Massimo Bartolini

A Mauro, Marco, Lucia, Mino, Paolo, Felice, Azeglio, Armida, Oreste, 2020
Video, sound, colour, 1’17’’
© Massimo Bartolini

Massimo Bartolini

A Mauro, Marco, Lucia, Mino, Paolo, Felice, Azeglio, Armida, Oreste, 2020
digital photography
© Massimo Bartolini

Since his debut, Massimo Bartolini has always used different media to design interventions that can transform space and above all our perception of it.
For his work, he travelled to La Boldria (Volterra) to make a video of himself walking towards the sculpture of the same name. Measuring 600 cm in diameter with a thickness of 60 cm, the ring was made by Staccioli in 2009 along the stretch of the SR68 that leads from Volterra to the village of Saline, mine of enormous potential since ancient times due to the gold that was extracted there.
Standing in front of La Boldria, Bartolini places a small, white pearl on the lower edge of the ring and films it so close up that it is in proportion with the vast hilly backdrop, just like Staccioli when he placed his sculpture in that landscape.
The video is accompanied by a digital photograph that shows a pearl necklace resting on the curve of Staccioli’s sculpture ‘come una specie di sorriso’ (like a kind of smile), demonstrating how the insertion of even such a small element in space can alter its perception.

“On one hand a film, on the other an image that comments on the film, like an ending perhaps or an inexistent still. The title refers to all the people who are important to me along the road that leads from Cecina to Volterra, where Staccioli’s sculpture is…” (Massimo Bartolini)

Massimo Bartolini was born in 1962 in Cecina (Livorno), where he lives and works.
Since 1993 he has featured in numerous exhibitions. The group exhibitions include:
Venice Biennale 1999, 2001 (collateral event), 2009, 2013; Valencia Biennale 2001; Manifesta 4, Frankfurt 2002; Shanghai Biennale 2006 and 2012; Yokohama Triennale 2011; São Paulo Biennale 2004; Pontevedra Biennale 2004; Documenta 13, Kassel 2012; Echigo-Tsumari Triennale, Tokamachi 2012; Kathmandu Triennale 2017; Pune Biennale 2017 and Yinchuan Biennale 2018.
His solo exhibitions include: “On Identikit”, CSAC, Parma 2020; “Caudu e Fridu”, Manifesta 12 (collateral event), Palermo 2018; “4 organi”, Fondazione Merz, Turin 2017; “Studio Matters+1” Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh and SMAK, Ghent 2013; Serce na Dloni, Centre of Contemporary Art “Znaki Czasu”, Torun 2013; “Hum”, Auditorium Arte, Rome / MARCO, Vigo 2012; Museu Serralves, Porto, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 2007; GAM, Turin 2005; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach 2002 and “Untitled (Wave)”, MoMA PS1, New York 2001.

in dialogue with Mauro Staccioli, La Boldria, Volterra, 2009

Foto di E. Cattaneo