AsAbaroK

On Friday the 20th of April 2012 at 16:00 will be opened the personal exhibition of the italian artist Christian Zanotto, at Red Stamp Art Gallery, Amsterdam, curated by Sonia Arata.
The odd show title , AsAbaroK, discloses to the viewer the artist's visual world like a code of an unknown language, between an anagram and a magical formula.

Asa and Baroque first of all point to the peculiarity of Christian Zanotto's artistic practice: the combination between modern and past figuration, between the asa values of photography and a passed epoch of grandious use of images. Another reading is: “As a Barok”, “As a baroque man”, that is to say like the one who acts and feels through the particular aesthetic and spiritual qualities which are peculiar to the baroque universe. Zanotto therefore refers to himself and to humankind when he ironically states: “I like to think of man as a baroque monkey”.

On display: 15 unreleased works and 7 videos realized by the artist. The images, created by means of the combined use of various softwares and digital medias then transferred on crystal sheets through a photographic exposure process and the videos, which make use of complex 3D animation techniques, will lead the viewer on a virtual journey across the fascinating dimension in which the entities depicted by the artist live.

“Christian Zanotto (1972) originally from the Italian province of Vicenza but cosmopolitan by nature, since the year 2000 has lived and worked in Amsterdam. He is a talented “virtuoso” of the digital arts, and he stands out for his ability to manipulate multimedia technology creating striking “plastic-sculptural” effects. He has creative potential in the style of the mannerists and the neo-baroque which are quite out of the ordinary […]
These divine figures, which stand out from a black background, are drawn from the collective imagination within the sphere of sacred iconography and mythology. They possess a hypnotic power and are generated by sophisticated virtual constructions, which stage a three-dimensional reality using an innovative technique […]
His are overly-refined images animated by intriguing, fascinating and seductive beings, solemn priestesses, winged figures both male and female adorned in precious golden detailed accessories. These angels or gods, with their perfect bodies, surrounded by metallic machinery, thrones, triumphal carriages of death, with mysterious functions, whisk us away in the whirlwind of the passion of Eros and Psyche, evoking the imaginative power of love, suspended between eroticism and mysticism.”

From: Jacqueline Ceresoli, FlashArt n. 291, March 2011


“…In Christian Zanotto's work at first glance we perceive “an exquisite clock”, golden, precious, glistening…Then on looking again more carefully something de-stabilising happens: the eye is captured by the darkness of eternity and the alluring presence of perpetually glowing figures which absorb within them the essence both of the female and the male, to then dissolve into a sole entity giving birth to androgenous figures, manifestation of our present times….Time which has lost the tic-toc of its seconds going by, wanders aimlessly among spaces anchored to remote ages and an unknown epoch, immersed in a suspended space. The scenic structure vibrates within a sacred event, inside which the bodies are wrapped in a hieratic atmosphere and chained to moral pain and to the hovering dramma of death. A time leap through the history of art through the Renaissance, Manierism and the Baroque, accompanied by an atmosphere mysteriously wrapped in gothic darkness.
Christian Zanotto chooses crystal as the element onto which to entrust his images. An alchemic procedure in which crystal, the aseptic, motionless and inert substance, is rianimated by means of a chemical reaction obtained through light, using a procedure of photographic exposure, then covering the surface of the crystal with an emulsion of micro-crystals. The result obtained radiates light over the entire work, bestowing an extraordinary clarity to the figures portrayed; the artist moulds his figures in every detail and dimension, using sophisticated software and photographic techniques to pick out and fix details like real human skin, fabrics, lace, gold, so as to be able then to create textures with which to cover his figures.
They have stolen our time! They have taken away meditation, emotional tension necessary to penetrate the mesh of life, stealing not only our indispensable right of self determination, but even trying to drown us in a sea of chaos, among the din of nothingness which absorbs essential silence. Let us not then remain immobile but, as Zanotto advises and exhorts us, let us enter deeply into the great crystal mirror, unhinging the pre-arranged and chained visions of the ephemeral, and recover the mystery of the world, sensibility as a carnal vibration together with a hymn to life…
Wrapped in a din of music, of lights, of noise, of words, of colour, images on Christian Zanotto's videos flow, among imaginary myticism, multimedia, sensual eros and unconscious thought. The mirror is not only the support, the 'place' of art, but first of all it is the portrait of our time, concentrated more and more on the physical aspect of flesh and bone protected by the smooth skin of superficiality. It is urgent therefore to demonstrate how the skin does not simply wrap the mass of a body, but an individual who inside himself unites organic material and existential spirit.”

from: Alberto Mattia Martini, “Between mistery and free will”, Catalogue of the exhibition“ God O' Clock – Horlogerie Exquise – God Is Wearing A Rolex”, 2011


Christian Zanotto (Marostica, Vicenza, Italy, 1972) lives and works between Amsterdam and Italy. In 2007 he has been awarded with the “Prize for Digital Art” by the jury of the “Prize for the Arts – Prize for the Culture ”, Milano, IT. Recent exhibitions include: “Alessandria Biennial”, Fortress of Alessandria, Alessandria, IT (2008), curated by Sabrina Raffaghello; “Third Renaissance”, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, IT (2010) and “Third Renaissance – Languages of Hybrid Sensibility”, Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art A' Caos, Norman Castle, Aci Castello, Catania, IT (2010), curated by Carmelo Strano, Grace Zanotto and Angelo Cruciani; “Asolo Biennial”, Asolo, Treviso, IT (2010), curated by A. Schirato, “God O' Clock – Horlogerie Exquise – God Is Wearing A Rolex”, Famiglia Margini Gallery, Milano, IT (2010/2011), curated by Alberto Mattia Martini; “Responses in Time”, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia, USA (2012), curated by Lynn Boland. Between the upcoming exhibitions: IV Malindi Art Biennial, Malindi, Kenya (2012/2013), curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.


Red Stamp Art Gallery was born in Amsterdam (Netherlands) in 2005. It is located in the heart of the historic center of the town and is based in a building of the eighteenth century, rated as Royal Monument. The gallery exhibits artworks of international talented artists, which techniques range from painting to sculpture, from digital art to photography and video art; attention is always paid to a high formal and conceptual quality of the works.


AsAbaroK
Christian Zanotto's Personal Exhibition
curated by Sonia Arata
critic text by Jacqueline Ceresoli

from the 20th of April 2012 to the 26th of May 2012
Opening: Friday 20 April 2012 – 16:00 / 20:00
Address: Red Stamp Art Gallery, Rusland 22, 1012 CL Amsterdam - NL

Exhibition catalogue _ critic text by Jacqueline Ceresoli


Contacts:

Red Stamp Art Gallery
www.redstampartgallery.com
[email protected]


tel.: +31 0 6 46406531
+31 0 20 4208684
+39 347 1917003

Christian Zanotto
www.christianzanotto.com


Press Office Italy:

FLPress
Via Maiocchi 12, 20129, Milano

[email protected]
tel.: +39 02 87391564
+39 340 9245760


Press Office - The Netherlands:

Christian Pazzaglia

[email protected]
Tel.: +31 06 42275355