LAB | MICHELE TOCCA: COME SI DIVENTA UNA NUVOLA
"From stain to cloud making, the step seems short.
A subject that has always enchanted artists and others, clouds are physics and poetry, logic and imagination, stasis and movement, atmosphere, mood, temperature..."
Michele Tocca
For IUNO Studio, Michele Tocca has been invited to conduct a workshop Michele Tocca with third-graders fromthe Istituto Comprensivo Dante Alighieri in Rome.
Starting from observing the sky and clouds, the workshop, curated by IUNO, is developed to introduce children to painting and investigate new ways of observing. The sky and the clouds loose their original characteristic of being "mere background" and become a starting point of reflection aimed at understanding the creative gesture in the world around us.
Children are exposed to the practice of painting and depiction of reality through a series of exercises that develop their perceptual and creative skills by observing atmospheric phenomena, which is an essential component of Michele Tocca's artistic research.
Each single session focuses on a different sky’s shade, taking inspiration from images, stories, legends, live observation, and at the same time explores different artistic techniques such as drawing, watercolor, and acrylic paints on canvas.
The outcomes of the workshop were presented at the Festival des Cabanes, held on 31 May 2023 at Villa Medici.
Michele Tocca lives and works in Rome. He was trained between Italy, Belgium, and London, where he completed an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (2011). Executed live, his paintings ruminate on the experience of painting and the physical world, constantly returning to questions about their mutual “presentness,” realism and its paradoxes, perception and artifice, and the effects of time and history. Among his most recent solo and group exhibitions are Le realtà ordinarie, curated by D. Ferri, Palazzo de’ Toschi, Bologna (2020); Reality, curated by S. Kennington, Hickster Projects, San Giovanni d’Asso, SI (2019); Reazione a catena, curated by G. Pisapia, 1/9 unosunove arte contemporanea, Rome (2018); P1: Filling Station, curated by I. Toogood, SHE WILL, Oslo, NO (2018); Stupido come un pittore, curated by R. Farinotti and S. Squadrito, Villa Vertua Masolo, Nova Milanese (2018); Declinazioni della pittura, Francesco Pantaleone, Palermo (2015); Allegoria, curated by A. Mugnaini, FuoriCampo Gallery, Brussels/Siena (2014); Benjamin Senior_Michele Tocca: The Fate of Forms, James Fuentes Gallery @ FLAG ART Foundation, New York (2014); Studiolo Project, curated by M. C. Valacchi, Spazio Cabinet, Milan (2011; 2014); Painting Notes, curated by E. Cucchi and A. Rosica, MARCA, Catanzaro (2011). Broader surveys include Impresa Pittura, curated by R. Gavarro and C. L. Pisano, Centro Internazionale per l’Arte Contemporanea, Genazzano (2010); Moscow Biennale, Era Foundation, Moscow (2010); Prague Biennale 4, Prague (2009).