Andrea Fiorino & Ciao Mare
Curated by spazioSERRA
Critical text by Manuela Piccolo
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On display from 14/06/2023 to 16/07/2023
Opening Saturday 01/07/2023 at 18:30
Lancetti railway station, Milan
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Andrea Fiorino (Augusta, Italy, 1990) lives and works in Milan. Graduated in Graphic Art and Painting from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. Fiorino is attending the specialization course in Clinical Art Therapy at Lyceum, Milan. Among his solo exhibitions, FIGLI* PRODiG*, curated by Manuela Piccolo, Hello Tiresia, Carrara, 2022; Mano Morta, Io non dipingo tutti i giorni, IL CREPACCIO INSTRAGRAM SHOW, curated by Caroline Corbetta, 2019; Amaro in Bocca, CasaVuota, curated by Francesco Paolo del Re, Sabino de Nichilo, Rome, 2019; Every day like a sunday, curated by Ivan Quaroni; Antonio Colombo Gallery, Milan, 2018; Della stessa sostanza, curated by Arianna Beretta, Circoloquadro Milan, 2017.
Ciao Mare is a crew of musicians, designers, photographers, tailors, and lawyers. United by the desire to be together, they propose various events to build a sense of community in "gran Milàn." Their activities range from the conception and organization of parties and festivals to participation in various neighborhood activities, bringing joy, games, and DJ sets.
They have collaborated with entities such as Circolo Iam, CIQ Centro Internazionale di Quartiere, Boodoya Festival, spazioSERRA, electropark, Potlatch, Mercato Sonato, Dopo.Space, Sagrèt - la sagra in quartiere. Ciao Mare is composed of Giacomo Betti, Roberta Donatini, Alessandro Las Casas, Alessandra Mottadelli, Giuseppe Paolillo, Mattia Salvà, and Matteo Signorelli.
Manuela Piccolo (Palermo, Italy, 1991) graduated in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Turin, in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies from NABA, and has a master's degree in Digital Specialist from Sole24Ore. She organizes, manages, and develops artistic and cultural projects, researching tools from various disciplines to enhance cultural heritage and the connections between artwork/space/audience. In 2019, she co-founded Walk-In Studio, which involves artists active in Milan opening their studios for exhibitions and events. Throughout 2019, she worked as an executive assistant for ADC and FlashArt. She has worked for ArchivioBoboPiccoli, and writes for Atp Diary, Exibart, and Forme Uniche. In March 2020, she published Indisciplinata+, Postemediabooks.
Hamelin
HAMELIN The impossible club of unwanted guests is the site-specific exhibition-performance by Andrea Fiorino and Ciao Mare proposed for un postoIMPOSSIBILE, spazioSERRA’s exhibition season during which the selected artists abstract their artistic experience from a physical space to an unlocatable "elsewhere", through a continuous dialogue between inside/interior and outside/exterior. The exhibition will be visible from Wednesday the 14th of June to Sunday the 16th of July 2023, at the Lancetti railway station in Milan.
It is the year 1284, and we are in Hamelin, Lower Saxony. The city is overrun by rats, and a piper appears before the mayor, offering to free the city in exchange for an adequate payment. Enchanted by the piper's music, the rats fall for the deception and follow him to the river, where they drown.
However, the piper is denied the agreed-upon compensation and decides to take revenge. Taking advantage of the darkness, he starts playing his pipe again. This time, it is the children of the city who succumb to the enchanting power of his music and follow the mysterious musician, disappearing into nothingness.
HAMELIN draws its roots from this legend, reinterpreted in a three-act exhibition.
In the first act, a muffled, familiar, and distinct sound spreads inside the Lancetti station. It sounds like music. Something is happening inside spazioSERRA, but its windows are obscured by black curtains, concealing its content from passersby. They are drawn to what the space manifests and hides at the same time, something that is forbidden to them, fueling curiosity and FOMO. SERRA is the mysterious instrument of the piper, attracting people to itself. References to an impossible party spread throughout the station, the city, and online.
The second act takes place on July 1, 2023. The sound stops, and the curtains fall. It is now the artist's task to break the spell and unveil the mystery to the audience: Fiorino, in a performative act, reveals the physical location and breaks the enchantment. With a daily and familiar gesture, using his fingers, he reproduces on the glass of the space the images of what could only be imagined until that moment.
Fiorino transports the spectators to another place but continues not to provide answers. For those who have chosen to follow him, to be accompanied, it is a moment of enjoyment, of celebration, together with Ciao Mare.
The third act. Inside spazioSERRA, the remains of a party are left as stage props: elements from different contexts, witnesses of events that never took place. The place has been lived in, and spazioSERRA, the piper's instrument, has succeeded in attracting people to itself.
We are attracted to things that don't exist, to experiences in which we must participate at all costs. Manuela Piccolo writes in the critical text accompanying the exhibition: "Being aware of obsolescence and forgetting to enjoy moments in a present way is part of the petrified decadence of our contemporary culture. The irruption of the extraordinary can break down these doors."