Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website HELEN MiRRA 'Walking, weaving' and GIANNI PETTENA 'Natural architecture' at MeranoArte
august 16, 2017 - Merano Arte

HELEN MiRRA 'Walking, weaving' and GIANNI PETTENA 'Natural architecture' at MeranoArte

HELEN MiRRA Walking, weaving
Duration: 22nd July – 24th September, 2017
Opening: 21st July, 2017
Curator: Christiane Rekade
#meranoarte will host two exhibitions: The American artist #helenmirra (born 1970 in Rochester, New York, lives in northern California) and #giannipettena (born 1940 in Bolzano, lives in Florence).
Although they work quite differently they have one discussion in common: the landscape and our relationsship to nature. In addition both exhibitions create a relationship between the landscape in the USA and South Tyrol; places they have both personally experienced.
Helen Mirra‘s  approach is usally based on long walks or excursions   and the work is totally affected by this, and made simoultaneously or in parallel.
#meranoarte has invited #helenmirra to pass a month in #merano to prepare her exhibition. She will started with a walk of several days: on 16 June she  opened her exhibition in the Andriesse Eyck Gallery in Amsterdam. The day after she left for #merano partly on foot and partly by train. She decided every single day whether to go on foot or take the train by throwing a coin. With this work she is referring to the project „Variable Works (In Progress), 1970 by the American conceptual artist Douglas Huebler and Marcheur de Kassel, 1972 by the Polish artist Andre Cadere. A documentation of this excursion will be part of the exhibition in #merano.
In #merano #helenmirra will  nd produce a new woven objects which are in close relation to South Tyrol owing to the precise choice of material, forms and colours.  Mirra compares the „Merano woven objects“ with a series of objects from Northern California - the region she went to live last year. The woven objects are concentrated colour and form compositions, experiences of a landscape.  Material and structure underline the three-dimensionality of the woven objects.
 
#giannipettena - Natural architecture
Duration: 22nd July – 24th September, 2017
Opening: 21st July, 2017
Curator: Christiane Rekade

#giannipettena is co-founder and one of the most important representatives of  the„radical Architecture“ of the seventies. Influenced by Conceptual Art and Land Art he develops his installations, photos, drawings and projects while watching nature and landscape and in his works quite often there are no borders between architecture and art.
Although #giannipettena left Bolzano as a young adult, South Tyrol’s landscape is fundamental for his artistic work and his comprehension of architecture. This exhibition shows us this constant relationship with the landscape of his native place.
Pettena is  convinced that architecture is already present in nature and the human body and this conviction we can notice in  his works. So he titles one of his fundamental photos series:  About non-conscious architecture (1972/1973). It is a collection of black and white photos, which Pettena made during his stay in the United States. They describe Pettena’s engagement with natural materials and forms.
Within the exhibition in Meran the series  creates a dialogue between the two important cultural landscapes, where #giannipettena lived.