Peter Welz

From October 10 to November 30, 2009, the Fumagalli Gallery, under the aegis of the Goethe-Institut Mailand, is proud to present a one-man exhibition of the work of Peter Welz, a young German artist renowned for his kinetic investigations of the human body. Curated by Annamaria Maggi, the exhibition is divided into three “chapters” and proposes a collection of works and an original selection of preparatory studies of the artist’s recent work. The exhibition features Peter Welz’s most recent works displayed in one-man shows in prestigious international institutions. The exhibition in Bergamo will take place contemporaneously with a show at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Modena, in collaboration with the Romaeuropa Festival in Rome, dedicated to the special "four-handed" work by Peter Welz and the American William Forsythe, one of the world’s most renowned choreographers. The alliance with the current GNAM (Modena) exhibition October 3-25, 2009 is part of the Fumagalli Gallery’s exhibition itinerary. Amongst the many works selected, there will be a video installation and several studies on paper. The theme of Welz’s and Forsythe’s work is best represented by the famous painting left unfinished by Francis Bacon due to his death in 1922, today in the Louvre Museum collection in Paris. Welz and Forsythe have masterminded a multimedia choreographic work in continuous movement, a fusion of sculpture, painting, video art and dance, with which the Fumagalli Gallery’s itinerary begins. Peter Welz and William Forsythe have already collaborated in the past. In 2004 the two artists collaborated on a project involving a fragment from Samuel Beckett’s Worstward Ho: Whenever on on nohow on|airdrawing.The Gallery’s second “chapter” is a large video installation: Two figures inscribing a circle / double screen leaning, two juxtaposing monitors featuring a kinetic continuum of great strength and impact. This Welz installation also features a number of papers and preparatory studies. The third part of the show offers a series of studies and maquettes the artist created for the Malaparte House project in Capri, the magnificent architectural wonder by Adalberto Libera commissioned by Curzio Malaparte. In this work entitled “Figure Descending a Staircase”, Welz emphasizes and explores the charms of this special setting, inserting several images of the famed staircase that doubles as the building’s roof. The work on the Malaparte House will be filmed by Welz for an installation at the Barcelona Pavillion, made to order for the area designed by the great architect Mies Van der Rohe. The architecture of the two buildings, the Malaparte House and the Barcelona Pavillion, will merge, overlap and permeate each other. Architecture, which Welz transforms into sculpture, confronts and dialogues with itself, in a vortex of echoes in which man plays both the lead and walk-on roles.

A cura di Annamaria Maggi

Peter Welz
Kurator: Annamaria Maggi