Cover Theory Contemporary Art As Re-Interpretation Curated by Marco Senaldi OFFICINA DELLA LUCE ex Centrale Emilia via Nino Bixio 27, Piacenza Opening: Saturday, 10 May 2003, 6 p.m. 11 May - 29 June 2003 Tuesday-Sunday, 4-8 p.m. Or by appointment Services: Ianua Aemilia, tel./fax +39 0523 609730, mostra@interfree.it Cover’s Masters Alighiero Boetti, Marcel Broodthaers, James Lee Byars, Robert Longo, Luigi Ontani, Giulio Paolini, Salvo, Antonio Trotta Special Covers Stefano Arienti, Bertozzi & Casoni, Mike Bidlo, Vincenzo Cabiati + Armin Linke, Pierluigi Calignano, Massimo Carozzi, Maurizio Cattelan, Loris Cecchini, Douglas Coupland, Roberto Cuoghi + Valerio Carrubba, Thomas Demand, Antonio De Pascale, e.g.ø, Eredi Brancusi, Maurizio Finotto, Fischli & Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Fulvio Guerrieri + Paola Dallavalle, Massimo Kaufmann, Thorsten Kirchhoff, Michele Lombardelli, Claudia Losi, Mauro Maffezzoni, Eva Marisaldi, Amedeo Martegani, Maurizio Mercuri, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, Yasumasa Morimura, Simon Morley, Luis Felipe Ortega + Daniel Guzman, Luca Pancrazzi, Leonardo Pivi, Richard Prince, Tobias Rehberger, Antonio Riello, Lorenzo Scotto Di Luzio Special Opening Events Special Guest Poetry Raul Montanari + Aldo Nove + Tiziano Scarpa: reading of poetry “covers” from their book Nelle galassie oggi come oggi. Covers, Einaudi, 2001 Special Guest Music Stereoelectric Sound System: DJ set with “covers of covers” Concept The concept of the cover comes from the practice common in the music world of doing “cover” versions of well-known pieces. A new interpretation, a remix, a new version of an original composition, often in another language and with a new arrangement, is a work in its own right, independent of the original. Examples abound, from the Sex Pistols’ punk interpretation of Frank Sinatra’s My Way, to the Balanescu Quartet’s adaptation of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn, or Marilyn Manson’s new version of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love. In 2000 and 2002, Italian singer/composer Franco Battiato made two enormously successful CDs composed entirely of covers (Fleurs and Fleurs 3). Recently this mechanism borrowed from music has spread into other fields of expression. In poetry, for example, covers have been introduced by the three writer/poets Raul Montanari, Aldo Nove and Tiziano Scarpa (Einaudi, 2001), who were inspired by pop music successes. The field of design has also gotten into the act with updated versions of famous pieces that have been out of production for years (such as the Cubo television by Zanuso for Brionvega). Industrial production has also followed the trend, coming up with more than restylings of famous successes from the past, like the VW Beetle or the Mini Minor. Filmmaking also provides good examples of the cover, such as Gus Van Sant’s Psycho (1998), which was not just a mere remake, but a maniacally identical tribute to Hitchcock’s original Psycho (1960). Not to mention fashion, where examples of covers abound (iconic articles like the Chanel jacket, for example, are constantly “quoted” by fashion designers). Cover Theory is a show aimed at extending the concept and modus operandi of the cover to the world of contemporary art. To be honest, this has already happened many times in the past, though without the same definition: isn’t the famous Mona Lisa with Moustache by Duchamp a cover of the original by Leonardo da Vinci? Didn’t Duchamp actually “cover” himself in the sixties by making replicas of his famous readymades? In the spectacular setting of the former Emilia Power Station in Piacenza, with its turbines, boilers and control room, works created for the occasion by over fourty artists will be shown alongside preexisting works that have utilized the idea of the “replica” or the cover, whether in reference to famous artworks from the more or less recent past, or popular images, objects or products that have become part of our cultural “baggage.” The section Cover’s Masters features famous reinterpretations of artworks by masters of contemporary art, including Marcel Broodthaers, who reproduced title pages from Mallarmé’s books, James Lee Byars, who remade Gallimard editions, and Luigi Ontani, who reinvented an Italian Renaissance painter as Guercino. Magazine covers by Alighiero Boetti are exhibited alongside the very famous Giovane che guarda Lorenzo Lotto by Giulio Paolini (1967), created by using a photo-reproduction of Lotto’s renowned Ritratto di giovane (1505). Paolini also made a second version in 1981 (a true “cover of a cover”), exhibited in Italy for the first time in this show. Special Covers includes works by Yasumasa Morimura, who “interpreted” Frida Kahlo; Bertozzi & Casoni, who very carefully produced ceramic versions of Piero Manzoni’s legendary “merda d’artista” (Artist’s Shit) of 1961, and Warhol’s Brillo Box; Roberto Cuoghi, who did a “cover” not of a work by a famous artist, but of a work by an artist friend, Valerio Carrubba; and Leonardo Pivi, who expertly assembled small mosaic tiles in the traditional manner, but used the image of well known virtual heroine, Lara Croft. Renowned German artist Tobias Rehberger even had a look-alike Mercedes-Benz made in Thailand that is very close to the original, but realized from sketches done from memory. Vincenzo Cabiati + Armin Linke had fun making their own version of Almodovar’s film Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! ; and Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky, remixed nothing less than Marcel Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs. Acclaimed Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland has been closely involved with the project, not only writing a text for the catalogue, but also participating as an artist with a work expressly created for this show. The catalogue, published by Libri Scheiwiller, rigorously in black and white, will be in Italian and English, for a total of 200 pages, and will be distributed in the finest bookshops in Italy and abroad. Texts by: Marco Senaldi, Carlo Antonelli, Fulvio Carmagnola, Slavoj Zizek,Douglas Coupland,Andrea Bellini, Raul Montanari, Tiziano Scarpa, Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, Coccoluto, Telmo Pievani. Press office: Federica Cimatti, +39 02 67077082, cell. +39 333 4346146, cimattif@tin.it Regione Emilia e Romagna • Provincia di Piacenza • Fondazione di Piacenza e Vigevano Piacenza Turismi • Edipower in collaboration with Comune di Piacenza • Libertà • SIET