Curated by Pietro Gaglianò
The artwork of Maura Banfo reverberates with the narrative structure that is characteristic of Virginia Woolf’s writing. This is the case namely for the attention she pays to objects and their shadows, and for the sensibility she has for their stories which suddenly reveal hidden spaces yet to be explored.
In “To the Lighthouse”, the novel which inspired the title of this project, as well as in Banfo’s artworks, the surface of material things conceals interconnected stories.
“Gita al faro” gathers many recurring themes in Maura Banfo’s research, developing them into a perspective that indicates new horizons for the artist.
The meditation upon the concepts of home and identity, the physical and mental as a tool for interior consciousness – all of these issues are here treated with new shapes and new topics. The artist’s personal history is deeply connected to a set of symbols that belong to all of humankind. The contemplation of the sea, the desired and never reached solitude of a lighthouse, the timelessness felt in time itself while waiting, the attention to objects and the transformation they receive through the gaze and the hands of the artist. These are the elements that compose a silent and meditative exhibition.
Maura Banfo, 1969 Turin, lives and works between Italy and France. Her work is in many private and public collections, among the others Gam – Gallery of Modern and Contemporaty Art, Turin; Castello di Racconigi; Unicredit Private Banking; Museum of Photography, Cinisello Balsamo; Institute Garuzzo for Visual Arts; Foundation Castello di Rivara. She had many exhibitions in Italy and abroad. Among the projets run in the past two years: Carrara, Aula Magna Ex Convitto, “Il tempo dei luoghi”; Torino, Giardini di Palazzo Reale, “Arte alle Corti”; Arcade (TV), Zonca Art Contemporary Center (ZACC); Milano, Careof, “Io vedo, Io guardo”; Castello di Fombio, “NO PLACE”; Milano, Frigoriferi Milanesi. “Writers”; Castelnuovo Calcea (AT), Fortezza, “ArtSite”; Shangai, SPSI Art Museum, “Contemporary Visions”; Verbania, Villa Giulia, “Landscape”; Rivara (Torino) Castello di Rivara, “Museo di Arte Italiana – 1985-2015- Maura Banfo “La Torre dei Sogni”; Torino, Salone Del Libro, “il poeta dell’aria”; Milano, Assab One, The Wall (archives)#10; Milano, Spazioborgogno, “Visioni Contemporanee – Esperienze di confine tra realtà e immaginazione”; Monaco (Fr), Yacht Club De Monaco, “Con_Temporary”; artistic residence at Fondation pour l’art la Napoule (Mandelieu-Cannes, France).
www.maurabanfo.com
September 16 – October 15, 2016
mon-fry 10:00 am – 9:00 pm – free entrance
SRISA Gallery of Contemporary Art – Santa Reparata International School of Art
Via San Gallo 53r, 50129 Firenze