Extra Academy #25: Davide Bertocchi

Extra University

28.01.2015, 17:30 — 21:30 Lecture

Extra Academy is a spontaneous alliance of Extra City, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Sint-Lucas Antwerpen.

The guest speaker of 28 January is Davide Bertocchi.

Davide Bertocchi was born in Modena, Italy. He currently lives and works in Paris, where he was artist in residence at Le Pavillon du Palais de Tokyo (2003–2004). He has exhibited extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. Recent solo exhibitions include; 00ooOO, Hopstreet gallery, Bruxelles (2013) ; Apologie de l’aléatoire, Maison du Livre de l’Image et du Son, Villeurbanne (2011); Performa at White Box, New York (2009).

He has recently exhibited in group shows including: The Yellow Side of Sociality, Bozar – Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles (2014); Ça & là (This & There), Fondation d'entreprise Ricard and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); and Substance at Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris (2013).

Davide Bertocchi uses imagery culled from music and science and intentionally manipulates it by imposing unusual and intimate perspectives. His body of work, which ranges from video to sculpture to sound installations, mainly deals with pseudo-scientific phenomena, such as the dissipation of energy and the movement of information through its “support mechanisms” such as CDs, DVDs, records, and/or magnetic tapes, the orbital movements of planets and galaxies— this useless rotating revolutionary movement and its existential and enigmatic impact on everyday life. One of his best-known works, Spazio, an endless work in progress started in 1999, depicts an infinite number of images of planets or galaxies completely invented by him, but that may indeed exist, as our knowledge of the universe is still very limited. His work questions the scientific monopoly that has presumed to explain everything with a sequence of models and a belief in a general idea of Progress. It does so by pointing to the immensity of what is not known—whether we can accept it or not—as our greatest freedom.

Language English

Location Kunsthal Extra City - Antwerpen-Berchem, Eikelstraat 25-31, 2600 Antwerpen