The project, reflecting on the theme of game and rules, will feature a wooden replica of Tony Smith's sculpture "Free Ride" from 1962, a very skateable piece of early minimal art that inspired Raphael for his latest book of the same name. (Free Ride : Skateboard, mécanique galiléenne et formes simples).
The replica will be put on display and is open to be skated in front of the museum on the Piazza Boetti on the 29th, 30th and 31st of october between 15.00h and 19.00h
A lecture by Raphaël will take place at the museum on Thursday 30th at 17.30h
About Raphael's lecture:
Riding Modern Art : Meaning is use
Beyond my interest in skateboarding, I am curious in general about the processes for appropriation and reuse. For about a decade, I have noticed with amazement how public works of art are frequently documented in skateboard magazines and videos. Skaters use them as a support or framework for their tricks.
More irreverent than vandalizing in spirit, this "practice of artwork" highlights the explicit dynamism of an entire aspect of modern sculpture. On sculptures that are most often abstract and geometric, inspired by Cubo-Futurism or Constructivism, skaters strengthen the idea of movement that is literally put into action by the artists.
This lecture will gather images collected through the years under the title "Riding Modern Art" and a couple of ideas that rose progressively out of them.
- Raphaël Zarka
The talk will happen on Thursday, 30th October, from 17.30h to 19.00h.
About Exercises In Revolution:
Wednesday 29, Thursday 30 October 2014; 15:00h – 19.00h.
Friday 31 October 2014; 15:00h – 21.00h.
Nina Beier | Cherimus | Ryan Gander | Falke Pisano | Anna Scalfi Eghenter | Valentina Vetturi | Raphaël Zarka | Italo Zuffi
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI century arts
Via Guido Reni, 4A, Rome
Gallery 1,2,3,4, Hall and MAXXI Piazza
The rules of the game, as the players are well aware, are a serious business. Presented as a three-day performative segment of Open Museum Open City, the project includes a series of artists invited to reinvent the meaning of highly popular games such as chess, football, and soccer, creating new guidelines and instructions that diverge from the familiar ones. Exercises in Revolution explores the idea of discipline as the rules governing coexistence between different individuals and probes its deeper meaning, trying to move past it. It is an operation aimed at training the body and mind; it is meant to develop critical skills and implement new ways of building relationships, to offer new possibilities of coexistence. Changing the rules of the game, as players are well aware, is a serious move.
Works and performances by:
Nina Beier, The Ticker
Cherimus, Il Gioco dell’Oca di Marco Colombaioni
Ryan Gander, Parallel Black Jacks
Falke Pisano, The Speakers
Anna Scalfi Eghenter, Partout où les circonstances l’exigeront
Valentina Vetturi, La mossa di Ettore
Raphaël Zarka, A Free Ride
Italo Zuffi, Partita a bocce con frutta
In collaboration with:
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI century arts
For any further information:
mail: info@nomasfoundation.com
About Raphael Zarka:
http://michelrein.com/en/artistes/portfolio/32/Raphaël%20Zarka
http://www.carhartt-wip.com/skate/blog/2011/06/raphael-zarka
http://www.carhartt-wip.com/skate/blog/2011/06/a-chronicle-of-skateboarding-1779-2009-by-raphael-zarka
https://vimeo.com/13712786 (short documentary featuring a talk about his work - start at 40s)
Born in Montpellier (France) in 1977.
He lives and works in Paris.
Raphaël Zarka is one of a new generation of artists for whom existing cultural forms constitute the raw material for their work. The point of departure for his art, which encompasses photography, video and the written essay, is fundamentally sculptural in the expanded field of a twenty-first century artist. For many years a skateboarder and the author of several books on its history, Zarka's idea of skateboarding, as a kind of re-writing of spaces destined for a particular use, rhymes with his approach to his artistic practice. Similar to the abandoned structures built for past moments of aspiration and endeavor, and the recurrence of forms put to new uses, Zarka's reflections on skateboarding signal ecology of art making of critical and contemporary relevance. For him it's not a question of an absolute reality but rather, what it is, has been or might be depending on the position from which you view it.
- Extract from Raphael Zarka Geometry Improved, a text by Suzanne Cotter
Personal exhibitions include Les Prismatiques, Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (Poissy, France) in 2013, Le tombeau d'Archimède, Le Grand Café (Saint-Nazaire, France), Gibellina, Stroom Den Haag (La Haye, The Netherlands), Gibellina, CAN (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) in 2011, PERGOLA, Palais de Tokyo (Paris) in 2010, Geometry Improved, Modern Art (Oxford, UK) in 2009. He also participated to group shows such as Sound Spill, Zabludowicz Collection (New York) in 2013, Les dérives de l'imaginaire, Palais de Tokyo(Paris), Apartés, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Performa 11, New Visual Art Performance Biennial (New York) in 2011. His work has been presented through screenings such as Species of Skateboarding, Tate Modern (London) and Video et Après, Centre Pompidou (Paris) in 2011. His first monography has been published in 2012 by B42 / Galerie Michel Rein.
He awarded the Ricard Prize in 2008. And he's nominated for the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2013.
His work is included in leading museum and foundation collections such as Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris; Fondation d'Entreprise Ricard, Paris; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Zabludowicz Foundation, London; Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
(Bastian Loewen)
