ARTISTS
Navid Azimi Sajadi
Vettor Pisani
CRITICAL TEXTS
Antongiulio Vergine
COLLABORATION
Mario Iannelli Collection
ON OCCASION
Art City Bologna
TERRENO-ULTRA-TERRENO
02.02-22.03.2023
On the occasion of Art City 2023, Studio la Linea Verticale gallery, in collaboration with the collection of Mario Iannelli, presents the two-personal exhibition "Ground-Ultra-Ground". The title suggests a multifaceted connection between our dimension and one that, instead, points elsewhere, immediately identifying the positioning of the two artists involved. Navid Azimi Sajadi (1982) was born in Tehran but is cosmopolitan; never settling in one place for long, his country is the entire world, and his home is his interiority. Vettor Pisani (1934-2011), the "poor and famous artist," as he defined himself with a writing on the wall of Galleria Limen in 2011, needs no introduction; he already inhabits his Theater of Celestial Crystal. ​The connection between the two is primarily experiential: Navid, upon arriving in Rome, associates with Vettor Pisani and, together with the master, hones his vertical sensibility. There is also a formal affinity: a palette of bright colors, a preference for the gold of immortality and the blue of infinity, the recurrent use of alchemical, esoteric, religious, cultural, mythical, biblical, and mythological symbols, and above all, the unique use of the silhouette. This graphic influence passed from Gino De Dominicis to his friend Pisani is genetically found in Navid's work as well. The silhouette they present is like the shadow of Plato's allegory of the cave, a copy of reality suggesting a hidden mystery that, if illuminated, would reveal the Reality of things in itself. The imagery of the two artists, with a dual essence, between ordinary objects and extraordinary subjects, is a compromise that invites them to continuous and frenetic reflection on the opposition between the Horizontal Line and the Vertical Line, although deeply belonging to the latter. In Navid's series on paper, each object born by bridging is nothing but an extroverted symbol through effort, a powerful expression of an abstract and hidden meaning. Vettor based his career on the play of metaphor, so every stimulus he offers does not die in its simple visual perception but continues to live eternally in its meaning, graspable with intellectual commitment and an act of faith.
PDF EXHIBITION - PRESS RELEASE
CRITICAL TEXTS
ANTONGIULIO
VERGINE
Al di qua o al di là della finestra
Se volessimo procedere nell’esaminare il corpo di Terreno-Ultra-Terreno, non potremmo prescindere dal considerarne, anzitutto, il quadro preliminare, rappresentato dal tentativo – espresso già dal titolo – di porre in collegamento la dimensione immanente, finita della realtà con la dimensione assoluta, infinita di ciò che, invece, risiede oltre di essa. Una sorta di estroflessione – come quella subita da certi organi in circostanze particolari – che interessa tanto il lavoro di Vettor Pisani, quanto quello di Navid Azimi Sajadi: per il primo, si tratta di prendere atto di possibilità alchemiche, esoteriche, mitiche; per il secondo, di interpellare territori sacri, biblici, mitologici. Anche nel caso fossero gli aspetti epidermici i primi ad essere presi in considerazione, le opere di Terreno-Ultra-Terreno manifestano non poche similitudini: l’utilizzo, spesso simbolico, di tonalità sgargianti; il ricorrere a determinate iconografie care alla religione o all’esoterismo; l’impiego della silhouette quale modo per conferire un certo eclettismo all’immagine. Similitudini che lasciano presagire un peculiare modo di affrontare l’arte e la vita, di intenderne i meccanismi più reconditi e superficiali, interpretandone gli aspetti più intimi e carnali. Allargando di più lo sguardo, è la stessa predilezione per il disegno ad accomunare le prassi di Pisani e Sajadi – o, se si vuole, per la figura in generale, sublimata, in base alle circostanze, in allegorie acquisite o totalmente rielaborate – così come per l’installazione e la performance, specie se a stretta interazione / collaborazione con l’osservatore.
INSTALLATION VIEW
NAVID AZIMI SAJADI
Available works - more
Navid Azimi Sajadi (Tehran 1982) trained in painting at the Faculty of Architecture of Azad University in Tehran and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In 2009 he won the Amedeo Modigliani Prize and after earning a Master of Fine Art in MultiMedia Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he participated in the IX Shanghai Biennale in 2013. In 2018 he won the IX Edition of the Combat Prize in the drawing and graphics section and participated in the project The Bridge, environment 1 at the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. In May 2019 he won the Viero Prize for contemporary art. Since 2012 he has been making exhibitions and installation in various institutions and museums in Iran, UAE, Turkey and England.