EnricoBAJ
Gli Abitanti del Museo n. 4 Enrico Baj - Plastiche
11.2010–12.2010
Gli Abitanti del Museo n. 4 Enrico Baj - Plastiche
11.2010–12.2010
1/6
Enrico Baj
Prof. De Bakey, 1968
Collage, plastic on board
103 x 73
Prof. De Bakey, 1968
Collage, plastic on board
103 x 73
Press Release
Gli Abitanti del Museo n. 4
Enrico Baj - Plastics
Opening: November 11, 2010
November 12 – December 23, 2010
Enrico Baj - Plastics
Opening: November 11, 2010
November 12 – December 23, 2010
The Marconi Foundation is pleased to announce Enrico Baj – Plastic, displayed on the two floors of the space.
The exhibition will show the artist’s research on plastic materials, with works from 1963 to 1970.
Baj has always used different materials to break the patterns and for his interest towards material and its numerous expressive possibilities.
“The lord of matter”, as Tristan Sauvage defined him, used plastic for the first time in 1963. It was "Lego", a new game for children.
Since then he has worked with all plastic materials, from potassium chloride to cellulose acetate, polyethylene... trying not only to introduce some plastic in his collages but making works entirely out of plastic.
His first plastics were shown in 1967 at the 15th Lissone Prize and later exhibited at Studio Marconi in 1969. Plastic is a new material to Baj, a symbol of the new industrial society. A new society that is mocked by the artist.
“The mithology of new materials is gnawed away precisely by the new material”. (L. Caramel, 1969)
At the same time the artist is deeply interested in this bright and clear material.
The exhibition will present freaky and laughable characters with unpronounceable and onomatopoeic names as Albmilalf (1968), Izzoighitalti (1968), Emsterkem (1969).
These characters become the protagonists of a cheerful play put up by Baj to target the bourgeois society with its stereotipe behaviours, its unchanging laws and its fake myths.
Among these, Punching General (1968) is “a multiple, life-sized, (…) a sort of general, set on a spring like a punching-ball; I suggested to the police to use it so that the protesters, students of 1968, could finally punch a general”.
It’s a playful metaphor of the artist ’s antimilitarist will.
Also on display are two collages made of "Lego", especially created for the exhibition Visione e colore at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice in 1963, with a strong reference to children’s play.
Baj applied himself also to a modern man’s emblem, the tie.
The exhibition will show the artist’s research on plastic materials, with works from 1963 to 1970.
Baj has always used different materials to break the patterns and for his interest towards material and its numerous expressive possibilities.
“The lord of matter”, as Tristan Sauvage defined him, used plastic for the first time in 1963. It was "Lego", a new game for children.
Since then he has worked with all plastic materials, from potassium chloride to cellulose acetate, polyethylene... trying not only to introduce some plastic in his collages but making works entirely out of plastic.
His first plastics were shown in 1967 at the 15th Lissone Prize and later exhibited at Studio Marconi in 1969. Plastic is a new material to Baj, a symbol of the new industrial society. A new society that is mocked by the artist.
“The mithology of new materials is gnawed away precisely by the new material”. (L. Caramel, 1969)
At the same time the artist is deeply interested in this bright and clear material.
The exhibition will present freaky and laughable characters with unpronounceable and onomatopoeic names as Albmilalf (1968), Izzoighitalti (1968), Emsterkem (1969).
These characters become the protagonists of a cheerful play put up by Baj to target the bourgeois society with its stereotipe behaviours, its unchanging laws and its fake myths.
Among these, Punching General (1968) is “a multiple, life-sized, (…) a sort of general, set on a spring like a punching-ball; I suggested to the police to use it so that the protesters, students of 1968, could finally punch a general”.
It’s a playful metaphor of the artist ’s antimilitarist will.
Also on display are two collages made of "Lego", especially created for the exhibition Visione e colore at Palazzo Grassi, in Venice in 1963, with a strong reference to children’s play.
Baj applied himself also to a modern man’s emblem, the tie.
“The whole world has submitted itself to the law of the tie. For someone it’s like a slipknot, for someone else it’s like a floppy phallus, for others it’s like the prosecution of the umbilical cord... Tie is the best decoration for contemporary men, because it’s the best replacement for medals and civil and military decorations. Tie is the best symbol for contemporary society”.
Among the big plastic ties, the Cravatta di Jackson Pollock (1969) will be on display, made of celluloid with a lot of coloured spots, a sort of tribute to action painting and to the American painter’s mood.
In 1963, when Baj was realising his "Legos" and "Meccanos", he took part to the Collège de Pataphysique de France as Governing and Trascendent Satrapo.
This is an important information to understand the unconventional and ironic Weltanshauung of the artist. Pataphysic is “the science of fictitious solutions”, a sort of logic of paradox, an invention of new laws that call contemporary rules into question.
For Baj however pataphysic was not only a theory to follow, but a way to think and a way of life.
For him pataphysic’s irony and irreverence are “antibodies for contemporary mankind against the constriction of burocracy, taxpayer numbers, postcodes, phonecodes, cashpoints, internetcodes, etcetera”.
Baj's Plastiche is the fourth exhibition from the cycle Gli Abitanti del Museo, after the shows dedicated to Valerio Adami, Emilio Tadini and Mimmo Rotella.
On this occasion the Quaderno della Fondazione Marconi no. 4 will be published; taking up the idea of the magazines of Studio Marconi during the Seventies, it will focus the attention on some works displayed with historical documents and critical essays by Luciano Caramel, Enrico Crispolti and Guido Ballo.
Among the big plastic ties, the Cravatta di Jackson Pollock (1969) will be on display, made of celluloid with a lot of coloured spots, a sort of tribute to action painting and to the American painter’s mood.
In 1963, when Baj was realising his "Legos" and "Meccanos", he took part to the Collège de Pataphysique de France as Governing and Trascendent Satrapo.
This is an important information to understand the unconventional and ironic Weltanshauung of the artist. Pataphysic is “the science of fictitious solutions”, a sort of logic of paradox, an invention of new laws that call contemporary rules into question.
For Baj however pataphysic was not only a theory to follow, but a way to think and a way of life.
For him pataphysic’s irony and irreverence are “antibodies for contemporary mankind against the constriction of burocracy, taxpayer numbers, postcodes, phonecodes, cashpoints, internetcodes, etcetera”.
Baj's Plastiche is the fourth exhibition from the cycle Gli Abitanti del Museo, after the shows dedicated to Valerio Adami, Emilio Tadini and Mimmo Rotella.
On this occasion the Quaderno della Fondazione Marconi no. 4 will be published; taking up the idea of the magazines of Studio Marconi during the Seventies, it will focus the attention on some works displayed with historical documents and critical essays by Luciano Caramel, Enrico Crispolti and Guido Ballo.