PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Personal exhibition by MARCO ABRATE (REBOR)
edited by Chiara Canali
Opening: Wednesday 18th September at 6pm
From September 18th to October 12th 2024
MA-EC Gallery
Via Santa Maria Valle 2, Milan
With the support of
SWATCH ART PEACE HOTEL
The MA-EC gallery in Milan inaugurates its 2024/25 exhibition season with the solo exhibition of the artist Marco Abrate , entitled PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN , curated by Chiara Canali and scheduled from 18 September to 12 October 2024.
Born in 1996, known in the Street Art scene with the pseudonym " Rebor ", Marco Abrate conceived the idea for his exhibition in 2023 during his artistic residency at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. (China), which supports the project here.
The fundamental assumption from which Marco Abrate 's new research originates is that the generation of "Millennials" (to which the artist himself belongs) is characterized by a greater use of digital technologies and an extreme familiarity with social media; its actors exhibit themselves, their relationships and their feelings for the camera, reflecting a condition of media overexcitement and large-scale consumption. The online dimension is radically changing the way of experiencing reality itself, not only the fruition of art and its images, but also the perception of private feelings such as love.
In a society completely dominated by the "spectacularization" of the media, by the "overexposure" media of emotions, from the rapid fruition of digital images, the project “ Peek Behind The Curtain ” by Marco Abrate aims to overturn today’s concept of exhibition.
First of all, the author reconstructs the “material, technological, institutional fictional frame” (Boris Groys) in which the works must be enjoyed. The gallery is no longer a white cube but is transformed into a real home to live in and walk through: the rooms act as domestic environments such as the living room, the bedroom, the private garden. The fictional condition is immediately revealed in the first room where a pink curtain (a color that returns in all the artist's production as a distinctive feature), theatrical, acts as a stage backdrop.
The entire exhibition is built on the register of mystery, of secret, of revelation : the fifteen pictorial works, created by the artist, in addition to being displayed on the walls, have been hidden inside this architectural set and the spectator is called to emerge from the apathy of his state of passive user, to live a participatory and immersive experience live.
As if it were a treasure hunt , the paintings must, in fact, be searched for and found by the spectator himself, who must open the cupboard doors, rummage through the drawers, lie down on the futon to discover the works of art that have been scattered around the gallery space.
The fusion between the analog and digital world that permeates our existence is manifested in the presence of both physical works of art, hidden in drawers, closets and on shelves, and virtual ones, fixed on the screen of a tablet or smartphone, which the spectator can find among the furnishings only if he pays further attention to the details of the installation.
The artist describes his exhibition project as follows: “ Every exhibition is an architecture of time, where the idea dissolves and reconstructs itself, stratifying between past and future. Behind every detail lies a vision: to transform what is imagined into something tangible, exploring the tension between reality and fiction. It is a process of erosion and discovery, where thought becomes matter and the invisible becomes visible .”
The curator Chiara Canali states: “If, apparently, the exhibition appears to be a tangible journey to be carried out concretely and in first person, to directly discover the artist's works, in reality it contains a powerful conceptual metaphor on a theme that is deeply dear to the artist: Love . Rebor questions the meaning of Love in the era of Web 3.0 and its tumultuous technological changes: today, according to the artist, love is no longer experienced in its aspects of mystery, secret and tenderness, but relationships are reduced to three elements: immediacy, speed and visibility . For this reason, the scenic device created by the artist to introduce the visitor to the center of his works and his themes appeals to three diametrically opposed characteristics: waiting , slowness, secrecy ”.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue, published by the gallery, with an intervention by the artist, the critical text by the curator Chiara Canali and the iconographic section of the works. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
With Peek behind the curtain , MA-EC Gallery joins the twentieth day of contemporary AMACI on October 12, 2024.
On the occasion of the exhibition, a talk moderated by the curator Chiara Canali will be held on October 7th from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. The event will see the participation of psychoanalyst and essayist Massimo Recalcati, Carlo Giordanetti, CEO of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, and the artist, who will discuss the different visions of art, business and science. For information on the location of the talk, we invite you to follow the Instagram pages of MA-EC @maecgallery and Marco Abrate @marco.rebor
MARCO ABRATE (REBOR)
Marco Abrate, known as Rebor in the world of street art, is an artist born in 1996. He approached art during high school, when he discovered he was dyslexic, transforming what could have seemed like a difficulty into a unique creative drive. His works skillfully blend concreteness and illusion, reflecting on the perception and use of technology in contemporary contexts.
Marco Abrate narrates the present through the creation of concrete walls, decorated with fragments of plaster that hide images to be discovered. This process recalls the phenomenon of pareidolia , where the viewer is invited to identify hidden shapes.
Throughout his career, Rebor has received numerous awards and participated in prestigious international exhibitions. In 2021, he presented the solo exhibition " Hidden Images " curated by Giorgio Bonomi at Hub Art Gallery in Milan. The following year, he was the winner in the Street Art section at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia , where he also created a commissioned work for the facade of the City of Venice Mestre, in collaboration with La Biennale itself. In 2023, some of his works were acquired by the Ca' Pesaro Museum in Venice, and in the same year he was selected for a three-month residency at the prestigious Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai.
Show coordinates:
Title : PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN.
Personal exhibition by Marco Abrate (Rebor)
edited by Chiara Canali
Headquarters : MA-EC Gallery
Durini Palace
Via Santa Maria Valle, 2
20123 Milan
Opening: Wednesday 18th September at 6pm
Dates : September 18th to October 12th 2024
Tuesday to Friday 10am-1pm and 3pm-7pm
Saturday 3-7pm
Talk: Monday 7 October 5:00-6:00 pm (LOCATION WILL BE COMMUNICATED SOON)Moderator: Chiara Canali Guests: Massimo Recalcati (Psychoanalyst and Essayist), Carlo Giordanetti (CEO, Swatch Art Peace Hotel), Marco Abrate (Artist) Theme: “How do we inhabit love today?”
MA-EC Gallery
Via Santa Maria Valle 2, Milan
Facebook: MA-EC
Instagram: maecgallery
Info : info.milanart@gmail.com
Tel: 0239831335
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