Bologna, Dario Picariello exhibits three large installations as a bridge between past and present

In Bologna, LABS Contemporary art is hosting from Sept. 14 to Nov. 13, 2021, the solo exhibition of young Dario Picariello (Avellino, 1991) entitled L’acqua le bagnna come il vento le calpesta, which presents three large unseen installations from the Cicli series, a production started in 2020 that takes its cue from the traditions of southern folk songs. The exhibition’s itinerary is accompanied by a critical text by Eugenio Viola, chief curator of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá - MAMBO, Colombia and next curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2022 Art Biennale.

The installation interventions, made with different materials and techniques, are put on display through the use of photographic backstage equipment, such as umbrellas or stands. The focus is on the photographic medium, a bridge of union between the past and the present: photographic images are digitally altered, transferred with acids to textiles or printed on blueback paper made into strips, to be then used to embroider words, according to decorative patterns of ceremonial garments or natural images. The songs selected for this occasion have different origins and periods; intertwining them is the common theme of violence, whether physical, verbal or psychological. Each work recounts a difficult issue, presented through short verses woven on textiles.

The first work, Cinquantaquattro, takes a traditional oral song in the Upper Ionian region of Cosenza to show the difficult working conditions of laborers in the fields. The worker, willing to undergo hard labor in order not to lose his occupation, the only source of livelihood for his entire family, creates a relationship of “dependence” with the landowner. A phenomenon that can still be found today and of which the subordinate classes are often the protagonists, forced to accept all sorts of abuses in order not to lose their jobs or incur public humiliation. The work entitled The Good Measures, on the other hand, takes up the verses of A Partannisa, a song of girls in the olive harvest, a very old Sicilian folk song. It is an appeal by a girl who begs her mother not to send her to the mill in order not to submit to the miller’s abuse. Finally, the third installation stages a love affair that was never consummated and has come to an end. Echoing in the air are the verses of Strambellate, a dirge sung in the first person: “don’t send me any more kisses for the mail / that on the street they lose their taste / if you me li voi dare dare them in my mouth / so you will prove what love is [...].”

The exhibition concludes with the display of two photographs displayed as a kind of polyptych. The images presented are the result of a digital process: the photograph is read by software not suited to encode its original digital format, producing an error, or glitch. The resulting image is contact-printed on paper, giving us appearances that are located in an indefinite and vibrant spatiality.

Dario Picariello holds a degree in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Art in Urbino and a Master’s degree in Photography and Visual Design from the Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti di Milano - NABA. His research makes use of different expressive media to give life to works that return a narrative between past and present, often exhibited through the use of backstage photography equipment such as umbrellas or stands. What interests the artist is the possibility, through a scientific, anthropological and folkloric study, of being able to revive a place with its history by presenting the public with a broader narrative close to the themes of human existence. His first solo exhibition, Mascarata, was held in 2016, with critical text by Eugenio Viola. In 2017 he was a finalist in the Cramum Prize. He has also participated in group shows in venues such as Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, PAC in Milan, and Villa delle Rose in Bologna.

Image: Dario Picariello, Non mi mandà più baci per la strada (2021; contact photographic print on organza, fans, photographic stands, blueback paper, 460 x 100 x 50 cm)

Bologna, Dario Picariello exhibits three large installations as a bridge between past and present

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