Fabrizio Plessi. Utopia Liquida

International Pioneer of video art in Düsseldorf

Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art is presenting the work of the international pioneer of video art, Fabrizio Plessi, for the first time at the Düsseldorf Photo Weekend 2017. The exhibition »Utopia Liquida«, with selected photographs from the 1970s, gives insight into Plessi's early creative phase in which he already began to develop water as the main theme of his art.

In numerous interventions, that at the time were cutting edge happenings and conceptual art, his fascination for the ancient element became a source of inspiration. It originated from the omnipresence of the water in his chosen home Venice. The photographs show document and reflect his artistic happenings; some of them were already shown at the Venice Biennale in 1978. These include Plessi cutting apart running water in a sink into a hundred equal parts with a pair of scissors (100 Pezzi D'Acqua, Azione 1973), in Paris he tried to put a hole in the Seine River (Un Buco N'ell Acqua, Azione 1973) and when he sawed the Stichter Lake by Neuenkirchen into equal halves (Segare Il Lago Stichter in due parti uguali, Azione 1975). In these absurd actions water is treated less like a natural element and more like a full-fledged aspect design element for the implementation of his imaginative ideas.

FABRIZIO PLESSI (born 1940 in Reggio Emilia, Italy) lives and works in Venice. Plessi has been repeatedly invited to the Venice Biennale. In 1970, he first took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1987, he also presented his monumental installation Roma at the Documenta 8. Over the last 40 years, he has created outstanding work that has been shown worldwide in important museums and institutions. Since 1977 these include, among others, the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Fondazione Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, Folkwang Museum in Essen, Museo Gugg...

In numerous interventions, that at the time were cutting edge happenings and conceptual art, his fascination for the ancient element became a source of inspiration. It originated from the omnipresence of the water in his chosen home Venice. The photographs show document and reflect his artistic happenings; some of them were already shown at the Venice Biennale in 1978. These include Plessi cutting apart running water in a sink into a hundred equal parts with a pair of scissors (100 Pezzi D'Acqua, Azione 1973), in Paris he tried to put a hole in the Seine River (Un Buco N'ell Acqua, Azione 1973) and when he sawed the Stichter Lake by Neuenkirchen into equal halves (Segare Il Lago Stichter in due parti uguali, Azione 1975). In these absurd actions water is treated less like a natural element and more like a full-fledged aspect design element for the implementation of his imaginative ideas.

FABRIZIO PLESSI (born 1940 in Reggio Emilia, Italy) lives and works in Venice. Plessi has been repeatedly invited to the Venice Biennale. In 1970, he first took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1987, he also presented his monumental installation Roma at the Documenta 8. Over the last 40 years, he has created outstanding work that has been shown worldwide in important museums and institutions. Since 1977 these include, among others, the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York, the Center Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Fondazione Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, Folkwang Museum in Essen, Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao, Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Fondazione Mudima in Milan, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen in Recklinghausen, and Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice. Additionally, Fabrizio Plessi designed stage designs for the operas The Fall of Icarus (1989) and Ex Machina (1994), a concert by Luciano Pavarotti in New York's Central Park, and Mauro Bigonzetti's ballet Romeo and Juliet.

Publications

Fabrizio Plessi. Utopia liquida

Fabrizio Plessi. Utopia liquida

  • Artist: Fabrizio Plessi
    Editor: Ute Eggeling, Michael Beck
    Text: David Galloway, Marco Meneguzzo
    Design: Beck & Eggeling (Antonia Eggeling)
  • German, English, Italian
    Hardcover, 24 x 28 cm
    112 pages, 122 illustrations
  • Beck & Eggeling Kunstverlag, 2017
    ISBN 978-3-94606310-0
  • 28 €
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