Acrobazie 4

Facing inert materials to build objects with an aesthetical value, means keeping oneself distant from “things” for a while, and then re-face the everyday task of giving them a sense in a completely different way.

Since 2004 the Atelier di pittura Adriano e Michele, at the Centro di riabilitazione psichiatrica (Centre for psychiatric rehabilitation) Fatebenefratelli in San Colombano al Lambro, has started the series of exhibitions Acrobazie, that every year hosts an internationally renowned artist. The aim of the project is to make outsider art by the authors of the Atelier dialogue with works by young contemporary artists, creating thus common artworks around a theme which changes every time. In 2008, Francesco Simeti is the artist invited, and he chose as theme the utopian “home” and the relationship with nature between welfare and environmental responsibility.
From his favoured position, the artist created a careful direction in which the authors’ works harmoniously coexist in space, dialoguing with his site specific works. Le works on display manifestate the desire of being reconciled with the outside world and re-take possession of the “things” to make them “human”, and also the necessity to aesthetically and emotionally elaborate one’s relationships through art.

Francesco Simeti’s and the authors’ works are presented in this big size book, in which the balance between colour and sign is brought out by the presence of five different types of paper.
The texts by Giovanni Foresti, Elisa Fulco, Walter Guadagnini, Alessandro Profumo, Gabriella Vincenti and Laura Garzia contribute to describe the works from a wide range of points of view, from the artistic to psychiatric.
The exhibition Acrobazie#4 Francesco Simeti, curated by Elisa Fulco, is on display from october 6th to November 30th at the Atelier Adriano e Michele in San Colombano al Lambro.

Born in Palermo in 1968, Francesco Simeti currently lives between New York and Sicily. He has found his place in the contemporary art scene, thanks to his sculptures, site specific installations and public art projects carried out for important institutions such as the Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design, New York; Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery, Bronx NY; Art & Idea Gallery, Mexico City; Columbia University, New York. Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna; Mudac, Musée de Design et d’Arts Appliqués Contemporains, Lausanne; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.
Elisa Fulco (Palermo, 1971), art historian, works as a contemporary art critic, exhibitions curator and cultural projects advisor. He has been curator and cultural advisor for many companies. In 2004 she conceived the project Acrobazie.