Giuliano Babini
and Maurizio Pilò
MUTA NATURA
Mercato - Centro Culturale Arte Contemporanea
Piazza Marconi 1, Argenta (FE)
From 16 March to 20 April 2024
The Exhibition
It's all in the title. Presented here are the works of two different artists, Giuliano Babini and Maurizio Pilò, who interrogate the things of nature, arriving from opposite poles to bring the arcs of their work together in a vital circle of continuity. Stretching the string of thought to pierce "the margins of the world," our two creators have given form to paintings, mosaic sculptures, and installations conceived specifically for the Centro Culturale Mercato space in Argenta, leaving us with the ambiguity of interpreting this title: Muta Natura.
We are talking about nature. We do so with mute art objects, silent by definition, but not inert. Didn't De Chirico define his still lifes as silent lives?
We are talking about nature. This is done with art objects that are in constant mutation, which have shed the skin of what is (re)presented in them and, following a path traced by Babini and Pilò themselves with an installation element created by them – in which the typical reeds of the Argenta area are cited – and placed between the two main exhibition spaces, the exhibition ranges from Babini's three-dimensional sculptural-mosaic works, placed on the floor, to Pilò's large two-dimensional and previously unpublished canvases on the walls, although Babini also includes a hanging pictorial tondo and Pilò some previous mixed media works to be placed on the floor, in a mirrored dialogue of mutual appropriation of the available spaces.
The artists
Giuliano Babini graduated from the Mosaic Art Institute of Ravenna and subsequently from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna.
In 1971 he made his debut at the "Rassegna della Giovane Pittura Romagnola" in Faenza (RA) and in 1981 he founded with Enzo Tinarelli, in Ravenna, the cultural association "Spazio G" which later became a reference point for young artists.
He is a mosaicist at Signorini's "Il Mosaico" studio and teacher at the Institute of Art and Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna while promoting meetings and internships with Alchemy (studio), R. Barilli, R. Licata, B. Minardi, A. Rocchi, R. Signorini.
In charge of the artistic direction of the "Studio Akomena" from 1988 to 2003 (he will collaborate with authors such as: R. Arad, M. Bonetti, G. Demo, U. LaPietra, M. Lucchi, U. Marano, G. Pesce, E. Sottsass, etc.).
In 1996 he was artistic director of the mosaic realization of the tomb of Rudolf Noureïev (Russian Orthodox cemetery Sainte Genevieve des Bois, Paris) - Commissioned by the Rudolf Noureïev Foundation to a project by Ezio Frigerio, technical coordinator: Stefano Pace, construction of the structure: Atelier de Décors de l'Opera Paris-Bastille, mosaic realization: Studio Akomena.
He currently deals with the creation of sculpture/mosaic works.
Maurizio Pilò was born in Faenza on May 1, 1957. After graduating from the Ravenna Art School, he attended the Ravenna Academy of Fine Arts. He studied with Umberto Folli, Tono Zancanaro, Remo Muratore, Paolo Racagni, Vittorio D'Augusta, Eugenio Carmi, and Gabriele Partisani. He completed his studies with a thesis entitled "Natural Sign, Artificial Sign," supervised by Professor Claudio Spadoni.
In the mid-1990s, he established his studio in Santa Maria in Fabriago, a small village in the Romagna countryside near the Santerno River, and began his first painting exhibitions.
He has held many group and solo exhibitions.
The following have written about him: Giulio Guberti, Danilo Montanari, Angelamaria Golfarelli, Gino Gianuizzi, Raffaele Quattrone, Alberto Gross, Aldo Savini, Nicola Cavallini, Luca Donelli.
