T293, Rome
For Art-O-Rama 2012, T293 Gallery will show a solo presentation by the Italian artist Patrizio di Massimo, formerly exhibited under the title of “Col Sole in Fronte” at the gallery’s Naples venue in March 2010. The gallery will show two canals projection in specifically designed dark room, along with a text (which was the press release and also a component of the exhibition) written by the artist, made out of vinyl letters stuck onto the booth’s outer wall.
The double projection’s title comes from two songs commissioned by the Italian fascist regime, Faccetta Nera and Faccetta Bianca, as an intention to drag people into the supporting Ethiopia’s colonial invasion in 1935. The first opera was born with the attempt to sustain the union between Italians and Abyssinians, and obtain a wide popular success. The second one was following up with an explicit request from the regime that would not welcome the first one. The two songs – which nowadays horribly recall an obtuse ideological vision of misuse of power to the weakests – are the background for two videos filmed inside a photographic studio that features two actors: a white man and a black man.
The images of this work, visually of impact, generate a dychotomical and literal meaning around the theme of the difference and then acquire their true sense as they are linked with the mistake of interpretation about the two operas that is still today lying. The text/press release, Col Sole in Fronte, that will be present at the projection room’s entrance, can be seen as a key of reading of the work, and highlights how can the image of Italy as a “sunny place” and a “Bel Paese”, be fatuous. The audition test Duetto per Cannibali (Duet for Cannibals) by Patrizio Di Massimo, which is deeply linked to Faccetta Nera, Faccetta Bianca will be visible upon request during the fair on the gallery’s computer.
