Federico Solmi
25/03 to 28/03/2015
Gleichapel is pleased to announce the first screening in France of Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth (2012-2014), a video trilogy by New York based Italian artist Federico Solmi.
Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth will be the first edition of a video cycle on drawings in motion, curated by Jeff Gleich and Tristan van der Stegen. It will be exhibited during the Drawing Now Art Fair in Paris (held at the Carreau du Temple, only a few blocks away). A selection of works on paper by Federico Solmi will also be presented and available for sale in support of Gleichapel’s platform.
Screenings of the trilogy at Gleichapel, March 25, 26, 27, 28 (during the Drawing Now fair) from 7:00pm to 8:30pm. The artist’s works on paper will be presented each day after the screenings or by appointment.
Solmi’s video trilogy Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth took three years to complete and was produced with the support of the Guggenheim Foundation of New York after he was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship for Video (2009). The video comprises of three installments : A Song of Tyranny (5:52 min), Chinese Democracy and the Last Day on Earth (10:09 min) and The Return of the Prodigal Son (7:34 min).
Through an articulate process in which 3D gaming technology and hand-painting merge into an organic whole, the 23 minute masterful trilogy brings to life the extreme prospects of Realpolitik (2), suggesting that financial and military power take precedence over ideology. Adding to this paradigm, political manipulation is carried out using propaganda and mass media, in a showcase of what Walter Lippmann once described as “manufacturing consent”(1).
Federico Solmi thus presents a dystopian vision of society functioning as a normative system doomed to recurring self-destruction: a world devoid of any moral high ground whereby, following Nietzsche’s prophecy, God dies with the collapse of traditional religion and metaphysics.
(1): Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion, 1922
(2): Realpolitik is a theory of politics focusing on power rather than morals, ideals and principles. The term was coined by Ludwig von Rochau in his book Practical Politics: an Application of its Principles to the Situation of the German States (1853).
Federico Solmi, born in 1973, Bologna, Italy, lives and works in New York since 1999. His works have been exhibited in several international Biennials, such as Frankfurt B3 Biennial of Moving image (forthcoming 2015), First Shenzhen Animation Biennial, China (2013), the 54th Venice Biennial (2011), and Site Santa Fe Biennial in New Mexico (2010). His works have been exhibited and screened in the following museums and institutions for contemporary art: Centre De Pompidou, Palais De Tokyo, Paris; Drawing Center, New York; Reina Sofia National Museum, CA2M Centro De Arte Dos De Mayo, ARTIUM Museum-Centre of Contemporary Art in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain (forthcoming), the Italian Cultural Institute, Madrid; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Arts, Israel; OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Shanghai; Australian Center of Moving Images, Melbourne; Victoria Memorial Museum, Calcutta, India; Palazzo Delle Esposizioni, Rome, Palazzo Delle Belle Arti, Naples, Italy.
Solmi’s video works have been screened in several film and video festivals around the world including the Kassel Documentary film and video festival; Tina B, Prague; Les Rencontres Internationales, Paris, Madrid, Berlin; The London International animation festival; Loop Barcelona and others. Federico Solmi has given lectures on his work in several universities and art schools in the United States and Europe, including Yale University in New Haven, School Of Visual Arts in New York, and Accademia di Belle Arti Brera and Universita’ Cattolica in Milan.
Federico Solmi is represented by Postmasters Gallery (NY), Luis De Jesus (Los Angeles) and foremost ADN Galeria (Barcelona), who’s support of the screening at Gleichapel is sincerely appreciated.