October 07, 2023 — November 06, 2023
Giulio De Mitri, Laura Mega, Diego Repetto, and Oliver Ressler
Monumental Elements
Curators
Lanfranco Aceti and Alessandro Melis
Location
Palazzo Pantaleo, Taranto
Photography
Giorgio Ciardo
Monumental Elements is an exhibition conceived and developed by Lanfranco Aceti in collaboration with Alessandro Melis that exhibits the works of art of four international artists: Giulio De Mitri, Laura Mega, Diego Repetto, and Oliver Ressler.
The exhibition delves into the intrinsic relationship between water, art, and public space as part of the Collateral Events approved by Leslie Lokko, curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. Monumental Elements examines water’s monumental essence, processes of urban exploitation and gentrification, and artistic unconventional methods of engagement and presentation in urban environments. Water, a source of life and inspiration, finds itself at the heart of this exhibition not as a passive backdrop, but as a dynamic force that shapes landscapes, perceptions, and societal paradigms.
Documentation of Exhibition
Oliver Ressler, Excerpt from After the Barrage, The Deluge
Artists
Over forty years of active presence in the visual arts characterize the artistic research of Giulio De Mitri. He gives his work an ever-new value, full of stimuli and meanings: a cosmogonic repertoire drenched in mythical and sacred visions. He is a rigorous artist and a refined intellectual with multiple cultural interests. Over the course of his long and challenging artistic journey, De Mitri’s works have been rooted in deep ethical and aesthetic reflections.
Laura Mega works between Rome and New York. She is the creator and curator of the ‘DREAMERS’ art project and co-founder of the ‘LAZZARO_art doesn’t sleep’ project. Her practice combines drawing, text, embroidery, wool yarn, and printing. In addition, she sometimes uses other materials (such as pink epilating wax) on old trousseaus: sets of clothes, linens, and other accessories that a bride would bring with her to the new house.
Diego Repetto (architect, artist and landscape critic) promotes the concepts of Land Lighting and Quinto Landscape. He is a member of the Italy Section of the International Association of Art Critics, of the Ideal Space Working Group and of the International Landscape Research Laboratory of the University of Perugia. In 2021 he was on the advisory board of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and international speaker at the Whenzou Polytechnic.
Oliver Ressler is an artist and filmmaker who produces installations, projects in public space, and films on issues such as economics, democracy, migration, the climate crisis, forms of resistance and social alternatives. Ressler has had 90 solo exhibitions, including at Berkeley Art Museum, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade; Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, Egypt; The Cube Project Space, Taipei; and many others.