Introduction of the artist:

Giovanni ANSELMO (Italy)

Born in 1934, Borgofranco d'Ivrea, Italy. Lives and works in Turin, Italy. Selected solo exhibitions: 2010 Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris / 2005 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK / 2005 S.M.A.K., Gent / 2004 Museum Kurhaus, Kleve, Germany / 2001 Villa Medici, French Academy in Rome / 1997 Lungo il sentiero verso oltremare, The Renaissance Society, Chicago / 1996 Inviter 3, Forum d'Art Contemporain, Casino du Luxembourg / 1968 Galleria Sperone, Turin, Italy / Selected group exhibitions: 2012 Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, MOCA, Los Angeles / 2010 On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, MoMA, New York / 2008 Time & Place: Milano . Torino 1958-1968, Moderna Museet, Stockholm / 2007 52nd Venice Biennale / 1980 39th Venice Biennale / 1982 Documenta 7, Kassel, Germany / 1978 38th Venice Biennale / 1972 Documenta 5, Kassel, Germany.

Introduction of works:

Invisibile (Invisible), 1971
projector, slide with the word "visibile"
Photo © Paolo Mussat Sartor
Courtesy Archivio Anselmo

Panorama facing “Oltremare”  where the stars are coming one span closer, while the colour lights the stone,
2001, Atelier del Bosco – Villa Medici – Académie de France a Rome
© Claudio Abate, courtesy Archivio Anselmo

Shortly after his arrival in Turin in the 1960s, Giovanni Anselmo became a key figure in the development of Arte Povera, an Italian post-war art movement that was extremely influential internationally, asserting the expressive power of unrefined materials. Anselmo’s contribution was distinctly poetic, with its embodiment of natural forces and a breathtaking orientation towards infinity. The unpretentiousness of his work continues to be extraordinary given the vastness of its subject matter.

Anselmo’s work often derives dramatic power through the conflation of substantial mass and fugitive phenomena. A seminal work by him, Per un'incisione di indefinite migliaia di anni, (For an Incision in an Indefinite Number of Thousands of Years) for example, involves the handwriting of these words on a wall next to a leaning length of iron. We know this massive object is diminishing, rusting, due to its exposure to air, but imperceptibly slowly. Eventually – after many thousands of years – the only trace of its existence will be the artist’s words describing an inevitable process of decay. In the case of Invisibile, also shown in this exhibition, the humming machinery of a slide projector foils the lightness of the spelt-out title. The word is legible only when the projection is in focus, perhaps when the presence of the viewer intersects it, and thus the invisible becomes visible.