Best regards
Friday, June 7th 2024, 11.40 PM
Dear Nicola,
This little town is stifling me. June has just begun, yet it is so hot already. It’s the season of mirages: I remember when I was a child, believing the sun was melting the world around me. Back then, I couldn’t have known then that the wavering world was just a heat-induced optical illusion. Years later, I learned that this phenomenon is called Fata Morgana, and I still like to think of it as some magic. Giacomo’s paintings, much like those heat-drenched landscapes, shimmer on the sheet metal and scrap iron of shutters he found on the outskirts, where cities slumber. His urban geometries act as road signs for getting lost, as if you were exploring a place for the first time. My eyes linger on the abstract-geometric patterns on the metallic surfaces; at times, multiple combinations of shapes and colors remind me of glitches and interferences on a TV screen. I can’t help but reflect on how the perception of urban space becomes more intense in the murky, hot air of the city center, which will soon be deserted. Time has come for us to abandon every centre.
Best Regards,
Ilaria Monti
Sunday, June 9th 2024, 9:30 AM
Dear Ilaria,
How can I blame you? This year, it will be hotter than usual. Since we no longer know how to live in the seasons, time has begun to melt. Of each season, today a concept, an idea, nostalgia remains, but we do not live them fully, following the biological rhythm of days. “The Persistence of Memory” by Dalì comes to mind, a sublime and masterful work, anticipation of our conception and perception of Time. Charlie’s works remind me of this sense of disorientation, of space melted with time. In line with his research, it is also interesting to think about how the artist refers to sculptures as paintings and paintings as sculptures, as he intertwines and blends practices. Isn’t this exactly the effect of summer, as a climatic and sensorial dilation? Even though I
know that everything will quickly fly away, and that in a moment, everything will be rigid and solid again, maybe even more than before. But, seeing the works from the street, although breaking the spell of a regular time flow, it invites us to circumscribe a space, to finally begin to savor a moment, to move and shake it. As a slap in the face to the rule, we should offer popsicles at the opening. The mere possibility of offering something that will transform and disappear shortly thereafter is equivalent to saying Best regards, or like when you say hello to someone you know you won’t see for a long time.
Best Regards,
Nicola Nitido
* The exhibition by Charlie de Voet and Giacomo Feltrinelli marks the first chapter of Best Regards, a duo-exhibition format conceived by Ilaria Monti, designed as a long-distance conversation between two curators among pauses, stasis, and procrastinations of the summer season. The e-mail exchange with Nicola Nitido serves as the accompanying text for the exhibition, as a dialogue on empty cities, languid summer days, communication drifts arising from mutual waiting and geographical distance.
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Charlie De Voet (b. 1977, Ronse, BE), lives in Zulzeke, works in Ronse. Recent solo, duo & group exhibitions include: 2024, Solo booth, Art Rotterdam, NL; Ballroom Project #6, with Willem Boel, Borgerhub, Antwerp, BE; La Grande Bouffe, Barbé Gallery, Ghent, BE; De Rampe, Kalkhovenhoeve, Kwaremont, BE; Duo with Sander Buyck, Hilvaria Studio’s Foundation, Hilvarenbeek, NL; Draad, Texture Museum, Kortrijk, BE; 2023, Duo with Joost Pauwaert, Art Rotterdam, NL; Duo with Stan Van Steendam, Dr. De Beirwoning, Knokke, BE; Larger Than Smaller Than, Barbé Gallery, Ghent, BE; Art For Sale, Hoeve Goed te Réables, Ooidonk, BE; IVY – In het spoor van Van Gogh, Art Route, Horebeke, BE; Primavera, Archipel / Platform 6a, Otegem, BE; In Medias Res, Barbé Gallery, Ghent, BE; Salon Blanc #54, Ostend, BE; 2022, AND LO, SLO MO AUTO BANG, Barbé Gallery, BE; Solo Room, MAGELLAN, Knokke, BE; Art On Paper, Brussels International Contemporary Drawing Fair, Brussels, BE; Everybody Has A Plan Until They Get punched In The Face, Barbé Gallery, Ghent, BE; Ballroom Project #4, Borgerhub, Antwerp, BE; Het Oor, Bruthaus Gallery, Waregem, BE; Works On Paper, Barbé Gallery, Ghent, BE; 2021, SLOW COLOURS FAST SHOW, DeWael15, Antwerp, BE; PASS 2021, Art Route, Huise-Mullem-Wannegem-Lede, BE; Let’s Get Out Art Festival, Hoeve Goed te Réables, Ooidonk, BE; 1.1 Million Pounds, Barbé Urbain Gallery, Ghent, BE; Tortilla flat, M12, Ronse, BE; XL, Barbé Urbain Gallery, Ghent, BE; Salon d’O, Thermae Palace, Ostend, BE; Ovidor, Avee Gallery, Kortrijk, BE; Yellow Archangel: Perceiving Anomalies, General Practice, London, UK
Giacomo Feltrinelli (1994, Milan) lives and works in Milan. He studied at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan (NABA), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in painting and visual arts, continuing his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: 2024, Forme instabili, Galleria BianchiZardin, Milan, IT; 2023, Metropoli, Fondazione Sozzani, Milan, IT; 2022, Lineare Metropolitano, Era Gallery, Milan, IT; 2019, M2, Spazio Pestalozzi, Milan; 2018, M, Spazio S, Milan.
https://giacomofeltrinellistudio.com/
Supported by BARBE’ Gallery & BIANCHIZARDIN Contemporary Art
