Michele Ciacciofera
Born in Nuoro, Sardegna, 1969, moved to Palermo where he grew up and at university graduated in Political Science. Afterwards, he returned to Sardegna for an apprenticeship with the painter and architect Giovanni Antonio Sulas. He has since then lived and worked in Siracusa, Sicily since 1990, and in Paris since 2011 where he now lives and works.
Ciacciofera has always been invested in the relationship between human existence and the natural world. Using a variety of artistic approaches, including installation, sculpture, painting, drawing, theater, video and sound, he freely combines media and methods in his exploration of nature, history, mythology and humanity.
Conceptual artist at heart, he is concerned first and foremost with the subject, narrative and feeling that he wishes to convey, with the materials " drawn from a host of sources " following the concept. He constantly calls upon his background in political science, keen interest in environmentalism, and fixation with individual memory, folding in research, activism, and his own subjective reality to create poetic experiences.
For many years he studied landscapes and how humans change them, and human portraits to find their typus. His works have existential themes, with central or appended political and social questions employing a complex, intensely symbolic, visual language.
Material for his inquiries often begin with some nexus found in the cross-currents of languages, their literatures, and histories, for example, J.W. Goethe’s Sicilian Travels that inspired a collection titled “Sicilian Journey” that toured Europe and the USA. He also spent years exploring questions relating to torture, legal and extra-legal imprisonment. Other themes included that of profound melancholy and desolate seascapes and deserts where the near absence of the humans provide surprising perspectives.
He has also worked in theatre. In 2010, he designed sets and costumes for Medea, (dir. Maurizio Panici, starring Pamela Villoresi), which opened at Tindari’s Greek Theater and then toured until 2011, also Oedipus Rex, Helena, Andromaque, and others. Medea inspired his Argonauta series of paintings, drawings and sculptures, which recognized a need to unlock a a more intense dialogue with the past. Another set of works were inspired by the Renaissance masterpiece The Triumph of Death fresco in Palermo’s Palazzo Abatellis.
With architects and engineers he won two competitions for the artistic and architectural refurbishment of the two container handling cranes located in the Port of Palermo, destined to become the symbolic interface point between the port and the city.
He was awarded the Civitella Ranieri NYC Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship for 2015-16.
The artist is currently represented by Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou/Beijing), Voice Gallery (Marrakech), Michel Rein (Paris/Bruxelles).
© Michele Ciacciofera
More about Michele Ciacciofera
Artworks
Untitled
Watercolour on paper
2018, 36 x 26 cm
Untitled
Watercolour on paper
2018, 36 x 26 cm
Untitled
Watercolour on paper
2018, 36 x 26 cm
A walk in the woods
Acrylic on canvas
2013, 50 x 60 cm
Janas Code
Iron, cotton, wool and fossil
2017, 60 x 60 cm
Janas Code
Iron, cotton, wool and fossil
2017, 45 x 45 cm
Singing Bowls
Acrylic on canvas
2013, 80 x 100 cm
Human organicity
Polystyrene, magnets, papier-mâché, gouache, dry owers, old stone Buddha
2016, Variable dimension
Original larder
Wood, papier-mâché, dry box, acrylic, fossil, polystyrene
2016, Variable dimensions
Lasting stories
Glazed ceramic
2014
The disobedience of gravity (2017)
Gouache, pastel, wood, glazed ceramic, papier-mâché
2017
Curriculum
Born 1969, Nuoro (Italy). Lives and works in Paris.
Upcoming:
Solo exhibition at MAN Museo, Nuoro (December 2017)
Selected solo exhibitions:
2017
Fragments of nature and other stories, Senesi Contemporanea, London (curated by Marco Izzolino. Catalogue with text from Richard Demarco, Marco Izzolino and an interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist)
2016
Enchanted Nature, Revisited, CAFA Museum, Beijing (curated by Wang Chunchen. Catalogue published by CAFA with texts from Christine Macel, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Wang Chunchen)
Enchanted Nature, Revisited, Primus Capital Art, Milan (catalogue published by Johan&Levi with texts from Christine Macel, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Angelo Crespi)
2015
Carta Bianca Fine Arts, Catania
20th Street Studio Projects, New York
2014
I hate the indifferent, Summerhall, Edinburgh
Musée en Herbe, Paris (showing with Malachi Farrell) Odio gli indifferenti, Palazzo Montalto, Siracusa Artycon, Offenbach
2013
Tell me a story, Magazzini dell'arte contemporanea, Trapani Onishy Project gallery, New York
2011
Mining memories, Light of Creativity, Miami Beach No man’s land, Museo Civico, Noto
Fondazione Sambuca, Palermo
The triumph of death, Epicentro Contemporary, Berlin
2010
No man’s land, Galleria André, Rome
ARTI-FICI: argonauta, Galleria Civica d’arte contemporanea Montevergini, Siracusa
2009
Silence!, Italian Cultural Institute, New York (curated by Renato Miracco, catalogue published by Charta, texts by Miracco and Lance M. Fung) Silence! " drawings, Palazzo At Borgia del Casale, Siracusa (curated by Carmelo Strano " catalogue published by Erreproduzioni)
2007
Viaggio nell’immagine sulle tracce di Goethe, St. John’s College, Santa Fé (New Mexico USA) .
Prigionieri e deserti, Palazzo del Governo, Siracusa (curated by Ornella Fazzina, catalogue published by Erreproduzioni), Siracusa
2005
Galerie Vlierhove, Blaricum (Netherlands)
Dentro il paesaggio, Complesso dello Spasimo, Palermo (curated by Aurelio Pes, catalogue published by Edizioni La Rocca)
Selected group exhibitions:
2017
57ma Biennale d’Arte di Venezia Viva Arte Viva Documenta 14 Athens " Every time a ear di soun Documenta 14 Kassel " Every time a ear di soun
2016
J’ai rêvé le goût de la brique pilée, ENSA/La Box, Bourges (curated by Natsuko Uchino and Sophie Auger-Grappin)
2015
Nel mezzo del mezzo, Museo Riso, Palermo (curated by Christine Macel, Marco Bazzini, Bartomeu Mari)
What we call love, IMMA Museum, Dublin (curated by Christine Macel, co-curator Rachael Thomas)
Art Bridge Center, Beijing
2012
Endless summer, White Box, New York
2011
Barocco austero, ex Monastero dei Benedettini, Catania
Carta delle circostanze " frontiere liquide, Teatro Verga Ortigia, Siracusa 54 Biennale di Venezia " Padiglione Italia, Corderie dell’Arsenale, Venezia
Sicilia sopra tutti, Galleria Civica d’arte contemporanea Montevergini, Siracusa
2010
Suite 13, Centro d’arte contemporanea Nostra Signora, Palermo
Icona Magnifica, Palazzo della Cultura, Catania
Llibres D ́artista INTRAMURS, Refectorio de Real Monasterio de S.ta Maria de la Valldigna, Valencia
Neoiconoduli-figurazione internazionale complessa, Museo Bellomo, Siracusa
Terzo Rinascimento " linguaggi della sensibilità ibrida, Castello Normanno Galleria Civica d’arte contemporanea, Acicastello
2009
Salvados por el arte, el viaje artistico de unos libros condenados a morir, Istituto Cervantes, Palermo
Porta della Bellezza, Librino/Fondazione Fiumara d’Arte, Catania
2008
Trinacria: Gambadoro, Ciacciofera, Roccasalvo, Le Ciminiere, Catania
2007
Contemporanea, Palazzo del Governo, Siracusa
2006
Ratio Naturalis, Biviere, Lentini
Pluralità segniche: Ciacciofera " Pasini " Roccasalvo, Church of S. Salvatore, Caltavuturo
Migrazioni, Palazzo del Governo, Siracusa
La visione negata, Church of S. Nicolò dei Cordari- Parco Archeologico, Siracusa
Grants and awards :
2016
Award and residency session of self directed studio and work time at Civitella Ranieri Foundation (New York)
2011
Green Vision Prize, Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, Roma
2010
Winner (in a work-group with architects and engineers) of both competitions held by the Port Authorities of Palermo for an ‘artistic- architectural project to reuse two loading cranes in the harbour of Palermo as a symbolic place for the future of harbour-city interaction’
2007
Public competition for artists held by Italian Ministry of Public Works, Rome
Trinacria, contemporary art prize for 50th anniversary of European Union, Università di Catania
2005
Public competition for artists held by the Italian Ministry of Justice, Rome
Exhibitions
Exhibition
Michele Ciacciofera: Fragments of nature and other stories
4 October 2017 - 4 January 2018
