“[…] hunc inter fluvio Tiberinus amoeno verticibus rapidis et multa flavus harena in mare prorumpit […]” Virgil. What remains of the mythology of the blonde Tiber, strictly linked as it is to the birth of Rome and over 2000 years of history, as its waters dwindle season after season? The epochal changes of waters in the twenty-first century speak of a revolutionary upheaval that
Now that I am less occupied with the works of art I created for the Venice Architecture Biennale, I have the time to write a post that I wanted to publish for a rather long time. It is about the economics of art and the role that buyers, collectors, commissioners [1], and patrons play in my life. Since I look at this relationship both
"Silence does not mean surrender!" Lanfranco Aceti, Athens, 2018. Performance. Curated by Artemis Potamianou. Peripheral but not Irrelevant: Peripheries' Contribution to the Centrality of the Globalized Cities (Periferico ma non Irrilevante: Il contributo delle Periferie alla Centralità delle Città Globalizzate) is the talk that I will give to discuss some of my recent artworks installed at and performed as part of the Italian Pavilion, Resilient
"One world approved thy wisdom; another, mine." Antigone, Sophocles Zero Fucks to Give is a work of art for Platforms Project, Athens, Greece, May 14-31, 2020. It consists of a talk, a manifesto, and a video performance. It is part of a larger set of artworks started in 2017 with the same title. Zero Fucks to Give: A Talk, a Manifesto, and a Work of
"Even if you encounter opposition, have conviction and finish what you start. People in the end will understand." Kotoko Wamura Living After the Apocalypse is a curatorial proposal I conceived and developed when I was invited to submit a conceptual framework for an art and architectural biennial in 2011. While I was writing and preparing the proposal an earthquake happened in Japan and the
Digital Media and Democracy, aka From Democracy to Post-Citizenship is a panel I am organizing at MIT for the Media in Transition 10 conference entitled Democracy and Digital Media with the assistance of Rob Halperin. The panel was developed following the encouragement of Professor William Uricchio, Department of Comparative Media Studies at MIT. The panel seeks to engage with and discuss issues related to contemporary
Reduced: Uninfluential, Disintegrated, and Bent is a new exhibition and sculptural installation by Lanfranco Aceti. With a series of writings on paper, paintings, photocopies of stones, foliage, and grass, rolled out fax paper, videos, and vinyl cutouts the exhibition explores the meaning of reduced forms of democracy and citizenships. The consumption of what is left, the remainder to use Baudrillardian terminology, is a hypermarketed but
But I Can't Help Myself: Against the Resurgence of the Millennial Issues of Ignorance and Idiocy is Lanfranco Aceti's inaugural lecture at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM). The lecture focuses on the role of contemporary politics in reshaping our understanding of society and the modalities for practicing art. Professor Aceti introduces a series of concepts and frameworks to define his aesthetic approaches
The Museum of Contemporary Cuts presents Anatomy of a Dream, a new solo exhibition by Lanfranco Aceti, curated by Artemis Potamianou for Platforms Project, Athens, Greece. This body of new works of art is made of three painting diptychs with acrylic paint on raw linen canvas. One of the diptychs features spent matches embedded in the paint itself. The diptychs are juxtaposed with a sculptural
Looking Straight is a new series of self-portraits by Lanfranco Aceti realized for International Women's Day 2018 as part of a performance in Barcelona at MACBA. The artworks are inspired by Piero della Francesca's iconic profile portraits of the Duke Federigo da Montefeltro and Duchess Battista Sforza of Urbino (1465-1472). The original Renaissance portraits are a diptych while the new series realized are triptychs.
