Vorrei costruirmela tutta con le mie mani, pietra su pietra, mattone su mattone, la città del mio cuore. Mi farei architetto, muratore, manovale, falegname, stuccatore, tutti i mestieri farei perché la città fosse mia, proprio mia, dalle cantine ai tetti, mia come la vorrei. Una città che mi assomigliasse, che fosse il mio ritratto e insieme la mia biografia… E tutti, appena entrandoci, sentissero che quella città sono io, che quelle strade sono le mie braccia aperte ad accogliere gli amici. L’intonaco dei muri, le persiane, gli scalini…, vorrei che fossero la parte migliore di me, i lineamenti del mio viso e del mio spirito, gli elementi fondamentali dell’architettura e della storia della mia vita. Che m’assomigliasse, e che ciascuno sentisse, vivendoci, di stare dentro di me. Casa come me… il mio ritratto di pietra > Curzio Malaparte

On the occasion of the  Photo Vogue Festival, Galleria Fumagalli presents a photographic exhibition by Peter Welz “Portrait Malaparte”, dedicated to the imposing villa of the poet Curzio Malaparte on Capri Island. Since 2008 the German artist Peter Welz works on the study and research of three subjects, which constitute the Portraits series: Francis Bacon, Casa Malaparte and Michelangelo Antonioni. The first is the “translation” of the unfinished self-portrait by Francis Bacon, the second is devoted to Casa Malaparte, and the third comes from (unpublished) specimens, studios and filming of the movie Red Desert (1964) by Michelangelo Antonioni.

The second portrait, Casa Malaparte, comes from the interest and the studies of Peter Welz on motion and architecture, among which the construction of the installation “Retranslation | Final Unfinished Portrait (Francis Bacon)”, produced in collaboration with the choreographer William Forsythe and presented at the Musée du Louvre in Paris in 2005. Taking to its limits this investigation on the move, in the series Malaparte Peter Welz works on definitions and concepts of space and architecture making fluid even the rigid structures. Casa Malaparte is an austere building, elegant and modern, located on the island of Capri on a steep and narrow rocky promontory, which seems almost to emerge from the rocks, shore up to the ground by a trapezoidal staircase that stretches to the sea. Designed by the architect Adalberto Libera, it is considered one of the masterpieces of modern architecture, representing a wonderful example of integration between rationalist modernity and natural environment. The villa has had illustrious guests, including Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus, Alberto Moravia, Pablo Picasso, Palmiro Togliatti, André Breton and others, besides having inspired Jean-Luc Godard in 1963 who shot the film Le Mépris, which is famous for the scene in which Michel Piccoli and Brigitte Bardot, covered only by a yellow book, sunbathe on the roof of the Villa.

Peter Welz born in Germany in 1972, lives and works in Berlin. Welz is a German sculptor who, by exploiting new technology, has opened up an original kinetic perspective in plastic arts due to his multimedia choreographic installations continuously moving from sculpture, painting, video, art and dance. His encounter with William Forsythe, on the forefront in contemporary dance, was indeed meaningful. In addition to numerous participations in national and international shows, his most important personal exhibitions include: “Airdrawing – work in progress”, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 2004; “Whenever on on on nohow on | airdrawing”, The Renaissance Society, Chicago 2005; “[retranslation | final unfinished portrait (francis bacon)]”, Louvre Museum, Melpomène Gallery, 2006; “Peter Welz: Pantalla CCCB, one month | one artist”, Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona, 2007; “Figure inscribing a circle | random collage | split [figure] | single – triple”, Next, Art Chicago, Chicago 2008; “working title”, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma 2009; “Whenever on on on soho on”, Triennale Aichi, Nagoya and “Francis Bacon”, MOMAT, Tokyo, 2013; “Michelangelo Antonioni (Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo)”, La Cinémathèque Française, Paris, “Peter Welz |Screen Teets | Antonioni”, Fondazione Ferrara Arte, Ferrara and “Peter Welz. Solo”, Galerie Crone, Berlino, 2015; “The Berlin Case”, Boris Yeltzin Presidential Centre, Ekaterinburg in Russia e “Peter Welz | Portrait #3 / Antonioni”, Museo d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Ferrara, 2016.

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artribune.com

2 December 2016
“Le mura di una personalità. Malaparte secondo Peter Welz”

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