Detail of SMALLEST WORLDS, ink on Xuan paper.
DYES, Saverio Tonoli Solo Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice
Opening: 10 Sept 2022, 12 am
Public Open: 10 sept - 06 Nov 2022
we are happy to announce the upcoming solo show of Saverio Tonoli at Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, in Venice, during the Venice Biennale! So if you are around please come and visit us!
For more information:
Introduction text by Stefano Coletto
The exhibition Dyes by Saverio Tonoli is part of the exhibition project How to retain the energy that flows through us. Landscapes set up in 2021 in Palazzetto Tito, at a time when the pandemic had reminded us how much we exist within a single great process of life that is grafted onto death, in a biome in continual metamorphosis (Emanuele Coccia) that does not distinguish animals, plants, viruses, human beings and matter.
Now, at Giudecca, a new chapter is opened, a new landscape in a different space, flooded with natural light thanks to the large windows. Saverio Tonoli's works, starting from an approach that is still photographic, that of the ”camera obscura”, from the wet paper that produces impressions of reality, applies with a radical approach different techniques and compounds. Dyes are filled with matter in continuous transformation, starting with frottage on rocks bathed by the sea, moving on to drying and oxidation, as if the artist were searching for alchemic solutions, gathering energy until saturation and then releasing it to visual perception. The installation exploits horizontality and verticality, suspension in the air and the horizontal reading plane, as in the large white structure in the form of a lectern. However, these large layouts allude to observation that cannot be delimited, that cannot be measured by the human eye that sees and its body that moves, thus alluding to a non-anthropocentrically comprehensible process, to a metamorphic sublime (Michael Taussig).
The works, like abstract and material Naturgemalde (Alexander Von Humboldt) in motion, seem to be the imitation of a continuum of symbiotic processes that unfold and flourish towards us and with us. The formlessness induced by the paradigm of horizontality and liquid matter (Rosalind Krauss and Yve Alain Bois) produces an original pictorial space, invasive and enthralling between the phenomenology of chemical and therefore luminous processes, and irradiation. Having annulled all depth, left to the natural entropy of nature, the works occupy the exhibition hall, as in an excess (Georges Bataille) that cannot be represented, but in which, empathetically, we perceive each element as returned to the air, to the climate of the ecosystem to which, before any thought, we belong.
SAIGON vibrations | TRASH collection and group show at MoT+++
In a delicate equilibrium after some unlocked restrictions in Saigon, Saverio Tonoli continues his prolonged residency. The way back to Europe is now complicated and expensive. Still with some material left to paint, the monoprints paintings continue as well as the last 4 meters painting, a collage made by merging many painted pieces since the beginning of his first residency in Taiwan, November 2019. The ongoing project “Self-absorbed on the rocks”, part of a series of 4 large panoramic works on paper painted directly in situ, on the of coasts of different countries, will hopefully take place in the south coast of Vietnam in the following weeks.
As for now we are happy to share the activities happening here in Saigon, which starts carefully again some projects and openings.
Detail of COFFE & INK, coffee and ink on Xuan paper, 90 x 50 cm each.
MoT+++ Trash collection
The COFFEE & INK series of 7 painting made during A.FARM residency is now part of TRASH, the art collection of MoT+++, the most active independent art space in Saigon, Vietnam. The collection of local and international artworks will be on view permanently at MoT+++ | Saigon Domaine, and also in constant update online at TRASH collection online.
"This series of works explores the quality of coffee and its visual nature. The collected coffee powder during the last two months is mixed with ink and, by variating the time of expansion of pigments and water on paper, I create shapes, textures, colour nuances. This works are inspired by the vietnamese coffee tradition and also because of the city lockdown, having to work with what is around the studio.”
Fresco lightbox, ink on plaster, resin, metal frame, LED light, 24,5 x 19,5 cm
Password 0-1, a group show at MoT+++
Saverio Tonoli’s Fresco paintings are part of the group show Password 0-1, at MoT+++ new exhibition space. Due to the restrictions during the pandemic, please contact motplusplusplus@gmail.com for visiting details and to make appointments.
“Painted in Taipei and inspired by the taiwanese light and Landscape, these small format paintings are a good terrain for experimentation, for then applying the new discoveries to the mural size Frescos”
Collage work in progress at A.FARM studio, Saigon
Saverio Tonoli is part of the Season 3 art Residency in A.Farm, HCMC, Vietnam
A.FARM - Founded in 2018 by the Nguyen Art Foundation in collaboration with Saigon-based organizations Sàn Art and MoT+++, A. Farm manages residencies for artists, cultural workers and researchers. Residents are provided with living quarters and semi-communal studio space, and a year-round programme of educational workshops, lectures, critiques, performances and exhibitions.
For more information: NGUYEN_ART_FOUNDATION
Following the research of the last 4 months in Asia, Saverio Tonoli is developing a series of paintings on paper in the new studio in Saigon. These works deepens new possibilities of ink washes and monoprinting, composing water patterns atmospheres with multiple colour layers.
Part of the residency ongoing project is also “Self-absorbed on the rocks”, a series of 4 large panoramic works on paper painted directly in situ, on the of coasts of different countries. The paper rolls has been especially commissioned and produced in Taiwan by FENKO, a strong and flexible paper that can handle heavy manipulations and multiple washes. These paintings record rocks‘s volumes and textures, lines, gravity, the mental composition, the brush, the paper itself, expanding the practice of Frottage. After the first piece done on the Taiwanese coasts for the show “Beyond the now, away from here”, Saverio will develop the 2nd piece on the Vietnamese south coast.
Saigon studio lockdown strip, 03.04.05.06 | 2020
Collaboration piece, Wu-Chi Tsung studio, Taipei, Taiwan
Interview Extracts of "Wu Chi-Tsung x Saverio Tonoli: We both found our inspiration from the side of the world."
Interview released in occasion of the art residency at Wu-Chi Tsung studio, Taipei, for “Beyond the now away from here”, a collaboration project between Saverio Tonoli and Wu-Chi Tsung for Taipei Dangdai art fair.
"Both of us revisit traditional techniques in our art practice. Other than works on paper, I developed a variation of the Fresco - mural painting, making it more simple to paint and install and at the same time to enhance its freedom of movement. This gave us the input to transform the studio space through our artworks and question the “here and now”, working on time and space."
- Saverio Tonoli
"I hope that we could show the possibilities of what artist studios could do and how exhibitions could be to the Taiwanese art world. At the moment, most artwork you see in Taiwan are completed and displayed in white cubes and visiting artist studios is always considered to be private. However, I think that art is about the whole thing and can’t be concluded by the final “art piece” only. We want to open our studio to let everyone see the art practice."
- Wu Chi-Tsung
WU CHI-TSUNG STUDIO PRESENTS AN EXHIBITION ‘BEYOND THE NOW, AWAY FROM HERE’ FOR RESIDENT ARTIST SAVERIO TONOLI
薩維里奧・托諾利與吳季璁合作展覽《易時易地》Opening Party: Jan 17, 8:30 pm – midnight
Public Open: Jan 17 – Jan 19
Venue: No. 34, Ln. 223, Sec. 3, Chongqing N. Rd., Datong Dist, Taipei City 103 (Wu Chi-Tsung Studio)
Paper & Conservation Consultancy: Fenko Catalysis Chamber
Wu Chi-Tsung Studio is delighted to present “Beyond the Now, Away from Here”, a collaboration between our Artist-in-Residence Saverio Tonoli and Wu Chi-Tsung. In the exhibition, Saverio will be showing his new artworks created during the three-month residency. The title pays tribute to the shared interest of the two artists that merges the aesthetics of the East and the West and reinterprets traditional and contemporary art forms.
The exhibition marks the first artist residency program hosted by an artist studio in Taiwan. Wu Chi-Tsung introduces that ‘Taiwan is an ideal entrance to east Asia for international artists and audiences because it combines multiple cultural influences of the region while being easily accessed. Moreover, as an artist studio, we tend to possess higher flexibility in hosting another artist. I hope that it could open up more possibilities and contribute to the diversity of the art world in Taiwan’. During his residency, Saverio has been working on his poetic imagery between painting and sculptures, testing local Xuan papers, with the expertise of Fenko Catalysis Chamber, by generating comprehensive solutions to the relationship between Tonoli’s needs and exclusive preservation paper materials for storing protection. Along with the creation of special plasters for his fresco paintings. Through understanding customer needs and apply this insight across their works to identify and implement the new ideas and strategies necessary to succeed. ‘In Taiwan, I’m struck by the landscape and of course by the ink and paper knowledge, I learn and absorb like a sponge. I am finding more extreme ways to treat paper and plaster, and to regulate ink with gravity. I am looking forward to the exhibition to share my journey with international audiences’, says Saverio.
Saverio Tonoli (b. 1984, Italy) crosses different techniques in his painting practice such as ink brushwork, fresco techniques and processes on different papers. He grew up in the darkroom where he started observing the behaviors of liquids and chemicals on images, which he then translated over the years into painting.
Wu Chi-Tsung (b. 1981, Taiwan) combines traditions and contemporary art forms from the East and the West. His work transforms daily objects into poetic images, and spans across different media, including photography, video, installation art, painting and set design.