Bologna, at LabOratorio degli Angeli, Sissi's new project, Sacred Indices

From Jan. 21 to Feb. 6, 2022, on the occasion of the new edition of ART CITY Bologna, Bologna’s LabOratorio degli Angeli, located in the deconsecrated church of Santa Maria degli Angeli and the adjoining former oratory, presents Sacri Indici, a new site-specific project by Sissi (Daniela Oliveri; Bologna, 1977), curated by Leonardo Regano and realized in collaboration with Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m. For the first time a large monumental paper is on public display, a ’sacred’ anatomy that the artist has produced specifically for the exhibition, entering into an intimate connection with the peculiarity of the exhibition space that will host her work.

The attention to the body and research on human anatomy that have always distinguished Sissi’s practice is renewed in Sacred Indices in the suggestions of the former Oratory of Santa Maria degli Angeli. A selection of eight large works on paper belonging to the Indexes cycle, mark the exhibition space of the historic restoration workshop and mutate it into a pathway that re-actualizes its original nature as a place of worship. These eight bodies, in their visionary and emotional particularities, reveal the duality of their nature, carnal and mystical. Between them, the visitor is guided and forced into a passage to the center of the room where the artist presents the new, large, Index produced for the occasion. On the walls of the former Oratory, the artist displays a selection of related works, again on paper but in a more intimate format, set up with a calm and regular rhythm, contrasting with the monumental vision of the center of the space. The exhibition Sacred Indices will also be an opportunity to exhibit Anatomia Parallele, a book-work that collects Sissi’s studies of the body, in whose plates the artist investigates the human figure and its internal organs with scientific method, in a correspondence between interiority and emotionality that was later translated into the large loose papers on display in the restoration workshop.

As every year, the exhibition choices will also be for the invited artist a valuable moment of confrontation with the LabOratorio degli Angeli and its activities, which will curate the presentation of the large-format works, proposing different mounting solutions depending on the different supports and execution techniques.

Sissi, real name Daniela Oliveri, was born in Bologna in 1977, lives and works between Bologna and London. Her research is articulated through a language that draws as much from the scientific world as from the personal and intimate. The starting point is a reflection on the body, which through a comparison with the encyclopedic model reinterprets anatomy as a metaphor for the existing. Starting from performance, Sissi investigates the subjectivity and the social and emotional construction of the body in an emotional anatomy that sees constant experimentation on different artistic planes: from the performance springs a material sign that is embodied in sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings and photographs. The artist reshapes and reshapes materials, techniques, languages, meanings and forms through a personal system of visual and literary codes that renews the reading of our everyday life in a taxonomic mode.

Sissi has exhibited her works in solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including: Corpi e Processi - Storie di fili, CSAC Parma, (2020); Vestimenti, Palazzo Bentivoglio, Bologna, (2020); Motivi Ossei, Galleria d’Arte Maggiore g.a.m, Bologna (2016); Istinti-Estinti, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Naples (2016);Manifesto Anatomico, MAMbo and Musei Civici d’Arte Antica - Istituzione Bologna Musei, Bologna (2015); Lezioni d’italiano, The Old Operating Theatre, London (2013); Aspiranti Aspiratori, Aike Dellarco Gallery, Shanghai (2013); Volume Interno, Fondazione Volume! Rome (2012); Addosso, Fondazione Pomodoro, Milan (2010); Al di là dello sguardo la corda lega, Mizuma Gallery, Tokyo (2008); Nature, Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2006); Nidi, MACRO, Rome (2004); The Walk, W139 Amsterdam, Smak, Gent (2003); Aerea, MoCA, Miami (2001). In 2012 she won the Gotham Prize; in 2006 she was awarded a fellowship from the American Academy in Rome; in 2005 she won the New York Prize from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in 2003 the GAM in Bologna awarded her the Alinovi Prize; she won the Furla Prize for Art in 2002.

In 2008 she joined the residency program of the Tokyo Wonder Site - Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, and in 2004 she was artist-in-residence at the Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz. Group shows and festivals include Sublimi Anatomie, Palazzo dell’Esposizioni, Rome (2019); Biennial Vallauris, Terre d’Italia, Musée de la Ceramique, Vallauris (2020), Santarcangelo Festival, Santarcangelo (2018); Porto Marghera100, Palazzo Ducale, Venice (2017); Par tibi Roma Nihil, Musei Fori Imperiali, Rome (2016); Volume! Musee d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Saint Etienne Metropole, 2015); Growing roots, Museo del Novecento, Milan (2013); Silenzi in cui le cose s’abbandonano, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb (2012); Patterns of Mind, Turku Biennal, Turku (2011); No soul for sale, A festival of Independents, Tate Modern, London (2011); Collaudi, Padiglione Italia, 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); Quadriennale di Roma (2008); Global Feminism, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2007); Italian Genius Now, Museo Pecci, Prato (2007); Phantom of Desire, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz (2003); Poeziezomer Watou, SMAK, Ghent, 2001. He has collaborated with companies such as Furla, for the project “Furla & I” and “Candybrissima Show” curated by Fondazione Furla from 2010 to 2013, and in 2012 with Elica for the project Aspiranti Aspiratori, curated by Fondazione Ermanno Casoli.

The exhibition during ART CITY Bologna (Jan. 21-22-23) opens Friday 21 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 22 from 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday 23 - from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. On the following days Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., free admission.

Image: Sissi, Parallel Anatomy (1999-2018; artist’s book in 5 handmade editions, mixed media, 32 x 22 cm).

Bologna, at LabOratorio degli Angeli, Sissi's new project, Sacred Indices

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