Wainer Vaccari "Fight 17" - 2008

Controversial in its writing as much as in its meaning. The idea here is not to compete with Wikipedia and to give the full definition of this word with or without the “e”. It is about completing an aesthetic journey started a year ago when the Gallery Zodo Contemporary opened with an inaugural exhibition called (ex) communicate. Brackets are not referring to an option but to a second level of senses. Six international artists – Sebastian Diaz Morales, Ben Grasso, David Rathman, Denis Rouvre, Wainer Vaccari and Li Wei. For the Gallery’s first year anniversary, nothing better than a show that semantically evokes the notion of locked space could have been scheduled. Fight to express on the ring, in the box and get viewers to think outside the box. In other words, push people inside to generate a desire to spread their thoughts and go beyond the clichés.

 

Li Wei "Boxing" - 2009

What is box(e) about? It is about the container, the content as much as it is about the discipline. It refers to the body and its movements within a defined environment. In the case of a ring, think of reflects, behaviour strategies, pain, blows, and hurdles. A conflict of power emerges between two bodies that dance on their toes to get their opponent down on its knees. It is me alone with my body on the ring and in the box… the duality between strength and weakness. An internal conversation starts: “What can my body really do? Should I know my own limits, should I go beyond and push them further away?” Get some food for thoughts from the selected artists featured for the first time together in a Milanese art space. Look how tribal beauty is embodied by Senegalese wrestlers when captured by photographer Denis Rouvre.

 

Denis Rouvre "Ecurie Al Pulaar" 

From the shots you can hear their breath, deep and intense, the tensions are almost saturating the images.

 

Sebastian Diaz Morales "Ring"

To Sebastian Diaz Morales, violence occupies the centre stage, the focus is not only on the bodies fighting but on the whole box: the ring or the passionate noisy crowd. The lenses are in the hands of the observer.
Body combat as a form of art or shall we say as an illustration of a human artifice? What is fake and what is real? What does hurt?  Along this line check out Ben Grasso’s paintings. More evocative maybe than clear photographic shots, his work gives an intimate vision. For the boxer experts, David Rathman’s painted canvases are a revival of the legendary match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. A fight that everybody remembers as being not only a great moment in a sport discipline but an occasion when a “man was fighting for a certain idea of freedom” (Alexis Philonenko). To conclude, Wainer Vaccari approaches box(e) from a micro site in the sport sphere.

 

Wainer Vaccari "Fight13" - 2008

To Wainer this body ruled expression is a necessity and to be experienced as such. Which raises another question? In this Internet obsessed era, are we not supposed to promote communities and follow a “let’s create a better world” leitmotiv? Or are we meant to fight for our virtual space as much as we have fought in the past for our material one?

 

Jerome Zodo Contemporary and curator Gabriele Tinti present box(e)

From January 12th 2011 to March 13th 2011

Via Lambro, 7 (ang. Via Melzo)
20129 Milano
T. + 39 0220241935
F. +39 0220244861
info@jerome-zodo.com
www.jerome-zodo.com

 

 Read more about boxing and boxers: Thunder Milano Boxing Team on Swide.com

 

Text by Delphine Hervieu.

Source: www.jerome-zodo.com