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Giovanni Vetere, 15 - 28 March 2021

Platform : Giovanni Vetere

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  • Giovanni Vetere’s Platform exhibition presents six new ceramic sculptures and four limited-edition photographs, produced in the artist’s studio in Rome....

    Actinodendron, 2021, Glazed ceramic, 40 x 40 x 30 cm

    Giovanni Vetere’s Platform exhibition presents six new ceramic sculptures and four limited-edition photographs, produced in the artist’s studio in Rome. Working with performance and sculpture, Vetere’s artistic practice is rooted in the idea of ‘embodiment’ and on expanding the notion of ‘body’ and our sense of ‘human’ on this planet. 

     

    Drawing on ideas from both Trans and Post-humanism, Vetere rejects the basic humanist concept that “man is the measure of all things'', emphasising a new beyond-human narrative and promoting the technofuturist vision of the transgression of human biology. These approaches help the artist to reassess our relationship with the environment and enable them to reconsider the agency of human and nonhuman nature.

  • Seeking new forms of embodiment in nature, Vetere invites us to listen to our own potentialities of becoming the other, of becoming something else. The artist aims at bringing awareness to the idea that our bodies and the environment are inextricably linked. 

     

    The sea remains a largely unknown realm where the limits of self-understanding and human concern are tested, acting as a (hydro)common space in which the imaginative encounter with the nonhuman is made possible. Finding inspiration in its uncertainty and flux, Vetere’s sculptures rise from the depths of an imaginative sea taking the form of still undiscovered organisms abound with life and colourful vitality. Deep sea mining, industrialised fishing and trawling are destroying habitats even before science has the chance to discover them. Are we able to extend an ethos of responsivity that expands to the depths of the sea, to creatures we haven’t discovered yet?

     

    Two of the limited-edition photographs presented in the exhibition, on the other hand, are images of Vetere’s long-durational performances, Portrait of the Homo Aquaticus (2018) and Sometimes I think I should be more like a fish (2020). The performative installations foreground the notion that humans are inseparable from the natural environment, and that the natural environment is not a phenomena “in” which we live but rather is of us, in us and through us. The rain might be felt in an arthritic joint, the sun literally colours our skin, our body is an “atmosphere of flesh”.

     

    How we live the world is contingent upon how we imagine the world to be. We need to cultivate an imaginary environment where our bodies and our time are mutually imbricated with our surroundings, that we must live as bodies that extend beyond the human condition.

  • Sculptures

    • Cystoseira sedoides, 2021 Glazed ceramic 30 x 30 x 40 cm
      Cystoseira sedoides, 2021

      Glazed ceramic

      30 x 30 x 40 cm

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    • Nitophyllum punctatum, 2021 Glazed ceramic 40 x 40 x 30 cm
      Nitophyllum punctatum, 2021
      Glazed ceramic
      40 x 40 x 30 cm
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    • Laminaria VII, 2021 Glazed ceramic 190 x 30 x 30 cm
      Laminaria VII, 2021
      Glazed ceramic
      190 x 30 x 30 cm
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    • Laminaria VIII, 2021 Glazed ceramic 260 x 30 x 30 cm
      Laminaria VIII, 2021
      Glazed ceramic
      260 x 30 x 30 cm
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    • Cystoseira caespitosa, 2021 Glazed ceramic 60 x 40 x 40 cm
      Cystoseira caespitosa, 2021
      Glazed ceramic
      60 x 40 x 40 cm
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    • Actinodendron, 2021 Glazed ceramic 40 x 40 x 30 cm
      Actinodendron, 2021
      Glazed ceramic
      40 x 40 x 30 cm
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  • Prints

    • Fantasies from the Sea I, 2020 C-print on paper 100 x 60 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP
      Fantasies from the Sea I, 2020
      C-print on paper
      100 x 60 cm
      Edition of 3 + 1 AP
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    • Liquid Ground, 2019 C-print on paper 200 x 150 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP
      Liquid Ground, 2019
      C-print on paper
      200 x 150 cm
      Edition of 3 + 1 AP
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    • Portrait of the Homo Aquaticus, 2018 C-print on paper 120 x 80 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP
      Portrait of the Homo Aquaticus, 2018
      C-print on paper
      120 x 80 cm
      Edition of 3 + 1 AP
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    • Sometimes I think I should be more like a fish, 2020 C-print on paper 100 x 100 cm Edition of 3 + 1 AP
      Sometimes I think I should be more like a fish, 2020
      C-print on paper
      100 x 100 cm
      Edition of 3 + 1 AP
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  • About Giovanni Vetere

    Vetere was born in Rome in 1995 and now lives in London. They graduated from the Fine Arts program of Camberwell College of Arts in 2018. Although they began their journey with photography and sculpture, they now focus on performance as a means to explore relationship between humans and nature.

     

    Vetere has exhibited in several cities in Europe, including Rome, Florence, The Hague and London. Their most recent projects include a two-person exhibition, titled Tides In The Body, at Lychee One in London and the performance Il Cappello del Polpo at Palazzo Massimo in Rome. In 2019 they were selected to be part of the Midwater Residency in collaboration with Studio Forlane on the island of Poros, Greece. In the same year they exhibited in the Ancient City of Cosa, Ansedonia, for the second chapter of HYPERMAREMMA, The Submerged City. In 2017 they were awarded the "Lorenzo Il Magnifico" prize at the Florence Biennale in the Performance Art category. In 2021 Vetere will participate in the first edition of the Komi biennial in collaboration with the Pushkin museum (Moscow, RU) and in the second edition of the contemporary art festival Back to Nature curated by Costantino d'Orazio in Villa Borghese, Rome.

  • Charity: Marevivo

    Charity: Marevivo

    Giovanni's chosen charity is Marevivo: an NGO with more than 35 years of experience in protecting the sea and its resources. They work for biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and the enhancement and promotion of marine protected areas. They also fight against pollution and illegal fishing and promote environmental education in schools and universities.

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