---Riccardo Benassi
Skype account / monitor_agio
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---Research per se is never based on final answers but on the formulation of counter-questions,
---pondering and investigating the mechanisms of functional or failed postindustrial social models.
---Along with objects, installations and the scenic layout of space, Benassi's works are like novels
---that analyse the construction of history, the demand for social utopias and ...
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Duemiladodicix Eccomix
A mixtape to celebrate the coming year, Download or Listen HERE
Ogni Risveglio
A sound + text project originally commisioned for Villa Rufolo / Ravello (IT) - 2009
Poetry Corner : Proteggi la Domenica sera dall'odore di Lunedì
Poetry Corner : Flying Doormats
Spatial interventions, 2011 / ongoing...
Quel che serve ad un pavimento per trasformarsi in pista da ballo (noi)
Temporary installation commisioned by Alessandra Saviotti and Marianni Liosi
in the frame of Mandragora at MIC - Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza (IT)
catalog by Filippo Nostri / isbn 978-88-95643-69-7
Quel che serve ad un pavimento per trasformarsi in pista da ballo (noi) - 2011
black vinyl Palatino letters on white ceramic base (66 cm x 66 cm x 1,1 cm) +
5 minutes sound (every 5 minutes of silence) diffused via ceiling in-site mono speakers through the whole museum building.
-ISSUE 02 - DENOUEMENT
as pdf here www.journalment.org
Standard Sentimento
A summer project in Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Umbertide (PG)
When we create an event within a structure we allow ourselves to make sense of the structure,
even if it has long lost its original function. In this case, a building that was once built to dry tobacco
is first adapted as an artist’s studio and then, through the will of the artist, it becomes an exhibition space.
This artwork is merely an attempt to live within and temporarily re-configure an architectural space into an
environment that cultivates encounters.
The show is composed of architectural interventions, sounds, sculptures, texts and images.
These elements, in a fiendishly elusive manner, seem to refer to us as artworks in their stead, as
if they wanted to redirect our attention towards the event that we are creating.
The installation appears unfinished: it dismantles itself before our very eyes
in order to acquire seemingly casual configurations.
It is as if the installation were guided by its own conscious endeavor to organize empty space;
its sole purpose is to remind us that we - us humans - are going to fill that space.
The most fascinating aspect of life is its ability to encompass and be a vessel for all emotions and feelings.
As a result, this artwork becomes a tenuous narrative addition, a fragment of shared time,
cut out and removed from the flow of personal and intimate events.
Hopefully, as we exit the architectural space and return to our daily reality, we will encounter
a landscape that demands to be promoted from backdrop to center-stage.
Like a postcard view that promises the perfect camping spot, these places will remind us that every
empty space is nothing but the absence of the time necessary to fill that emptiness.
Viaggio in Italia
A project by AMACI - Associazione dei Musei d’Arte Contemporanea Italiani. www.viaggioinitalia.eu
Po - Riccardo Benassi ©2011
Private View issue 2
Whit contributions by Marijke Appelman, Riccardo Benassi, Ruth Hoeflich, Karin Hueber, Tamarin Norwood, Mira Sanders,
Jack Strange and Karin Suter. Contact www.pforpond.com to have a copy.
Notes for Hallways pretending to be Elevators
A publication collecting 16 texts and 3 images, two color risograph print in plastic bag, edition of 300
Presentation by Silvia Fanti and Alberto Salvadori as part of Summertype - Galleria Riccardo Crespi, Milano
with a specially conceived display setting
Site of Sound: of Architecture and the Ear Vol.2
Site of Sound: of Architecture and the Ear Vol.2, edited by Brandon LaBelle and Claudia Martinho
(Errant Bodies Press - 2011)
Book presentation at General Public - Berlin in the frame of Room Tone show by Brandon LaBelle
with a specially conceived display setting
Italian Art to be listened to
a project by Anna Cestelli Guidi in collaboration with Radio Arte Mobile
National Center for Contemporary Art Moscow - NCCA
To Gain a second every 365 days - Riccardo Benassi, 2009
1'52'' (loop)
Daydreaming
a project by Riccardo Benassi
in collaboration with Fondazione March and Porsche Italia
Riccardo Benassi ©2011
-a new journal !
an initiative run by Federica Bueti, Benoit Loiseau, Clara Meister
www.journalment.org
Appunti per Corridoi che si fingono Ascensori
or... when a temporary installation should pretend to be a performance...
Segue - Festival Italiano dello Spettacolo Contemporaneo - 11th edition / 2011
An images + text overview here by Helga Marsala for Artribune.com
and a low-fi video documentation by Luca Coclite and Elisa Fontana
Appunti per Corridoi che si fingono Ascensori, 4 synthetic felt stripes (13 m x 1 m each) + 16 texts on Pvc
(50 cm x 50 cm each), 6 hours standing - Teatro Duse, Bologna - 2011
© Gaetano Cammarota
images from the catalog, Riccardo Benassi ©2011
I Can't wait Tomorrow
Selected by Andrea Bruciati, contribution to Emerging Talents, CCCS, Firenze
I Can't wait Tomorrow - Synthetic felt, sound loops on 33" and 363" endless tapes, poplar frames,
adhesive letters on glass - 2011
"The jury was stuck by the elegance with which your medium inhabits this space.
What could be an unforgiving setting for installation work was enlivened with form, colour, text and sound.
Your felt ribbon of two dimensions, emerges into 3D sculptural cones which harbour yet another dimension-mysterious sound.
This integration of elements, draws viewers' eyes, ears, minds and bodies into "play."
The bright colour, subtle texture and crisp, sly text also conspire to create a mirror situation.
This recalls Alice in her Wonderland, Dorothy on her Yellow Brick Road and the contemporary condition in which
strict order can create a sense of brightness, clarity and comfort but also raise suspicions about imposed complacency
and conformity."
Achim Borchardt-Hume, Barbara Gordon, Adam Szymczyk
Attimi Fondamentali
After Autostrada Verticale (2009) a new project together with Piero Frassinelli / Superstudio
Curated by Alberto Salvadori, Museo Marino Marini - Firenze
An in-depth audio interview (italian only) by Ilaria Gadenz published by Radio Papesse
© artimages/Federica Di Giovanni
Studio per Spazio Ripetititititivo
Studio per Spazio Ripetititititivo - PVC, 101 cm X 202 cm, ed. 2 + 1 a.p. - 2010
Fondazione Pastificio Cerere Collection
Allianz Insurance Italia Collection
Letters from the Passenger Seat with No One at the Wheel
Published by Mousse Publishing for the show 1982 at Macro (Rome) curated by Marcello Smarrelli
find it online through Motto Distribution
1982
Macro (Rome) curated by Marcello Smarrelli - Fondazione Pastificio Cerere
1982 - synthetic felt, 2 sound loop on hidden endless tape 33'' and 363'', waiting room chairs, adhesive
film, 12 digital images in black iron frames - 2010
© Giorgio Ciardo
ohrwurm
presented in the frame of ITaliens | junge Kunst in der Botschaft, Botschaft der Italienischen Republik,
Berlin, commissioned by Alessandra Pace and Marina Sorbello
ohrwurm - synthetic felt, sound loop on tape 33'' - 2010
© Nick Hess
Un Palazzo (dondolarsi su un'altalena senza sapere a cosa è appesa)
First exhibited at Between the Silhouette and the Background, 1/9 unosunove, curated by Federica Bueti
Un Palazzo (dondolarsi su un'altalena senza sapere a cosa è appesa) - books, modular drawers, stereo
loud speaker, hidden mp3 player, digital loop 13'31'' - ed. of 3 + 2 a.p. - 2010
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a Memorial is a sophisticated form of tardiness that allows us to always be on time
I Am What I Am - 25th Nadežda Petrović Memorial, Čačak, Serbia, commissioned by Maja Ćirić
a Memorial is a sophisticated form of tardiness that allow us to always be on time - Synthetic felt,
sound loop on tape 12,21'' + b/w poster (ed. of 300) on matter paper (48,4 cm X 67,6 cm each) - 2010
Mirroring is both conflictual and mimetic tic tic tic
temporary installation to celebrate the new Errant Bodies working space-project room in Berlin
Mirroring is both conflictual and mimetic tic tic tic - Synthetic felt, sound loop on tape 12,21''+
text on paper by Federica Bueti partially erased by the author - 2010
collective prearrangement, variable countdown
A temporary installation at Castello in Movimento, Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo (ms),
curated by Alberto Salvadori with Emanuele Becheri, Riccardo Benassi
An overview here on Elena Bordignon and here on Mousse Magazine blogspots
An in-depth audio interview by Carola Haupt published by Radio Papesse
collective prearrangement, variable countdown - synthetic felt, sound loop 12,21'' - 2010
storyboard for a collective prearrangement, variable countdown - digital images, spray paint, felt
13 cm X 18 cm (each) - 2010
Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo Collection
The First Kiss (bending a building)
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Elusive - Camere XI at RAM - Radio Arte Mobile - Roma,
curated by Jimmie Durham with Riccardo Benassi, Elisa Strinna, Magnus Ottertun
An in-depth video interview by Simona Cresci published by Mediarch
The First Kiss (bending a building) - synthetic felt, sound loop 11'11'' - 2010 - © Giorgio Ciardo
[...] Riccardo Benassi is (I should use capital letter) an artist of the city.
His practice does often employ sound, but just as often architectural considerations.
He is in the never-ending process of analyzing our collective life in the city,
as a cosmopolitan who sees city life as something we make and re=make.
That leads him to consider architecture from the inside out. [...]
Benassi’s concern with architecture is always personal and social.
He states that air conditioning, for example, modifies our concept of architecture just as sound
modifies our concept of visual arts, and is invisible as much much as they are underestimated.
His work here is titled, “The First Kiss (Bending a Building)”. The sound involved is his own voice
versus, as he says, “the machine”. It begins rather benignly, rather quietly. The voice is in control; the
machine is in the background. After a few minutes, however, “the machine”, which sounds like a
distillation of many different noises of the city becomes steadily louder and more complex.
The human voice tries to sing along or to argue. The sculptural elements of the work are like two
shadows which have become solid. These two parts utilize the room perfectly. One enters through
the window to steal a kiss from the room. It is the shadow of a building, perhaps. [...]
Jimmie Durham
no, no place to sit
no, no place to sit
installation commisioned by Alberto salvadori for Sensibili Energie
made up of 10 piano benches, multilayered poplar, Plexiglas, spray paint,
horn speakers, amplifier, cd player, coat hook of the conference room of the
Galleria Civica of Modern and Contemporary Arts of Arezzo
(temporarily moved to the installation room)
2009
© Carlo Fei
no, no place to sit - lmt.compact disc
produced by Fondazione Pastificio Cerere and Museo Marino Marini
with texts by Federica Bueti and Riccardo Benassi
2010
Autostrada Verticale
a project by Riccardo Benassi
with Piero Frassinelli, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Ingo Niermann
curated by Andrea Lissoni/Xing for Art Fall - PAC - Ferrara
All texts / images © 2009 by the authors
Ogni tetto a punta è una freccia - Riccardo Benassi (download .pdf - it)
Every Pitched Roof is an arrow - Riccardo Benassi (download .pdf - en)
Das Monument der Gleichheit - Ingo Niermann (download .pdf - de)
Il monumento all'uguaglianza - Ingo Niermann (download .pdf - it)
Autostrada Verticale Diviso Due - Riccardo Benassi e Piero frassinelli (download .pdf - it)
