The Painting Race
Solo exhibition, 2024
Alchemilla, Palazzo Vizzani
Bologna (Italy)
Curated by Antonio Grulli
Solo exhibition, 2024
Alchemilla, Palazzo Vizzani
Bologna (Italy)
Curated by Antonio Grulli
...ne la pittura tener lo campo...
The feeling of competition: what if this is the fuel that allows us to have museums full of masterpieces of past centuries? That engine we feel in our stomach, the desire to annihilate our colleagues or to make the artists of the previous generation disappear into the closet of old things. Do we want to pretend that it does not exist? Or that it has counted for nothing in the long journey of art? That would be ridiculous. In some magical moments a healthy competition has been created that has allowed the flowering of great seasons, as in the Renaissance, or in the period from the second century until the second half of the twentieth century, in which each artist has raised the bar of quality, ideas, content, forms, attitude, generating in the companions of the street a mixture of admiration, envy, desire to compete. And to think that artists are angelic entities moved only by good feelings and committed to the improvement of humanity would be even more ridiculous, especially for those lucky enough to know them closely.
The CANEMORTO trio as always put the brush on the nerve. What metaphor in fact could be more appropriate than a car race? Here then is their latest project The Painting Race: a miniature car track (but not too much...) that crosses the rooms of the exhibition space of Alchemilla, at Palazzo Vizzani, on which they compete at the last drift a series of paintings, mounted on a motorized body of radio-controlled cars (about 1/10 large compared to the size of a real car) and made available to all visitors to the exhibition who want to drive them to compete with friends, family members or strangers met by chance at the exhibition. On each radio-controlled car is mounted a double-sided canvas in which both sides are painted, and whose subject goes to define the stable of belonging: we have the portrait, the landscape, still life, post-expressionism, magic realism and neo-abstractionism, all competing to get the better of other genres or painting schools. All this happens in the days of Arte Fiera (and when else?), the art fair, one of the pinnacle of the competitiveness of the Italian art scene, and in Bologna (and where else?), in the center of the so-called Motor Valley, the region where the best racing and sports cars in the world are created.
It’s impossible not to think about the Futurists, the first to understand that the racing car had to be inside a museum, and the first to bring out the awareness of how a canvas is not enough if it is not able to exorcise the frame to unite with life. But I can’t help but think of my great love, Salvatore Scarpitta, and his attitude dada that led him to create wonderful self-portraits with which he competed on real circuits. No more talking, enjoy The Painting Race, do not spare the low blows and remember that in this project the important thing is not to participate, it is to win.
Antonio Grulli
Photographs by Valentina Carlotti e Federico Landi
The feeling of competition: what if this is the fuel that allows us to have museums full of masterpieces of past centuries? That engine we feel in our stomach, the desire to annihilate our colleagues or to make the artists of the previous generation disappear into the closet of old things. Do we want to pretend that it does not exist? Or that it has counted for nothing in the long journey of art? That would be ridiculous. In some magical moments a healthy competition has been created that has allowed the flowering of great seasons, as in the Renaissance, or in the period from the second century until the second half of the twentieth century, in which each artist has raised the bar of quality, ideas, content, forms, attitude, generating in the companions of the street a mixture of admiration, envy, desire to compete. And to think that artists are angelic entities moved only by good feelings and committed to the improvement of humanity would be even more ridiculous, especially for those lucky enough to know them closely.
The CANEMORTO trio as always put the brush on the nerve. What metaphor in fact could be more appropriate than a car race? Here then is their latest project The Painting Race: a miniature car track (but not too much...) that crosses the rooms of the exhibition space of Alchemilla, at Palazzo Vizzani, on which they compete at the last drift a series of paintings, mounted on a motorized body of radio-controlled cars (about 1/10 large compared to the size of a real car) and made available to all visitors to the exhibition who want to drive them to compete with friends, family members or strangers met by chance at the exhibition. On each radio-controlled car is mounted a double-sided canvas in which both sides are painted, and whose subject goes to define the stable of belonging: we have the portrait, the landscape, still life, post-expressionism, magic realism and neo-abstractionism, all competing to get the better of other genres or painting schools. All this happens in the days of Arte Fiera (and when else?), the art fair, one of the pinnacle of the competitiveness of the Italian art scene, and in Bologna (and where else?), in the center of the so-called Motor Valley, the region where the best racing and sports cars in the world are created.
It’s impossible not to think about the Futurists, the first to understand that the racing car had to be inside a museum, and the first to bring out the awareness of how a canvas is not enough if it is not able to exorcise the frame to unite with life. But I can’t help but think of my great love, Salvatore Scarpitta, and his attitude dada that led him to create wonderful self-portraits with which he competed on real circuits. No more talking, enjoy The Painting Race, do not spare the low blows and remember that in this project the important thing is not to participate, it is to win.
Antonio Grulli
Photographs by Valentina Carlotti e Federico Landi
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