MATTEO NASINI: BURNING TREASURE
curated by Cecilia Canziani and Ilaria Gianni
31 marzo – 15 settembre 2023
Iuno presents Burning Treasure, a solo exhibition by Matteo Nasini, featuring new works specifically conceived for its spaces.
Burning Treasure reimagines a cosmology in which different temporal planes coexist and overlap, suggesting a cyclical movement, a rebirth that is already implicitly included in the idea of end of the world. Two large tapestries, a ceramic sculpture and a zoomorphic fountain are the elements to which the artist entrusts a narrative of our Planet, subject to a destructive drive but capable of fostering the development of new life forms through the gradual replacement of previous ones.
In times of climate change, Matteo Nasini's project, not without melancholy, seems to project us beyond the epilogue, envisioning a radically changed, yet still vital, future.
Download the critical text here
Testo critico: Giulia Gaibisso
Photo: Giorgio Benni
In occasion of Nuit des Cabanes at Villa Medici, on june 27, 2023, IUNO presented Splendore Neoliticosound performance by Matteo Nasini.
Splendore Neolitico It is a project born from the artist's desire to listen to and consequently reproduce the first harmonies echoing in the world. Imagining the shape of the first instruments of humanity, made of bones from extinct animals whose origin dates back around forty thousand years ago, the artist selected fossil specimens from Natural History museum collections dating back to the Pleistocene, which he then scanned and reproduced using the 3D printing process. Tusks, horns, and bones of prehistoric animals are thus transformed back into instruments, now in smooth white ceramic. Their intrinsic evocative power evokes a mythical and ancestral imaginary, and at the same time, in their re-materialization, they are reborn into new life during the musical performance: instruments of a ritual no longer solely primitive, expressing themselves again thanks to technological innovation. Experimenting today with the musical potential of these ancient sound objects, whose original melody has now irretrievably vanished, Splendore Neolitico it transports us through a dizzying temporal arc to the sounds of a mythical and unsettling time in which we rediscover our deep connection with nature.
Video: Antonio Demma
Matteo Nasini was born in 1976 in Rome. In 2002 Nasini received a Degree in Double Bass at Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, Rome. The research of Matteo Nasini starts from sound study, to take physical shapes deeply examining and observing the sound and plastic substance’s surface. This leads to a practice that methodologically develops in sound installations, performances, textile and sculptural works. His work has been shown at: Triennale Milano, Clima, Marsèlleria, Fluxia, Fonderia Artistica Battaglia (Milan); Maxxi, Macro, Nomas Foundation, Operativa Arte, La Galleria Nazionale, Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome); Villa Croce (Genova); Villa Romana (Florence); Museo delle Palme (Palermo); Ocean Space, Palazzo Fortuny (Venice); Centro Arti Visive Pescheria (Pesaro); Art O Rama, Southway Studio, Leclere Centre d’art (Merseille); EDF Foundation, Paris La Defance (Paris); Espace le Carre, Palais Beaux- Arts (Lille); La Panacee (Montpellier); IIC, Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); Marsèlleria (New York); Rowing (London) Royal Museum of Worecester (Worecester); MRAC – Musée Regional d’Art Contemporain, Serignan.