The Pink One

photos in collaboration with Emanuele Gambula

Nosadella.due presents Interventi Bolognesi by Markus Hofer
curated by Elisa Del Prete from 21st May, Bologna

On 20th, 21st and 22nd May 2008 Nosadella.due introduces Markus Hofer to Bologna: three days, that are entirely dedicated to the work that the Austrian artist has carried out and realized during the period of residence at Nosadella.due conversing with the city. A series of Interventi Bolognesi (Interventions in Bologna) contaminate places of the historical centre, offering to the public, and to everybody who’s passing, new possibilities of reading the reality, new approaches to the city’s elements to which it’s accustomed, a new conscience of what is surrounding it. In fact, the micro interventions of Markus Hofer are far away from spectacular metropolitan installations, but they has been created with the attempt to cause a feeling of lost, provoked by a transformation of the function and of the original form of objects, architectonic elements, artificial elements and human traces.
“I place infinite questions about the truth that surrounds me, every day. I need this work to give me some answer” Marcus Hofer.

The daily image of Bologna and of every object that we experience is updated in order to become story, history that is able to speak about different things than those which we see or to which we are accustomed to think. The whole zone of the historical centre of Bologna, near to the centre of the residence Nosadella.due, has been scattered with objects, extensions and transformations which correspond to the artist’s vision of urban places that he has seen for the first time. Next to the historical buildings of the centre, like Aldrovandi Palace and Accursio Palace, the artist’s Interventions in Bologna are scattered inside of niches and architectonic elements, they catch putties, scratches and decorations, or they are close to civic numbers and traffic pylons, in the attempt to carry the attention on elements that characterize the life of a city, its constructions, but also its choices, its traditions, its codes, whether they are bound to the past or to the present.

The map on which it is possible to follow all the interventions of the artist in the city, is available in a PDF file. Beginning from this approach to the objects that surround us, to the possibilities of transformation and rereading that every form offers to the look and to the thought, Nosadella.due will introduce to the public the work of Markus Hofer in occasion of “Perception and imagination”, a round table that will be hold on 20th May at MAMbo, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. . This occasion will offer the possibility of a dialogue with the artist Markus Hofer and the curator of the program of the residence Nosadella.due Elisa Del Prete, who will introduce the city project, and with other experts, like the artist Stefano Romano (Naples) and the curator Antonella Crippa (Milan), the architect Mauro Bellei (Bologna) and the astrophysical Bruno Marano (professor at the Department of Astronomy of the University of Bologna).

In the morning, with Crippa and Bellei, the round table will talk about which other alphabets are possible for an alternative reading of the forms that surround us, focusing therefore the attention on the “sense of the forms and our perception of them” ; in the afternoon, with Marano and Romano, will be investigated the possibilities to explore other universes, worlds, dimensions, in art like in science, finding in the “imagination” the common denominator of the two disciplines.

The following day, Wednesdays 21st May, from 6 p.m. on, in via Galliera near Aldrovandi Palace (civic number 13) in Bologna, the citizens and the interested public, will be invited to take part to the project of Markus Hofer called Caught In This World. In order to realize the sculpture in progress Caught In This World , Markus Hofer will use the aid of the public, asking it to come with the own bicycle fortified by a bike lock, or also only with the bike lock, for being part of an art piece that will be able to come true thanks to who want to take part. The occasion will also offer the possibility to discover all the Interventions in Bologna, because, after having fastened the padlock, it will be possible to pick up the map for the complete visit to all the interventions of Markus Hofer in Bologna, that will be concluded, after having recovered the own bike lock, with a signed work for free.

The “three days” dedicated to Markus Hofer will conclude on 22nd May with the inauguration of the exhibition don't trip over, from 6.30 p.m. on at nt Art Gallery of Bologna, a young gallery with which Nosadella.due has started in this occasion a special collaboration, focusing on the exchange between local and international realities. Already stage of the route of Interventions in Bologna, nt Art Gallery will accommodate a special project of comparison about the new sculptural practice inviting Markus Hofer as foreign “special guest” and the two local artists Adrian Persiani and Andrea Salvatori for a collective exhibition, that will be developed on the two floors of the gallery and outside, introducing inedited works of the three artists.

About Marcus Hofer
Markus Hofer is born in Haslach (Austria) in 1977. He studies first at the University of Artistic and Industrial Design of Linz, then at the School of art and design Berlin-Weissensee and terminates his cycle of studies at the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna. Properly sculptor, he realizes with an excellent technical skill “objects” in wood or resin, that belong to the imaginary of everyone, if chairs or jars, washbasins or watering cans, conferring to everyone new attributes, new possibilities, giving free vent to the imagination and to the triggering an outlandish, parascientific casuistry made of formal inventions and possibilities that create confusion. His great technical ability transforms every operation into an imperceptible interference that is able to lead us to a state of confusion regarding ourselves and our perception of the reality in which he works. Another aspect of his research is, to relate ourselves to the places and their peculiarities in order to overturn the pre-established order, inserting or literally making to germinate on constructions and city buildings, elements that didn’t exist before, able to create confusion and astonishment through a public who sees them usually. The traditional imaginary of the city, of which we are accustomed to experience every day, is therefore put in discussion in favour of new possibilities of interpretation, that favor in primis an attention and taking of conscience of the things that surround us, in which we live in and of which we are more or less directly responsible, to give them a new, unexpected presence, able to enrich, in its turn, our existence.

About Nosadella.due
Nosadella.due is a residence for foreign artists and critics and is, in its kind, a singular reality on the territory in order to offer a program of research, to carry out in a period of 2/3 months in Bologna, that aims to share methodologies and thoughts with another, geographical and professional, reality. It serves at the same time to create a net of collaborations in the city and between the city and international realities, proposing itself as a connection for the circulation of ideas and thoughts at a global level and pursuing the concrete realization of artistic projects that aim to develop the territory and the social fabric. Nosadella.due operates with the sponsorship of Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Bologna, MAMbo - Museum of Modern Art of Bologna, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna and thanks to the support of Emil Banca - Banca di Credito Cooperativo and the participation of Region Emilia-Romagna and Municipality of Bologna. It takes moreover advantage of the precious collaboration of the technical sponsors and local companies as Tipografia Irnerio, IronCup, Nettuno Neon, Eurovideo, La Bandiga, Pasta Solaria.

Bloodless Wound

Flowers For Maurizio

Time Zone

Valuable Assets

Tuesday, 20th May 2008 : Round Table “Perception and Imagination”
MAMbo, 20th May 2008
with Markus Hofer and Elisa Del Prete
11.00-13.00 Antonella Crippa and Mauro Bellei
15.00-17.00 Stefano Romano and Bruno Marano

Wednesday 21th May 2008 : Caught In This World, a project by Markus Hofer
Meeting in front of Palazzo Aldrovandi, Via Galliera (at No.13), Bologna
From 18.00 on,  with the request of the public to participate and to bring a bolt that will be given back at the end.

Thursday, 22nd May 2008: don't trip over
with Markus Hofer, Adriano Persiani, Andrea Salvatori nt art gallery – Via dal Luzzo 6/c, Bologna www.ntartgallery.com
opening 22nd May at 6.30 pm
exhibition 22nd May – 12th July 2008