Wilfredo Prieto exhibition opens former San Rocco church in Bergamo

Two years after restoration work began, the Volta APS Association is opening theEx Chiesa di San Rocco in Bergamo, a space closed since the 1980s. The former church, located on the second floor of the historic Romanesque fountain reactivated by the association in 2020, will host contemporary art exhibitions, concerts, performances and film screenings. The inaugural artist is Wilfredo Prieto (Sancti Spiritus, 1978), Cuba’s representative at the Venice Biennale 2024. The solo exhibition Troppo facile per l’incredulo vedere da lontano, which can be visited from Oct. 19, 2024 to Jan. 12, 2025, explores the dialogue between the ephemeral and the eternal, the tangible and the intangible. Through five works, Prieto reflects on the contradictions of modern society, playing with his usual irony on themes of communication, consumption and contemporary emotions. His work focuses on everyday objects, creating surprising and often ambiguous juxtapositions such as an egg and a billiard ball, a light bulb and a potato, or a perfume bottle suspended from an ornate church ceiling. The works thus invite reflection on the intersection of thought and feeling, where the very essence of our humanity lies. The exhibition closes with a heart and a brain, symbols of the two poles that guide the dialogue between the works, in the place once dedicated to the altar.

Notes on the artist

Wilfredo Prieto is an artist who addresses issues such as politics, economics, the environment and contemporary society, earning international recognition. These include the 2008 Cartier Foundation Prize, as well as Cuba’s representation at the Venice Biennale 2024 and retrospective exhibitions such as the one at Hangar Bicocca. His artistic journey embraces installations, performances, sculptures, environmental works, actions and drawings. Strongly linked to his native country, Prieto maintains a critical and profound relationship with Cuba, which has recognized him as one of its most influential artists, inviting him to the last five Havana Biennales. Cuba represents an inexhaustible source of inspiration, which Prieto reworks into a global vision, addressing the themes of commodity production, symbols and values of globalized society. His works arise from common objects, whether they are poor materials like chewed gum and banana peels, industrial products like oil drums, fruit, precious objects like gold and diamonds, or consumer goods like beverages and cell phones. Prieto chooses materials for their expressive capacity and for the social and economic meanings they evoke. Through minimal artistic interventions, he alters their context and use, generating short circuits of meaning that disorient and invite reflection. After studying at the Escuela Profesional de Artes Plásticas in Trinidad, Cuba (1992-1996), Prieto completed his training at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana (1998-2002). During this time he was part of the Galería DUPP collective, with which he won the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts in 2000. He has participated in numerous art residencies, including Headlands (San Francisco, 2015), Gasworks (London, 2008), Le Grand Café (St. Nazaire, 2007) and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (New York, 2006). His recent exhibitions include El cosmos y la realidad (NoguerasBlanchard, Madrid, 2023), Rama de monedas (Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia, 2022), Piel de tigre, piel de naranja (Taller Chullima, La Habana, 2022), Fake News (Kurimanzutto, Mexico City, 2021). He has exhibited in prestigious institutions such as Pirelli Hangar Bicocca (Milan, 2012) and has participated in numerous biennials, including editions of the Venice Biennale (2024, 2017, 2011, 2007) and the Havana Biennials. He currently lives and works in Havana.

Wilfredo Prieto exhibition opens former San Rocco church in Bergamo

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