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by Nuvola Ravera

curated by Chiara Pirozzi

LAB.oratorio space


Soap Opera is an exhibition in line with the mission of the Made in Cloister reconversion project, which started with the recovery of the former abandoned cloister within the Bourbon woolen mill complex, to transform it into an exhibition and performance venue in where artists can confront the ancient traditions in a wider urban regeneration project.


Nuvola Ravera has conceived a site specific installation after a period of research on the territory and production carried out with the Neapolitan workers specialized in artisan saponification. From these premises, the artist has interpreted the exhibition space as if it were a place of archaeological finds and, at the same time, a domestic-urban carpet. Nuvola Ravera traces a series of rooms testified, at present, by the remains of a pre-existing floor, partly emerged and partly lost. Nuvola Ravera's research intertwines the idea of the common and monumental good with protection and conservation actions, observing their limits and obligations, finding in the use of a soluble material such as soap the symbolic key to a sensitive and always interpretable. If these suggestions reach the artist starting from a study of the history and everyday life of the Porta Capuana woolen mill complex, a further stimulus comes from reading the landscape of the city of Naples, from its stratifications, from the architectural weaves, from the smells, such as that of soap coming from homes, which connect the inside with the outside, tracing a perceptive geography of the urban space.



In Soap Opera the artist develops a longitudinal narration that undermines the exhibition space, drawing a path that is constantly interrupted and jagged, in disappearance, which temporally crosses physical places and layers of memory, photographing the remains of an era that has not yet passed , to be freed from the fever of custody of cultural heritage, at the same time imbued with an intimacy, private and domestic, in continuous transformation.

Nuvola Ravera's research, which often connects the biographical dimension to a psychic reading of places through the creation of ephemeral devices, combines perfectly with the experimental and mobile dimension that a space like Lab.Oratorio wants to have.

The exhibition was created thanks to the support of the MiBAC and SIAE as part of the initiative "Sillumina - Private copy for young people, for culture" and enjoys the support of SuperOtium for the artist's residence .


Nuvola Ravera was born in Genoa in 1984. She studied in the Department of Painting at the Ligustica Academy of Fine Arts - Genoa, attended a master's degree in contemporary photography at Cfp Bauer- Milan, Cinema and video at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts and at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst- Leipzig. He has supported various artists in the production of selected projects including Armin Linke in Berlin, Bouchra Khalili in Genoa and Giorgio Andreotta Calò. He lives and works in Venice where in 2016/17 he participated in the residency program of Bevilacqua La Masa and is currently completing the IUAV university in the department of Visual Arts. He has exhibited and collaborated with various institutions including: Museum of Contemporary Art Villa Croce, Genoa; Castel Sant'Elmo, Naples; Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation; Museum of Aveiro; Atelierhaus Salzamt, Linz; Steam Factory, Milan; Pistoletto Foundation, Biella; Venice Biennial. She has appeared in publications: Lady Dior, as seen by a new generation of Italian artists, Mousse Publishing; Genoa Ventimiglia Genoa, Humboldt Books. She was nominated by Artribune magazine as the best young Italian artist for 2017.

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by Diego Cibelli

LAB.oratorio space



Feed Me with domestic stuff is a collection of unique works of art in porcelain, objects that tell the relationship between human beings and the environment, when the reference environment is the house lived in an all-encompassing way. In this case the objects are transformed, in addition to their functionality they are asked to be something more.




They thus become the embodiment of something that is not possible for us to reach, something external, exotic. And so in a domestic environment, we find lamps with lion's paws, porcelain lamp-cushions adorned with plants and fruits.

And it is also a game with porcelain, a material idealized as sacred and fragile which here becomes the protagonist of ironic games, for daily use and intimate settings.





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Updated: May 25, 2023

Symmetrical movements, gentle and at the same time hard, forms that refer to cellular structures and fabrics coexist in architectural contexts that in turn are interconnected with nature.


dal catalogo della mostra THE GATES OF THE SUN AND THE LAND OF DREAMS

The artist Aljoscha with his objects fits into an ancient tradition of relationship and interdependence between art and nature that has its roots in the Greek and Roman culture of landscape mimesis for ornaments and architectural elements.




dal catalogo della mostra THE GATES OF THE SUN AND THE LAND OF DREAMS


The idea of bringing architecture to life traces the concept of nature as the master of creativity in general and architecture in particular. Indeed, Aljoscha, with his language of forms, which he borrows from textiles and cells, aims to bring his work and its respective context to life.




dal catalogo della mostra THE GATES OF THE SUN AND THE LAND OF DREAMS


Aljoscha, who connects art and nature and art and science with his sculptures, has relentlessly sought out historical places that would dialogue with his works, constructing a new living space predominated by clarity and proportion.



dal catalogo della mostra THE GATES OF THE SUN AND THE LAND OF DREAMS

The artist reflects these observations with his synthetic objects usually made of acrylic, silicone and a fragile latticework that refers to organic textiles. By creating a connection between the organic forms of nature and artistic creation, Aljoscha opens the view to the architecture of space.

We look forward to seeing you at the Foundation to discover Composing Bioethical Chioces, artist Aljoscha's first Italian exhibition from February 11, 2023.


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