (marble, slate, bronze). Arena always imposes at the beginning a rule to be followed, a fact that remains a fixed point in the production process of the piece: the weight of a boat used by illegal immigrants landing on the coast of Lampedusa, the distance travelled by the anarchist Pinelli in his last day as a free man in Milan, the volume of a hole made by a bomb explosion. These are starting points that determine the form, dimensions and at times even the materials of the piece: “Facts are a wilderness where different views confront and oppose each other; facts interest me as units of measurement around which to build sculpture… a weight, a distance or a surface inform the work and determine its form or dimensions. The fact is there, open to interpretations despite its fixed nature; I decide whether to choose it or not, but what I choose is the fact in its abstract form, in its airborne, vocal state; even when I use documents I’m not interested in the original document, but in its contents.” The facts chosen by Arena often come from the reservoir of personal history, but also from collective memory which was initially focused above all on Italy, but which has now opened up to global situations and events. An example of the reference to the private dimension is Corner (Marianna, Anna, Francesco), 2013 – in progress, or rather a corner composed of three bronze bars each of which corresponding respectively to the height of the artist, to his wife and to their daughter Anna. The measurements of the structure are those recorded in the summer of 2013 and constitute the first element in a series in progress that each time it is reconfigured could vary in the only measurement subject to substantial mutation: that of the height of their daughter. In this vein is the project Autumn Lines, presenting a series of works conceived at the end of autumn 2015. A few months ago, in fact, the world began to witness a collective tragedy which is still taking place and is destined to change the fate of present and future history: the mass migration towards Europe by hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria and the Middle East. The four pieces making up the project, albeit autonomous, are clearly connected not only by the human events informing them and representing the starting point, but also by their formalization, the transformation of a numeric figure into a line, to which the title of the entire project alludes. Immediate and direct in its form as it is complex and articulate in its meaning, Autumn Lines is an iconic project in Francesco Arena's way of working. A work is always seen as a necessary stage, formally closed and autonomous, of a wider process, one which concerns us. As if it were a script written unknowingly by all of us and then acted out by the artist who transforms it into an “image” through the shapes and materials of art and through the most personal and immediate of instruments: his own body.

Europa 11 Novembre 2015 (Europe 11 November 2015), 2016 Mixed media; 2100 m long On the 11th of November 2015, Slovenia began erecting a razor wire fence along parts of its border with Croatia to increase control over the migrants flowing through the country en route to other areas of Europe. In the first part of the operation 2100 meters of border were closed with this fence. Francesco Arena created a string with the same same measure and made of thousands of fragments of ropes, electric wires, strings and waste materials that have been given to him by people he knows. The string obtained goes across he gallery at the height of 160 cm from the ground, following the perimeter but also running from wall to wall, changing the perception and fruition of the space. The whole length of the first part of the fence constructed by Slovenia is present in the gallery: originally free and open, a portion of space is reduced to a measured entity and shown in the private and protected space of the gallery.

Passo (Step), 2016 Bronze; 10 x 68 x 10 cm; edition of 1 + 1AP The distance between Budapest rail station and the Austrian border is 170 km. This distance has been walked by over 3000 migrants from Syria in the autumn of 2015, when the train they traveled on was no longer allowed to continue its journey. Passo is a polished bronze bar measuring 68 x 10 x 10 cm. On one edge ‘250.000’ is engraved. Multiplying this number for the length of the bar, which corresponds to the length of one step of the artist, the result is the distance separating Budapest from the Austrian border.

Passo doppio (Double Step), 2016 Bronze; 10 x 68 x 68 cm; edition of 1 + 1AP The distance between Bodrum in Turkey and the Austrian border is 1449 km, that between Bodrum and the Syrian border is 826 km. The sum of these two distances is the same that the Syrian refugees had to travel to get to Europe. Bodrum is a curve within their path. Passo doppio is made of two polished bronze bars, each 68 x 10 x 10 cm, joined in order to form a right angle. Where the bars join, the numbers ‘2.130.691’ and ‘1.215.720’ are engraved. Multiplying these numbers for the length of the bar, which corresponds to one step of the artist, one obtains the distances between Bodrum and the Austrian border and between Bodrum and the Syrian border.

Passo triplo (Triple Step), 2016 Bronze; 10 x 126 x 68 cm; edition of 1 + 1AP The distance between Munich and the Italian border is 328 Km, the distance between Munich and the French border is 310 km and that between Munich and Sweden is 783 km. Munich is the city where the migrants from Eastern Europe decide whether to go south, east or west. Munich is a crossroad on their journey. Passo triplo is made of three polished bronze bars, which measure 68 x 10 x 10 cm each and are joined together to form a T. In proximity of where they join the following is engraved: ‘482.588’, x ‘456.514’ e ‘1.151.103’. Multiplying these figures for the dimension of the bar, which corresponds to one step of the artist, the result is the distance between Munich and the Italian border, between Munich and the French border and that between Munich and Sweden.

SETTE, UNO, QUATRRO Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milano Galleria Raffaella Cortese is proud to open the new season with a solo show by Francesco Arena. For his first exhibition at the gallery, the Italian artist will realize three new projects conceived and designed for the three exhibition spaces, whose street number gives the exhibition its title: sette, uno, quattro (seven, one, four). The three works conceived for the exhibition, though seemingly different, present both formal and conceptual contact points. In all the works is the concept of cut (in the notch that marks the length of the beard in the bronze sculptures, the cut in the wall where the plaque is installed and the idea of splitting the spaces, which is proper of edges and corners) and a constant reference to time (the days that the beard takes to grow; the time described by Sontag and the eternity, unfortunately destroyed, of the Buddhas). In addition, the three works are a reflection on the concept of monument, which has always interested the artist, a reflection on its essence and function, starting from the materials used and the continuous references between his personal history and the world history that we all know.

Buddha’s corners, 2015 DAS Environmental dimensions Unique In the artist’s house, both inside and outside, are 71 corners and 80 edges: 151 corners edges overall. The installation includes 151 corner elements made of DAS, a modelling material. Each of these elements is formed of 3 20 cm long bars (a total amount of 453 bars that are each 20 cm long), whose sum is 91 meters, corresponding to the heights of the two colossal Bamiyan Buddhas that were destroyed by the Talibans on March 12, 2001. The two Buddhas, from 1500 and 1800 years ago, were respectively 53 and 38 meters high. The 71 corners and 80 edges occupy all corners and edges available in the space. The choice of the material, as usual in Francesco Arena’s practice, is not unintended. DAS is air-drying, it’s not ceramic, but it’s moulded by hand and the artist found it necessary to model the elements himself: as the Buddhas were made by hand, so are the corner-edges, which represent a sort of exploded version of the colossal sculptures, like ruins that lie down in corners and around the edges: just like dust does.

I giorni, 2015 Bronze 166,5×10×10 cm Ed. of 3 + 1AP On three square-based sculptures in polished bronze, 166,5 cm high (the height of the artist), is a cut 2 cm deep. The different lenght of the cuts (7,3 cm, 9,3 cm e 14,2 cm) corresponds to the growth of the artist’s beard after 57, 110 and 210 days respectively. 57 are the days between May 23, 1992 and July 19, 1992, corresponding to the massacres of Capaci and Via D’Amelio. 110 days is the duration of the last stay of Nietzsche in Turin, from September 21, 1888 to January 9, 1889. 210 are the days between August 2, 1990 and February 28, 1991, corresponding to the duration of the First Gulf War.

I giorni (110), 2015 Bronze 166,5×10×10 cm Ed. of 3 + 1AP

I giorni (210), 2015 Bronze 166,5×10×10 cm Ed. of 3 + 1AP

I giorni (57), 2015 Bronze 166,5×10×10 cm Ed. of 3 + 1AP

Transversal diptych, 2015 Granite Granite slab: 304×150×3 cm / Installation: environmental dimensions Ed. of 1 + 1AP A granite slab is set at a height of 2 m and 30 cm, transversally mounted on a wall dividing the hosting space into two separate rooms. On the slab is an inscription coming from a thought by Susan Sontag: “unremitting banality” and “inconceivable terror”. The two statements appear above the head of the viewer. In this definition the American intellectual sums up and predicts the description of our era. Francesco Arena gives physical shape to Sontag’s concept through this sculpture that divides and connects at the same time the two rooms in the exhibition space.

3 LUDWIG REFLECTION AND 1 HORIZON NoguerasBlanchard Gallery, Madrid

Cabin around studio around pillar, 2014 Metal; cm 532x395x4 Around 1912, Ludwig Wittgenstein buys a piece of land overlooking a fjord near the village of Skjolden in Norway, where he builds a wooden hut into which he retires for about a year, to meditate and write; in this place, he starts to give shape to the ideas that would lead to his writing the Tractatus. Wittgenstein would come back to the Norwegian hut several times, to isolate himself from the world and think. Wittgenstein’s hut was 8 meters long by 7 meters wide, with a perimeter of 30 meters. A metal bar 30 meters long, with a 2x2 cm square section, is bent into a 5.32 by 3.95 meters rectangle, corresponding to the perimeter of my study. The rectangle is placed around the central pillar of the gallery. Wittgenstein’s hut then encompasses the rectangle, which in turn is surrounded by the gallery, that has its core/heart in the central pillar.

Family portrait (eyes), 2014 Slate; cm 110x170x2 The first three main statements (there are seven in total) taken from Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus are engraved on a 160 cm high by 100 cm wide slate. The slate rests on the floor and on the wall, and the three quotes are engraved on three different lines at three different heights, corresponding to the distance from the ground of my own, my wife’s and our little girl’s eyes, respectively.

There are seven main propositions in the text. These are:

1. The world is everything that is the case. 2. What is the case (a fact) is the existence of states of affairs. 3. A logical picture of facts is a thought. 4. A thought is a proposition with a sense. 5. A proposition is a truth-function of elementary propositions. (An elementary proposition is a truth-

function of itself.)

6. The general form of a proposition is the general form of a truth function, which is: . This is the general form of a proposition.

7. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent

Two looks, 2014 Clay, bronze; cm 10x15x20 A bronze cube 10x10x10 cm, corresponding to the outer distance between my eyes, is dropped onto a cube of fresh clay 12,5x12,5x12,5 cm, corresponding to the outer distance of Wittgenstein’s eyes.

Brackets (Madrid horizont), 2014 Galvanized metal, various materials; 185x20x25 cm. Two brackets of galvanized metal are attached to a wall at a distance of 177 cm from each other, corresponding to the maximum leak of the arms of the artist. Some objects that the artist found walking in Madrid rest on the brackets.

ONZE MILLE CENT QUATRE-VINGT SEPT JOURS Frac Champagne-Ardenne, Reims

Mare della tranquillità / Superficie con linea, 2013 Metal, wood; cm 500x175x75 An old domestic dining table has been cut into four pieces, each of which has become the corner of a much larger table measuring 5 long by 1.75 metres across and 75 centimetres high. The inserted section of the new table is in untreated dark metal. In this way the private surface of a dining room table from a private dwelling – once the gathering place of a family – has been combined with the public surface of the table in Reims where, on May 7th 1945, the Germans signed their surrender. This table is evoked in its size, a large surface on which the destiny of Europe was decided and where its future geographical and cultural boundaries were drawn up. This work aims to reflect on how public decisions influence the lives of individual citizens. Besides being a sculpture in its own right, the table is also the space where an action will be performed throughout the duration of the exhibition. The title of this performance is ̀Superficie con linea, like the title of an abstract painting. In this case the performance will be the meeting point between two works, the table being the first and the second simply a pair of new shoes that have never touched the ground. For each of the 70 days of the exhibition a man will climb onto the table, put on the shoes and walk along the middle of the table from one extremity to another, all along the five metre length of the table, for 429 times. In this way, by the end of the 70 days of the exhibition the new shoes will have travelled exactly 155 kilometres, the length of the Berlin Wall, which stands as the most tangible visual – and highly symbolic – element that divided Europe in two at the end of the Second World War.

Pillar, 2013 Metal prop, clay; cm 25x25x500 The third work is a vertical element that connects the floor with the ceiling, an unfinished pillar. I intend to insert a metal prop of the kind used to reinforce ceilings, which exploit the pressure between floor and ceiling. Around this prop I will build a clay column, without the aid of a ladder, so that it will only be as high as I can reach on tiptoe. For me this work sums up my visits to Reims and to its cathedral, with its roof that was destroyed by the Germans during World War One and which was rebuilt between the two world wars thanks to funds donated by David Junior Rockfeller. When the rebuilt cathedral was officially inaugurated in 1937, a new war was already looming – the same war that would have been officially declared concluded in Reims at Eisenhower’s great table. My column is a quotation of the great beams with which the cathedral roof was reconstructed – concrete beams – while at the same time Rockfeller was using steel beams to build his vast residential complex in New York. Almost all of them immigrants from Europe, the workers who built the Rockfeller Center had to climb up the scaffolding to great heights, while I will stay firmly anchored at ground level and the column will be the measure of my failure as a builder.

Around Celine, 2013 Metal, books; cm 166,5x19x9 Around the books of the trilogy North Louis Ferdinand Celine was built a metal box made of four slabs of the total weight equal to the weight of the artist, the height of the box is equal to the height and width of the artist depth are those of the three books side by side.

Extreme Occident, 2013 Book; enviromental dimension A book found by the artist in a library and not bed in what is written in French, language that the artist does not speak, is installed to form an angle in the corner more to the West of space.

Monocromi , 2013 Slate; two slabs, each measuring cm 122.5x122.5x2 Two stone plaques placed in the square in front of the cathedral of Reims commemorate the reconciliation between Germany and France, which was officially sanctioned on June 8th 1962 when Germany’s chancellor Konrad Adenauer met with French president Charles De Gaulle. Up until a few months ago there was only one plaque, in French. An identical plaque in German was placed next to the first when Germany’s current chancellor, Angela Merkel, made a visit to Reims. I find it strange that, after so many years since the first plaque was laid, it was felt that a plaque in German should be added. This must be because in Europe today Germany is a very strong country, which holds considerable financial sway. In this case the positioning of the second plaque is also a monument, to a victor that somehow deserves to be honoured but which also needs to be reminded of its defeat. Each plaque has been duplicated in slate slabs with exactly the same measurements. The two black monochrome monuments have been inscribed with only the accents that appear in the texts of the originals, a total of five for the French version and just one for the German version.

RIDUZIONE DI MARE E ORIZZONTE Monitor Gallery, Roma

Riduzione di mare, 2012 Tripods, salt, book (tripod with salt: 142 x 34,5 x 34,5 cm; tripod with book: 105 x 64 x 34cm), Riduzione di mare is a 34-kilogram block of salt – the amount of salt obtained after evaporating a cubic metre of seawater. Several performers will lick the block with the intention of overwriting a Morse text, so using quick darting movements for the dots and longer, horizontal strokes for the lines. The Morse text is from a document drawn up by the Dutch organisation United for Intercultural Action (European Network Against Nationalism, Racism, Fascism and in Support of Migrants and Refugees), which has issued a list of names of 16,136 people who have died trying to migrate to Europe. The list includes only the names of those who have received a mention in the media from January 1st 1993 to January 29th 2012. At the end of the process Riduzione di mare will appear as an object that has undergone the erosive process of human movement and mood, scarred both by the past and by the future.

Orizzonte, 2012 Beam model IPE 180, 727 x 20 x 9,5 cm. A metal beam has been suspended between two walls and positioned so that its upper surface is at 157 centimetres above floor level – exactly on a level with artist’s eyes. Soil from the Lampedusa immigration shelter covers the surface of the beam in a 2-centimetre layer. The silent presence of this bulky work, aptly named Orizzonte (horizon) literally slices the space in two. It doesn’t matter if this dividing line is above or below: the viewer suddenly becomes aware that this is not a horizon made of sea and sky but its diametrical opposite – sky and earth. A promise, a threat, the line of the horizon is reflected daily in the retinas of thousands of illegal immigrants. Orizzonte runs across the surface of the eye, barely two centimetres of the human face.

CRATERE De Vleeshal, Middelburg

Cratere, Italian for ‘crater’, was the title of this exhibition at De Vleeshal, the first in the Netherlands by the visual artist Francesco Arena (b. 1978, Italy). The exhibition was associated with The Forgotten Bombardment, a programme of events taking place this summer in Middelburg. In many of Arena’s installations, materials such as stone, sand, and wood form what appears to be an objet trouvé but is in fact a creation of the artist. The installation at De Vleeshal, curated by SBKM/De Vleeshal director Lorenzo Benedetti, referred to the bombardment that destroyed a great deal of Middelburg’s historic centre 70 years ago. The destruction wrought during the war was the theme investigated by Arena, whose work often makes reference to history and major events that left their mark on collective life. The point of departure for this project was a photo connected with a bombing in an unknown place be-tween Zeeland and Belgium during the Second World War. In the foreground, a crater is visible amid a ruined landscape. The artist calculated the volume of earth that must have been blasted out of this crater and included it in the exhibition. For this purpose, he constructed an installation made of clay-filled scaffolding. The mass of the materials served as a visual metaphor for the destruction and absences left by the bombardment.

Cratere, 2010 wood, metal, sand; cm 600x400x600 Crater is a sculpture using 50 cubic meters (75 tons) of ground Netherlands, ordered through a structure of piles metal and wood. The amount of land used is ground missing from a crater dating back to World War II bombing of some of the Zealand area, this crater is only visible in a photograph of the time.

Rampa con cannoneggiamento di casa Stevening, 2010 Wood, print of 18° century, glass, ; cm 133x132x30

Copertone con cerchio di pietre, 2010 Bycicle tire, stone; cm 64x64x5