Display 2 is the second of two events that will celebrate thirty years of activity at Studio Dabbeni, the
gallery established at the end of 1979, in Lugano. The second exhibition, similar to the first one, will
present some of the artists that have been exhibited over the last three decades.
Stuart Arends (1950) will be represented by four recent works, small parallelepipeds made entirely of
wax and painted with oil-based paint. In this series, entitled “PDF”, 2010, the apparent simplicity of the
solids is deceptive: they assert, paradoxically, a sublime ethereal nature, in the transparency of the
material, together with an absolute concrete presence. In dialogue with the light, the solid forms provoke
questions about the sculptural tradition and make cross-references to it; it is almost as if the wax were
actually marble. The artistic research of Stefano Boccalini (1963) is distinguished by a continuous
confrontation between the artist and society; on a careful examination of the territory, on his relationship
with his neighbourhood and the people who live there. His works “Random map-costume popolare 2.0”,
2001, lambda print, and “Wild Island 4.0”, 2009, a sculpture composed of two element, will be presented.
Using his invariable “visual tool” – alternating vertical stripes of 8.7 cm wide white/coloured stripes –
Daniel Buren (1938) has been examining the relationship between a work of art, its placement, and its
relationship to the viewer for over 45 years. Buren will be represented in the exhibition by “Tissu rayé de
bandes blanches et noires, bandes extrêmes recouvertes de peinture blanche”, from 1969. The artistic
work of Jose Dávila (1974), which ranges from photography to architectural model construction,
presents, with every work, a specular duplicate of an example of official architecture: the reproduction
appears as a weakened, precarious, useless model, but is, at the same time, a part of an open and
flexible system. The works presented are “Untitled”, 2008, e “Untitled”, 2010. Regarding the idea of a
platform as a place for encounter and discussion on subjects such as education, language,
institutionalised reality, and utopia, the two works presented by Luca Frei (1976) are exemplary in making
clear the artist’s views: the neon work “Untitled (from the last letter of Nicola Sacco to his son Dante,
1927)”, 2008, and “Untitled”, 2010. Jakob Kolding (1971) will be represented by “Untitled”, 2010, lambda
print. The artist includes references to both Modernist art and architecture in his works. Always deeply
interested in modernist utopian ideas, he emphasises their formal similarities, ideally overlapping
modernist architecture of the 1960s with the work of some of the artists that were active in the same
period. Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) will be present with “R 403”, 1975, a work from his torn paper series. In
this case the radical practices used by the American artist and minimalist art theorist are manifested in
tearing: as a way to define a grid without drawing line. Two works by Flavio Paolucci (1934) are in the
exhibition: the first “Oggetto”, 1990, will be placed in the first room of the gallery. It is a work comprised of
three elements, placed on the wall: two circular shapes are divided, in their centre, by a vertical element–
an actual twisted branch. The second work, “Oggetto”, 1999, found on the upper floor, consists of three
elements placed on the edge of a door’s jamb. Always connected with nature in an extraordinary way,
Paolucci once again presents two works that emphasise this dialogue, and where his ability for synthesis
combines with the formal balance of the work, achieving results that are so striking and the link between
them seems almost mathematical. David Tremlett (1945) has always experimented with the dimension in
which travel is bound to existential experience according to established English traditions. Experiences in
Africa, Central America, Oceania, Australia, as well as his contact with extra-European peoples, were
instrumental in maturing his sensitivity. The influences deriving from his travels have become the material
of his work and are literally transferred in the simple geometric shapes and in the repetition of signs that
make up his rigorous abstract language. The work that will be shown, “Construction and Space #1”, 2010,
pastel on paper, was realised at the same time as the large Wall Drawing made at the Fort in Bard, in the
Valle d’Aosta. Ian Tweedy (1982). Everyone has a “heimat”: Ian Tweedy is searching for one, a place that
has been tucked away into one’s memory that one day can be returned to. Six kneeling male figures
perform the act of lifting a wounded person from the ground. The base image of the large Wall Drawing (3
x 5 metres) made on a wall in the central room of the gallery, comes from an old rescue manual. Notably
absent in the representation is the person being rescued, the perspective (emphasising the formation of a
kind of empty tunnel), and the position assumed by the rescuers, which could be read as a reference to
the iconography of the Deposition. (Valentina Bucco)