Francesco Vezzoli

The second venue of the program of conferences open to the public organized by the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte will host Francesco Vezzoli on November 24th 2006 at 9p.m.

Francesco Vezzoli was born in Brescia in 1971. He lives and works in Milan.
Nostalgia and regret: a melancholy that bleeds into in the pure melodrama of the videos and embroidery by Francesco Vezzoli, where bygone heroines are called upon to document the remains of the day. They shed tears in the weave and are often disturbed in the videos. The narrative structure of these pieces recalls the same iron logic that holds the embroideries together: each knot is firmly interlaced with next. The characters that appear, the sets where they are shot and the film crews together hold the work in place like pegs that determine the work’s overall aesthetic structure and content. The starting point is often an homage to art-house film directors, from Stanley Kubrik to Luchino Visconti and from Roberto Rossellini to Pier Paolo Pasolini. Sometimes it contemplates the question of popular culture, from reality shows to soap operas, right up to hard-core movies.
Music has always played an important role in the work of Francesco Vezzoli, but not only by providing a simple soundtrack to his videos. In his exploration of popular culture, he has regularly used icons from the history of music as a common denominator, electing stars ranging from Iva Zanicchi to Bianca Jagger.
An Embroidered Trilogy, his first ever 3 videos, all focus on music, art, embroidery and cinema, and every one of these pieces is built around a song symbolising the world of pop culture.
He has taken part in many important one-man and group shows, these include the one-man shows at the Castello di Rivoli and the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York in 2002; the Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2004 and the Tate Modern in London in 2006. He also took part in the Istanbul Biennale in 2000; the Venice Biennial in 2001; the San Paolo Biennale in 2004 and the exhibition Taipei Biennial: Dirty Yoga at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 2006.