MIA Fair | international photo fair | Milano
May 12|15 2011
Curator and text by Francesco Cascino
On the occasion of the first edition of MIA, Alessandro Cidda presents a selection of works of one of the most significant his series dedicated to movies and cartoons characters of the last fifty years, from Morpheus to the Crow, from Batman to Silver Surfer. These works take form from his passion to collect vintage models and toys that he found in the jumble sells all round the world but at the same time these works take inspiration from the new icons of our century (and from the last one): they are heroic models in which we identify the deeds of the founders of great families, of the leaders, of the pops and of the conquerors of the seventeenth century and that today change themselves in characters of Middle Ages everyday life. For this reason they are tributes to the art of every time that immortalize the everyday heroes such models of virtue and bravery.
So they are models of a way of of life, in good and in evil.
Cidda take us in the world of the cartoons of our childhood, that is a historical memory of a glorious time, populated by famous characters which he moves in miniature sets. In this way the photographer realizes a representation of the icons of our time and investigates the heroism after the shuttering of the myths.
The attention for details, for volumes and for focus and the frontal shot are the constants of these photographs where Cidda succeeds to animate the inanimate giving to the toys a energy that seems to quiver in them.
In these works the obvious recreational will goes with the other strong will to create occasions for reflect about the big themes, such as for example the fight between good and evil that is the metaphor of Caravaggio’s works loved by all round the world photographers of art.
In “Tradimento” - “Infidelity”- (2011) the author takes inspiration from “The last dinner” of Leonardo in order to face the theme of infidelity, inviting the spectator to reflect about the fact that we are always ready to indicate the others such as traitors and often we don’t recognize that actually we are the traitors of ourselves.
When the myth falls it becomes a true reflection; certainly a playful reflection because - as the Bible says - only the eyes of the children can see the Paradise: a place of the mind which doesn’t betray and for this reason doesn’t lie.
L’Arte della Ricerca | Asta di beneficienza | La Pelanda [MACRO Testaccio - Roma]
30 settembre 2010
A cura di Christie’s in collaborazione con l’associazione arteprima in favore di IMI [Intergruppo Melanoma Italiano]
Opera battuta e assegnata alla Fondazione Golinelli – Bologna
Fantarealistica > Bat Twins
Tratto dalla serie “Fantasy”, Cidda ripropone le icone del nostro secolo alla maniera seicentesca; il ritratto dedicato ai nuovi eroi, l’eroismo indagato dopo la caduta dei miti, la violenza Caravaggiesca dipinta con la fotografia, mezzo anch’esso attualizzato, capace di riportare i sensi alla consapevolezza del presente, della nostra civiltà digitale.
Lo schermo tra noi e la realtà induce all’indulgenza, Batman è un personaggio dei fumetti; in verità la realtà è atroce, nel caso delle Twins, e Batman è solo lo specchio di un eroismo caduco e caduto; rovine di antichi splendori riprendono vita nelle fotografie liquide della cronaca, ma la morte rimane. La morte della verità e della fiducia. Entrambe eroine innocenti, vittime della stupidità degli uomini, svuotati ormai dell’anima bambina e della fantasia.
"Lights (and shades) of the city" | solo show | Fashion Café Milano
November 4 | december 16 2009
Curator and text by Francesco Cascino
With "lights (and shadows) of the city," Alessandro Cidda presents part of a series of his famous production, "Fenomeni".
Fenomeni is a series of photos dedicated to characters from the movies and comics of the last 50 years, from Morpheus to Crow, from Batman to Silver Surfer.
Works that depict action figures and model vintage find in markets around the world, photographed by the fashion Cidda baroque, proof that art is everyday, art is always and forever.
In this selection of photographs is the predominant desire of the artist to ask the visitor to understand that light and shade coexist in all of us although it will deny, we are made of good and evil, but to remain children as the Bible also says, opens the gates of happiness.
The best way to combat the shadow play. With the light of the knowledge conveyed by the images. Atavistic human attitude, graffiti Neolithic onwards.
In the exhibition "Lights (and shades) of the City" on display at the Fashion Cafe from November 4 to December 30, is an obvious choice of artist to pay homage to Baroque art and its masters, but above., The cartoons and adolescent soul of everyone.
Baroque portraiture in art history, of course today would not make sense to play these masterpieces would not be art if it were not innovative. So the metaphors of the relationship between light and shadow - so close to Caravaggio who made the complaint subtle, encrypted, on pain of decapitation some - back in the characters of our time, crossed by two "phenomena" inevitable and ubiquitous: television and film.
The skill with which Cidda reproduces the colors of the Baroque and makes ironic metaphor in the photographs that make up "lights (and shadows) of the City" bringing the mind to the protagonists of our daily life, the rightful place among the best photographers Pop Italian.
Star Gazing | solo show | Ennagon Gallery New York
April 25 | may 15 2008
Curators and text by Danilo De Cocci and Giulia Coccia
new york, 25th of april 2008 - monocromo art gallery, based in rome, introduces the first of a series of exhibitions in nyc. the Italian artist alessandro cidda will be shown at the ennagon gallery in soho. The show – star gazing - will be on view until the 15th of may.
alessandro cidda will exhibit a selection from his “fenomeni” series, representing the new imaginary creatures of the american pop culture: superheroes such as batman, superman, spiderman etc. The photographs models are in fact toys of such heroes-like action figures, whereby their virtues and flaws humanize them to the point of allowing us to identify while removing them from the world of mass media that created them – cinema, television, comics- to become part of an intimate and familiar dimension.
with these portraits alessandro cidda intends to establish an intense and lively dialogue between the mythological stars and the viewer who will inevitably identify with them. though mainly photographs of toys, the “fenomeni” seem to look at us with intense expressions rich with vitality of the real world: they are creatures of fantasy yet they are extremely tangible.
alessandro cidda collects the toys he finds in the most unlikely places around the world, then poses them and photographs them in close-ups paying the greatest attention to lighting effects, tone differences and focus.
together with “fenomeni” the exhibition will display five new works that gives the show its name: star gazing. 100 figures of batman fill the audience of an imaginary cinema as they observe the world they own where reality is entirely mingled with fiction.
On show there will be also the series obsession: 2142 duplicates of the same “fenomeno” creating an unique work with the visual focus is lost: the artist reveals his endless obsession and research for the toys he surrounds himself with and loves so much.