Marcelle Alix

Carte blanche given to Simone Menegoi

Simone Menegoi - Credit : V. d'Accardi Col

Galerie Marcelle Alix gives carte blanche to Simone Menegoi as part of Ernesto Sartori’s exhibition from May 24th to July 20th, 2024.

Simone Menegoi (born 1970, living in Bologna) is an Italian art critic, curator, and educator specializing in contemporary art. Since 2019, he has been the artistic director of Arte Fiera in Bologna. Menegoi has organized numerous exhibitions in both private and public spaces, in Italy and abroad, often exploring the relationship between sculpture and other artistic languages such as photography, performance, sound, etc. He served as editor-in-chief of the magazines Mousse (2006-08) and Kaleidoscope (2009-12), and also collaborated with Artforum (2011-18). Menegoi has written numerous essays on contemporary artists and topics related to visual arts, commissioned by international institutions.

Ernesto Sartori Trantorizzato C_3L34, 2023 feutre, stylo et gesso sur bois, peint sur les deux faces, 47,7 x 42,8 x 1, 5 cm, photo : Alessandro Trapezio
Ernesto Sartori, Trantorizzabilante P3, 2023, gouache and gesso on wood, painted on both sides, 70 x 50 x 4,6 cm

The exhibition “Scaffalando” by Ernesto Sartori at the Marcelle Alix gallery presents a series of works that explore the notion of the shelf and its spatial and symbolic implications. Divided into two distinct sets, the exhibition offers a multidimensional perspective on pictorial and architectural objects.

At first sight, Sartori presents paintings on panels where the paint uniformly covers all six faces of the support. This approach creates unique pictorial objects, devoid of privileged points of view, evoking architectural drawings or maps. These works invite the viewer to explore the multiple facets of painting and to rethink the question of how painting interacts with the physical space.

The second set of works consists of drawings on panels, also manipulated and worked upon on all sides. These drawings depict vast, empty interiors, drawn in a central perspective. These spaces, with uncertain functions, seem to blend the visual elements of factories, warehouses, conference centers, shopping malls, houses, and cenotaphs. This unexpected mixture creates whimsical architectural landscapes which question our conception of space and its uses.

Alongside each other, these two sets of works explore the concepts of space, perspective, and functionality, while highlighting the inherent ambiguity and complexity of artistic representation.