ICKU

Giovanni De Angelis

Curated by Costanza Paissan

After the success of Water Drops at MACRO in Rome, CO2 Gallery, in collaboration with Ines Musumeci Greco, is pleased to present the latest project of Giovanni De Angelis, which pursues, through photography, his social and anthropological metropolitan research, launched four years ago with Contemporary Districts.

If the artist faced the conception of twins in Water Drops as an object of anthropological and social analysis on the land of Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul, in ICKU (I Can Kill You) – realized in Riga (Latvia) – the artist focuses his attention on the individuals as characters of urban society that search for the endless facets of an everyday life, unusually broken by the sudden and destabilizing introduction of a firearm.

All the way from the exploration of urban spaces, the artist moves his attention onto human psychology and its latent dynamics, which lead to the loss of control for committing an irreversible action.

The artist investigates the apparent normality of a group of people who live an active social role, but suffer the psychological effects of a tough reality unconsciously, in a geographical context characterized by long winters and a few hours of light.

In each of them there is a hidden chance to commit a violent act, dictated by the confluence of personal, social, geographical and biographical factors. Being the protagonist of the survey at the same time, the public becomes the involuntary actor of the second phase of this process, and the recipient of a virtual bullet.

Designed and manufactured at the residence of the Art NOASS Cultural Center of Riga, the whole project was presented to the public in the form of guerrilla communication, through the visual bombing of ICKU, an acronym that will be unveiled at the opening of the exhibition by the artist.

Biography

Giovanni De Angelis started his career experimenting with traditional photography, later focusing on contemporary reality and its mode of perception. In 2004 he joined the project Luceveloce, with which he investigates the infinite potential of light and its interaction with bodies.

In 2005 and 2006 his project of research continued with the Luce Dissolve that put the artist’s work in connection with a language close to painting.

His journey continued focusing on metropolitan and eastern societies, developed in series like Strade con la Pioggia, Sui Iki and Churchgate, in which the interest in Eastern culture is expressed with a keen attention on social and ethno-anthropological dynamics.

The Water Drops series, exhibited in 2011 at the MACRO in Rome, is an evident example of his attention towards different cultures through the anthropological study of the dynamics of the twins and their interaction with the world.

This reflection led him to develop, among others, the Districts Contemporary photographic projects in the cities of Tokyo, Tel Aviv e Varsavia, until the project ICKU(I Can Kill You), resulted in an investigation of the Latvian capital’s reality.

Giovanni De Angelis was born in Naples in 1969. He lives and works in Rome since 1992.

Gallery: CO2

Artist: Giovanni de Angelis

Curator: Costanza Paissan

Opening : Friday February 10th 2012, h.6.30 pm

Venue: Via Piave 66, 00187 Roma

Duration: February 10th 2012 – March 3rd 2012

Hours: Monday–Friday 11 > 19 | Saturday 16 > 19 | Free entrance

Info: t: +39.06.45471209 | f: +39.06.45473415 | info@co2gallery.com | www.co2gallery.com | www.icku.it | Facebook

With patronage of Latva Embassy in Rome.

You can download the PDF version ICKU