Since the second half of the 1980s, in his artistic work Luca Vitone engages with the notion of the construction and representation of specific locations and the different languages that describe and define these places in their geographical, political, social, cultural and poetic dimensions. In particular, he is interested in how places are characterized through art, cartography, music, food, political groupings and ethnic minorities. Many of his installations and paintings can also be understood as mental landscapes that were created from locally found remnants of civilization (dust, waste, food). His “monochromies” are conceptual self-portraits of the places in which they originated. The artist exposes untreated canvases to local conditions, until the effects of weather or pollution have left their marks, in order to then present them,stretched and framed as minimalistic, monochrome paintings, in the exhibition space. In another series of works, recently presented at the 55th Venice Biennale of 2013, Vitone creates olfactory sculptures of places that solely by the presence of a scent in the room appeal to the collective memory and trigger certain associations in the viewer. For Imperium, his solo exhibition at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Luca Vitone has created a new series of four watercolors made from dust (Räume (Rooms), 2014), representing different institutions of state power: the economic (Deutsche Bundesbank (German Federal Bank), Frankfurt/Main),the legislative (Deutscher Bundestag (German Parliament), Berlin), the judiciary (Bundesgerichtshof (German Federal Court), Karlsruhe) and the cultural (Pergamonmuseum, Berlin). The monochrome“portraits” are painted on paper with the dust of the respective places. Furthermore, Vitone developed a new olfactory sculpture, Imperium (2014), receiving the visitors when entering the otherwise empty exhibition space. The sculpture is composed of different fragrances, which together evoke the “smell of power”. For this work, the artist again collaborated with the master perfumer Maria Candida Gentile, just as for his contribution to the Italian Pavilion at the last Venice Biennale.

Luca Vitone (b. 1964 in Genoa, lives in Milan and Berlin) has been teaching since 2006 at the Nuova Accademia Belle Arti in Milan. He participated in numerous biennials and group exhibitions around the world, including: Italian Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Montevideo Biennial (2013); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/Main (2011); 4th Tirana Biennial (2008); 8th Sharjah Biennial (2007); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2005); Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (2001). Solo exhibitions include: Museion, Bolzano (2013); pinksummer, Genoa (2013, 2010); Fondazione Brodbeck, Catania (2012); Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin (2008); Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo (2008); MART, Rovereto (2007); OK Centrum, Linz (2007, 1999); Casino Luxembourg (2006), Magazzino d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2005); Micromuseum, Palermo (2002); Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2000); MoMA PS1, New York (2000). His work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including: Dena Foundation, Paris; Deutsche Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt/Main; GAMeC, Bergamo; Lenbachhaus, Munich; MAXXI, Rome; Museion, Bolzano; Nomas Foundation, Rome;Collection Paolo Brodbeck, Catania.

Courtesy Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin; pinksummer, Genua

Program

Thursday, September 25, 2014, 7 pm

Blick zurück nach vorn – Künstler über Deutschland

Premiere screening* and discussion with Cornelia Schleime (artist), Maria Anna Tappeiner (filmmaker)

and Karin Thomas (art critic), moderated by Kolja Reichert (art critic)

Script and direction: Maria Anna Tappeiner

A Co-production between TAG/TRAUM on behalf of ZDF in collaboration with ARTE

Germany 2014, 54’

* Broadcast date on ARTE: Wednesday October 1, 2014, 9.55 pm

Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7 pm

Materien der Macht. Konstituierende Prozesse und präsentische Demokratie

Lecture by Isabell Lorey (political scientist, visiting lecturer for political theory, center for gender studies, Universitity of Basel)

Thursday, October 16, 2014, 7 pm

Die Macht der Einladung und die Ambivalenz des Generösen

Lecture by Beatrice von Bismarck (art historian, curator, professor for art history and pictorial science, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig)

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 7 pm

Konzeptuelle Kunst: Von genuin zu Genre

Lecture by Julian Heynen (art historian, curator, Artistic Director At Large, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf)

Sunday, November 9, 2014, 8 pm

Italienische Harfenmusik des 17. Jahrhundert

Concert with Loredana Gintoli, Baroque double harp

All exhibitions and events at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein are free of charge.

To mark the exhibition the booklet Luca Vitone. Imperium